[j-nsp] purpose of br-ext-nic and br-int-vmx1-nic interfaces in case of vMX 16.1R2.11

[Martin T]

Hi!

When I deploy a vMX named "vmx1" with vmx.sh orchestration script,
then it automatically creates tap devices "br-ext-nic" and
"br-int-vmx1-nic":

$ ip tuntap | grep -E "br-ext-nic|br-int-vmx1-nic"
br-ext-nic: tap UNKNOWN_FLAGS:800
br-int-vmx1-nic: tap UNKNOWN_FLAGS:800
$

"br-ext-nic" is one of the ports of "br-ext" switch and
"br-int-vmx1-nic" is one of the ports of "br-int-vmx1" switch.
However, both ports are down:

$ ip l sh dev br-ext-nic
6: br-ext-nic: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast master
br-ext state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 500
    link/ether 52:54:00:9f:a0:77 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
$
$ ip l sh dev br-int-vmx1-nic
8: br-int-vmx1-nic: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast
master br-int-vmx1 state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 500
    link/ether 52:54:00:8d:4c:71 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
$

What is the purpose of those two tap interfaces?


thanks,
Martin