R3166-R3206-HP High-End Firewalls Network Management Configuration Guide-6PW101

Interface management configuration

Interface management overview

An interface is the point of interaction or communication between network devices. It is used for

exchanging data between network devices. A physical interface is an interface that materially exists and

is supported by a network device. For example, an Ethernet interface or an AUX interface is a physical

interface. A logical interface is an interface that can implement data switching but does not exist

physically. A logical interface must be established through configuration.

The interface management feature is used by the Web-based configuration interface to manage all

physical interfaces and the following two types of logical interfaces of a network device:

• Loopback interfaces, that is, logical interfaces with IP addresses on the network segment 127.0.0.0.

Loopback interfaces can be used for receiving all packets destined for the local device.

• Null interfaces, which are always up and can neither forward data packets nor be configured with

an IP address or any link layer protocol. Any data packets sent to a null interface will be dropped.

• Layer 2 Ethernet subinterfaces, which operate on the data link layer and process Layer 2 protocols,

and are mainly used for inter-VLAN packet forwarding on firewall cards. The link type of a Layer 2

Ethernet subinterface is access, which cannot be changed. You can add a Layer 2 subinterface to

a VLAN. For more information about the configuration procedure, see the chapter “VLAN

configuration.”

• Layer 3 Ethernet subinterfaces, which operate on the network layer and process Layer 3 protocols.

You can assign an IP address to a Layer 3 Ethernet subinterface. Layer 3 Ethernet subinterfaces are

configured mainly to enable Layer 3 Ethernet interfaces to send and receive VLAN-tagged packets.

• VLAN interfaces, which are virtual Layer 3 interfaces used for Layer 3 communications between

VLANs. Each VLAN interface corresponds to a VLAN. You can assign an IP address to a VLAN

interface and specify it as the gateway of the corresponding VLAN to forward traffic destined for an

IP network segment different from that of the VLAN.

• Tunnel interfaces, which are virtual Layer 3 interfaces at the ends of tunnels and enable network

devices to transmit packets through tunnels and recognize and process packets received from

tunnels.

• Virtual template (VT) interfaces, which are templates used for configuring virtual access (VA)

interfaces.

You can use the interface management feature to view interface information, create/remove logical

interfaces, change interface status, and reset interface parameters.

Managing interfaces in the web interface

Displaying information and statistics of an interface

Select Device Management > Interface from the navigation tree to enter the page shown in Figure 1. The

page shows the name, IP address, mask, and status of each interface.