Debian Linux: Configure Network Interfaces As A Bridge / Network Switch

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In Debian Linux, you can configure network interfaces as a bridge, also known as a network switch, using the brctl utility and the /etc/network/interfaces file.

Here’s an example of how to configure two network interfaces, eth0 and eth1, as a bridge:

  1. Install the bridge-utils package: sudo apt-get install bridge-utils
  2. Create a bridge device: sudo brctl addbr br0
  3. Add the network interfaces to the bridge: sudo brctl addif br0 eth0 eth1
  4. Configure the network interfaces in the /etc/network/interfaces file:
# /etc/network/interfaces

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

# The secondary network interface
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet manual

# The bridge network interface
auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports eth0 eth1

  1. Restart the networking service: sudo systemctl restart networking

Note: You will need to replace the dhcp with a static IP configuration if necessary.

This configuration creates a bridge device named br0 and adds the eth0 and eth1 interfaces to it. The bridge device is assigned a DHCP IP address. Any packets received by the bridge device will be forwarded to the appropriate interface based on the destination MAC address.

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