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swo0sh_gt_13163's avatar
swo0sh_gt_13163
Icon for Altostratus rankAltostratus
May 15, 2015

Hey Piotr_L,

do you think the following answers your question? Or gives a clue at lease? Lori explained the L2 VS use case as following.

Layer 2 Forwarding Virtual Service (Bridge)    For situations where a proxy should be used to bridge two different Ethernet collision domains, a layer 2 forwarding virtual service an be used.  It can be provisioned to be an opaque, semi-opaque, or transparent bridge. Bridging two Ethernet domains is like an old timey water brigade. One guy fills a bucket of water (the client) and hands it to the next guy (the proxy) who hands it to the destination (the server/service) where it's thrown on the fire. The guy in the middle (the proxy) just bridges the gap (you're thinking what I'm thinking - that's where the term came from, right?) between the two Ethernet domains (networks).

Article: https://devcentral.f5.com/articles/back-to-basics-the-many-modes-of-proxies

I hope this helps.

Cheers! Darshan

  • dragonflymr's avatar
    dragonflymr
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    May 18, 2015
    Hi Darshan, Nice article, did not know this one before. Still it's rather explaining how L2 forwarding works in generic terms (and this part I think I understand). It's not explaining why IP is necessary for VS. I was rather looking for some kind of docs describing in more details packet handling when L2 Forwarding VS is used. Piotr
  • swo0sh_gt_13163's avatar
    swo0sh_gt_13163
    Icon for Altostratus rankAltostratus
    May 18, 2015
    Umm... I got the point. Since the VS would act as typical L2 bridge, there shouldn't be any IP applied. I will wait for someone to clarify the thread.