Pfsense create VLAN over LAGG

Setting up VLANs over LAGG interfaces in pfSense can increase bandwidth and redundancy while keeping your network segmented and secure. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to configure everything properly and avoid common pitfalls.

pfSense project is a free network firewall distribution based on FreeBSD with a custom kernel and including third party free software packages for additional functionality. pfSense software is able to provide at least the same functionality or more of common commercial firewalls, without any of the artificial limitations from software. It has successfully replaced every big commercial firewall you can imagine in numerous installations around the world, including Check Point, Cisco PIX, Cisco ASA, Juniper, Sonicwall, Netgear, Watchguard, Astaro, and more others.

The fun part is to create VLAN over LAGG without ip because we want to setup LAGG for WAN interface. Here you need to connect to server console (physical or virtual) and type the following lines in a brand new file:

$config["laggs"] = array();
$config["laggs"]["lagg"][0]["members"] = "ix0,ix1";
$config["laggs"]["lagg"][0]["descr"] = "Lagg interface";
$config["laggs"]["lagg"][0]["laggif"] = "lagg0";
$config["laggs"]["lagg"][0]["proto"] = "lacp";

$config["vlans"] = array();
$config["vlans"]["vlan"][0]["if"] = "lagg0";
$config["vlans"]["vlan"][0]["tag"] = "1234";
$config["vlans"]["vlan"][0]["vlanif"] = "lagg0.1234";
$config["vlans"]["vlan"][0]["descr"] = "VLAN #1234";

$config["interfaces"] = array();
$config["interfaces"]["wan"]["descr"] = "WAN";
$config["interfaces"]["wan"]["enable"] = "true";
$config["interfaces"]["wan"]["if"] = "lagg0.1234";

write_config();
$config = parse_config(true);
interface_configure("wan");
touch("/cf/conf/assign_complete");
system_reboot_sync();
exec;
exit

Then after half hour typing on a old console you need to execute the following command to apply your configuration:

/usr/local/sbin/pfSsh.php < lagg.php

If your device is not rebooting you need to reboot it manually and everything will work like a charm.

Glossary:

• LAGG – Link Aggregation, bundling multiple interfaces
• VLAN – Virtual LAN for segmentation
• 802.1q – VLAN tagging standard

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