PDU VLAN and Routing Management

Overview

Synaccess PDU supports 802.1Q VLAN subinterfaces and custom routing table management, enabling advanced network monitoring and multi-VLAN connectivity through a single physical interface.

All commands are available through both the full network ip pdu-* path and user-friendly shortcuts (pdu-vlan, pdu-route) to streamline diagnostics from the shell.

Every time you create a VLAN subinterface the system automatically provisions a default route for the supplied gateway. These gateway routes are enrolled in the WAN health monitoring process so failover checks can validate connectivity across all VLANs. WAN health monitoring periodically probes each default path, ranks them by priority, and triggers automatic failover when a preferred route becomes unavailable. A dedicated WAN monitoring guide covers the full workflow in detail.

Key Benefits

Multi-VLAN Monitoring: Monitor devices across multiple VLANs from one PDU
Network Segmentation: Participate in different network segments simultaneously
Flexible Routing: Direct traffic through specific paths for optimal connectivity

VLAN Management Commands

Create VLAN Subinterface

Create a new VLAN subinterface on your PDU. You can use either the full command path or the shortcut pdu-vlan. Supply a static address, gateway, and priority for deterministic routing—or use DHCP. When using DHCP do not provide --gateway; the lease installs the default route automatically. Priority remains optional and will be auto-assigned if you leave it out.

# Static addressing (full command)
network ip pdu-vlan create --vid <1-4094> --ip <address/prefix> --gateway <ip> --priority <100-9999> [--parent <interface>]

# DHCP addressing (full command)
network ip pdu-vlan create --vid <1-4094> --dhcp [--priority <100-9999>] [--parent <interface>]

# Shortcut
pdu-vlan create --vid <1-4094> --ip <address/prefix> --gateway <ip> --priority <100-9999> [--parent <interface>]
pdu-vlan create --vid <1-4094> --dhcp [--priority <100-9999>] [--parent <interface>]

Examples:

# Create VLAN 100 with a /24 subnet and priority 200
network ip pdu-vlan create --vid 100 --ip 192.168.100.50/24 --gateway 192.168.100.1 --priority 200

# Create VLAN 200 with the shortcut
pdu-vlan create --vid 200 --ip 192.168.200.50/24 --gateway 192.168.200.1 --priority 300

# Create VLAN 310 using DHCP and enroll it with priority 450
network ip pdu-vlan create --vid 310 --dhcp --priority 450

# Create VLAN 320 with DHCP and allow the lease to supply the gateway
network ip pdu-vlan create --vid 320 --dhcp

What happens:

Creates interface eth0.100, eth0.200, etc.
Assigns the specified IP address or starts a DHCP client to obtain one dynamically
Any default route learned on the VLAN (manually supplied or offered by DHCP) is automatically enrolled in WAN health monitoring so failover probes include it
Interface is automatically brought online
Validates that priorities for default gateways stay unique within the reserved 100–899 range; if you omit --priority, the firmware allocates the next open slot for you
Persists the chosen priority so the WAN health daemon and the DHCP helper script reapply the correct metric after reboots or lease renewals

List VLAN Subinterfaces

View all configured VLAN subinterfaces:

# Human-readable table
network ip pdu-vlan list
pdu-vlan list

# JSON format for automation
network ip pdu-vlan list --json

Example Output:

PDU VLAN Subinterfaces
----------------------
Parent     VID    Interface       IP Address          
------     ---    ---------       ----------          
eth0       100    eth0.100        192.168.100.50/24  
eth0       200    eth0.200        192.168.200.50/24  
eth0       310    eth0.310        DHCP                

Total: 3 VLAN(s)

Delete VLAN Subinterface

Remove a VLAN subinterface (full command or shortcut):

network ip pdu-vlan delete --vid <vlan-id>
pdu-vlan delete --vid <vlan-id>

Examples:

# Delete VLAN 100 from default interface (eth0)
network ip pdu-vlan delete --vid 100

Routing Management Commands

View Routing Table

Display the current routing table:

# Human-readable table
network ip pdu-route list
pdu-route list

# JSON format for automation  
network ip pdu-route list --json

Example Output:

Routing Table (Main)
===================
Destination        Gateway         Interface    Metric  
------------------  --------------- ------------ --------
default            192.168.1.1     eth0         -       
192.168.100.0/24   -               eth0.100     -       
192.168.200.0/24   -               eth0.200     -       
10.0.10.0/24       -               eth0.300     -

Add Route

Add a new route to the routing table:

network ip pdu-route add --dst <destination> [--via <gateway>] [--dev <interface>] [--metric <n>]
pdu-route add --dst <destination> [--via <gateway>] [--dev <interface>] [--metric <n>]

Examples:

# Host-specific route
network ip pdu-route add --dst 8.8.8.8 --via 192.168.200.1

# Same command using shortcut with explicit interface and metric
pdu-route add --dst 203.0.113.0/24 --via 10.0.10.1 --dev eth0.300 --metric 210

Delete Route

Remove a route from the routing table:

network ip pdu-route del --dst <destination> [--via <gateway>] [--dev <interface>]
pdu-route del --dst <destination> [--via <gateway>] [--dev <interface>]

Examples:

# Delete host-specific route
network ip pdu-route del --dst 8.8.8.8 --via 192.168.200.1

# Remove a subnet route using the shortcut
pdu-route del --dst 203.0.113.0/24 --dev eth0.300

Note: Default routes that were provisioned by the base system or by a VLAN definition are protected. The CLI blocks attempts to delete these managed gateways—remove the VLAN or turn off the relevant service instead of forcing ip route del.

