VLAN

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Introduction

Virtual LANs give you the ability to sub-divide a LAN. Linux can accept VLAN tagged traffic and presents each VID as a different network interface (eg: eth0.100 for VID 100)

Getting Started

Previously Arch Linux used vconfig to setup VLANs. This had been superseded by the ip command. Make sure you have iproute2 installed

# pacman -Ss iproute2

Alternatively you can install vconfig from AUR

Configuring VLANs

Adding a VLAN

To add a VLAN use a command with this needlessly long syntax:

ip link add link INTERFACE name INTERFACE.VID type vlan id VID

Example:

ip link add link eth0 name eth0.100 type vlan id 100

Run ifconfig -a to confirm that it has been created. This interface behaves like a normal interface. All traffic routed to it will go through the master interface (in this example, eth0) but with a VLAN tag. Only VLAN aware devices can accept them if configured correctly else the traffic is dropped.
Using a name like eth0.100 is just convention and not enforced. You can alternatively use eth0_100 or something descriptive like IPTV

Removing a VLAN

Removing a VLAN interface is significantly less convoluted

ip link delete INTERFACE.VID

VLANs at boot

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