So I'm fairly new to hardware, but my understanding is that a bridge will take multiple nics, connected to separate switches, and unify them as one interface.
For example, my UTM has 6 NICs, we have one fiber modem, 2 server switches, and 3 client switches.
Currently Eth 0 (integrated) is unused; Eth 1 (integrated) goes to primary server switch linked to second server switch; Eth 2 (4 port nic)goes to WAN; Eth 3 (4 port nic) goes to primary client switch linked to second client switch linked to third client switch; Eth 4 (4 port nic) unused; Eth 5 (4 port nic) unused.
What I wanted to do was bridge Eth 3 (client nic 1), Eth 4 (client nic 2), Eth 5 (client nic 3) and have each nic connected directly to it's respective switch to create a single bridged interface to help eliminate any network looping and create increased bandwidth to/from the gateway.
In addition, I wanted to bridge Eth 0 (server nic 1) and Eth 1 (server nic 2) and connect each nic to its respective server switch.
However, whenever I form the bridge on the client side, I lose all connection to the UTM. My external websites go down. Servers can't connect to the internet. No clients can see servers or other clients. The only way I can get back in is by unplugging the Ethernet cables from the bridged network and suddenly it all starts working again. I can disable the bridge, reattach the Ethernet cables again, and the network is right back where it was.
Do I have my understanding of a bridge way off or am I just making a simple mistake.
Firewall rules are in place for the interfaces. Do I have to reconfigure them after going from a single nic to a bridge?
This thread was automatically locked due to age.