Common Use Cases

Multi-VLAN Network Monitoring

Monitor Network Health of Multiple ISPs

# Step 1: Create monitoring interfaces in each VLAN
network ip pdu-vlan create --vid 2 --ip 192.168.20.100/24 --gateway 192.168.20.1 --priority 200    # VLAN 2
network ip pdu-vlan create --vid 3 --ip 192.168.30.100/24 --gateway 192.168.30.1 --priority 300    # VLAN 3
network ip pdu-vlan create --vid 4 --ip 192.168.40.100/24 --gateway 192.168.40.1 --priority 400    # VLAN 4

# Step 2: Add public host routes via each subnet/interface
network ip pdu-route add --dst 4.2.2.2 --dev eth0.2
network ip pdu-route add --dst 1.1.1.1 --dev eth0.3
network ip pdu-route add --dst 8.8.8.8 --dev eth0.4

# Step 3: Verify connectivity
network ip pdu-route list
pdu-route list

Now you can ping devices in each VLAN:

ping 4.2.2.2 → uses eth0.2
ping 1.1.1.1 → uses eth0.3
ping 8.8.8.8 → uses eth0.4

Remote Network Access

Access remote networks through VLAN gateways:

# Create VLAN interface
network ip pdu-vlan create --vid 100 --ip 10.1.100.50/24 --gateway 10.1.100.1 --priority 250

# Add route to remote network via VLAN gateway
network ip pdu-route add --dst 172.16.0.0/12 --via 10.1.100.1 --dev eth0.100

Redundant Connectivity

Create backup routes with different metrics:

# Primary route (lower metric = higher priority)
network ip pdu-route add --dst default --via 192.168.1.1 --metric 100

# Backup route via different VLAN
network ip pdu-route add --dst default --via 10.0.1.1 --dev eth0.200 --metric 200

Best Practices

For Network Monitoring

Choose unused IP addresses in each VLAN to prevent conflicts

Add subnet routes for full VLAN connectivity:

network ip pdu-route add --dst 192.168.100.0/24 --dev eth0.100

For Production Deployment

Document your VLAN assignments to avoid conflicts
Test connectivity after configuration changes
Use consistent IP addressing across similar deployments
Plan for network changes that might affect routing
Assign clear priorities so primary VLANs use lower metrics (e.g., 200/300/400) and backups rank higher

Diagnostics Toolkit

Two privileged diagnostics commands help test reachability across primary and VLAN paths. Both commands are available under settings diagnostics and also as direct shortcuts from the shell. Only admin users can execute them.

Traceroute

Traceroute maps the hop-by-hop path towards a target host.

# Full command
settings diagnostics traceroute [options] <host>

# Shortcut
traceroute [options] <host>

Supported options:

  -n            Numeric output (no reverse DNS)
  -l            Display returned TTL for each hop
  -f N          First hop TTL (1-255)
  -m N          Max hop TTL (1-255)
  -q N          Probes per hop (1-5)
  -w N          Probe wait time in seconds (1-10)
  -p N          Base UDP port (33434-33534)
  -z N          Pause between probes in ms (0-1000)
  -i IF         Outbound interface (network support roles)

MTR (My Traceroute)

MTR combines traceroute and ping, providing real-time packet loss and latency statistics for each hop.

# Full command
settings diagnostics mtr [options] <host>

# Shortcut
mtr [options] <host>

Supported options:

  -4 / -6               Force IPv4 or IPv6 probes
  --no-dns / --show-ips Display numeric addresses only
  -c COUNT              Report cycles (1-20)
  -i SECONDS            Probe interval (>=0.5)
  -f FIRST-TTL          First hop TTL (>=1)
  -m MAX-TTL            Max hop TTL (<=64)
  --tcp / --udp / --sctp Probe protocol
  -P PORT               Probe port (33434, 80, or 443)
  -a ADDRESS            Source address binding (admin-only validation)
  -s SIZE               Packet size (1-1400 bytes)

IP Address Format Support

The system supports standard CIDR notation:

Host routes: 192.168.1.100/32
Point-to-point: 192.168.1.0/31
Standard subnets: 192.168.1.0/24
Large subnets: 10.0.0.0/8

Automation Support

All commands support JSON output for scripting and automation:

# Get VLAN list in JSON
network ip pdu-vlan list --json

# Get routing table in JSON  
network ip pdu-route list --json

This enables integration with network management systems and automated provisioning tools.

Tab Completion

All commands support tab completion for faster operation:

Type network ip pdu- and press Tab to see available options
Type network ip pdu-vlan and press Tab to see subcommands
Works for all parameters and options

Important Notes

VLAN ID Range: 1-4094 (standard 802.1Q range)
Default Interface: Commands default to eth0 unless specified otherwise
Duplicate Prevention: Creating identical configurations succeeds without error
Network Restart Impact: Custom routes may need to be re-applied after network service restarts

Getting Help

Use the built-in help system for quick reference:

network ip pdu-vlan       # Shows VLAN command help
network ip pdu-route      # Shows routing command help  
network ip               # Shows all IP command options

For technical support or questions about these features, please contact your system administrator or Synaccess support team.