Blog O’ Matty

Solaris 802.1Q interface format

While reviewing some notes last night, I came across an entry in my notebook that described how to configure Solaris interfaces to support 802.1Q tagged queing. Given a physical interface named “ce0″ that will be associated with VLAN 500, the formula to create the interface would be:

ce + (VLAN number * 1000 + instance number)

So in the example above, you would use an interface named ce500000 to tell the host to process 802.1Q tagged Ethernet frames destined for VLAN 500. I am still not sure why Sun chose to use this format, since you can’t just look at a name and know what it is. Luckily this annoyance will be fixed when the clearview project integrates into Solaris (clearview will allow you to use vanity names with interfaces).