RouterOS bridge mysteries discussed - incl. diagrams

The diagram is much closer now, but let me repeat that an /interface vlan belongs to the router part of the configuration, not to the bridge one, and the diagram should reflect that.

An abstraction can be simplifying but it must not be misleading.

Elaboration: You can attach an /interface vlan not only to a "bridge-the-switch-facing-interface-of-a-router" but to any L2 interface, physical or virtual (tunnel, bond, ...), that is not a member of any bridge (and even must not be if you want to attach an /interface vlan to it). So even though the "bridge-the-switch-facing-interface-of-a-router" itself belongs to the bridge configuration, the eventual /interface vlan attached to it do not.

BTW:

  • with the additional set of of configuration elements that RouterOS has recently started to add dynamically, this distinction became even more blurry because attaching an /interface vlan to a bridge interface in the router-related configuration now dynamically creates a row in /interface bridge vlan, so in the bridge-related configuration (but it only happens if a corresponding configuration hasn't been added manually). This is definitely both a simplification of routine configuration tasks as well as as a reduction of space for mistakes, since less manual settings are required to obtain a working configuration, but on the other hand it further hardens understanding the concept.
  • I haven't mentioned more than the bare minimum of VLAN related stuff in the original post of the original topic on purpose - in my view it is an independent can of worms one should only open once they grasp the "bridgely trinity" thing completely.
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