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Add user-defined MAC address to dummy interfaces
Closed, ResolvedPublicFEATURE REQUEST

Description

Summary

Add support for user-defined MAC addresses on dummy interfaces

Use case

There are a number of use cases for having a MAC address on dummy interfaces. My specific use case is to anchor a MAC address to a bridge interface in an EVPN-MH deployment. This prevents the anycast gateway's MAC address from being treated as unknown unicast traffic in certain failure scenarios, which causes erroneous duplication of packets through flooding to the DF.

Before anchoring to bridge
vyos@PE2# sudo bridge fdb show | grep aa:bb
aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:f0 dev br0 self permanent --> No exit interfaces causes this to be treated as unknown unicast

vyos@vyos# run ping 172.16.0.6
PING 172.16.0.6 (172.16.0.6) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 172.16.0.6: icmp_seq=1 ttl=62 time=3.87 ms
64 bytes from 172.16.0.6: icmp_seq=1 ttl=62 time=5.02 ms (DUP!)
After anchoring to bridge
vyos@PE2# sudo bridge fdb show | grep aa:bb
aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:f0 dev dum10 vlan 1 master br0 permanent
aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:f0 dev dum10 master br0 permanent
aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:f0 dev br0 self permanent

vyos@vyos# run ping 172.16.0.6
PING 172.16.0.6 (172.16.0.6) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 172.16.0.6: icmp_seq=1 ttl=62 time=4.49 ms

Details

Version
-
Is it a breaking change?
Perfectly compatible
Issue type
Feature (new functionality)

Event Timeline

Viacheslav changed the task status from Open to In progress.Aug 4 2025, 4:30 PM
Viacheslav assigned this task to L0crian.
Viacheslav triaged this task as Normal priority.
Viacheslav moved this task from Need Triage to Completed on the VyOS Rolling board.
Viacheslav moved this task from Open to Finished on the VyOS 1.5 Circinus (1.5-stream-2025-Q3) board.
Viacheslav moved this task from Backlog to Finished on the VyOS 1.4 Sagitta (1.4.4) board.
dmbaturin changed Is it a breaking change? from Unspecified (possibly destroys the router) to Perfectly compatible.