ethernet switching table is empty | vQFX | EVE-NG

Question

I'm new to Juniper switches. I configured vlan10 and assigned two ports to the relevant vlan.

root> show vlans 

Routing instance   VLAN name      Tag          Interfaces
default-switch     vlan10         10            xe-0/0/10.0*
                                                xe-0/0/9.0*    

However the ethernet switching table is empty and I can't ping between the host.

root> show ethernet-switching table 

{master:0}
root> 

root> show ethernet-switching interface 
Routing Instance Name : default-switch
Logical Interface flags (DL - disable learning, AD - packet action drop,
                         LH - MAC limit hit, DN - interface down,
                         MMAS - Mac-move action shutdown,  AS - Autostate-exclude enabled,
                         SCTL - shutdown by Storm-control, MI - MAC+IP limit hit)

Logical         Vlan                   TAG   MAC    MAC+IP STP         Logical          Tagging
interface       members                      limit  limit  state       interface flags
xe-0/0/9.0                                   8192   8192                                untagged 
                vlan10                 10    1024   1024   Forwarding                   untagged 
Routing Instance Name : default-switch
Logical Interface flags (DL - disable learning, AD - packet action drop,
                         LH - MAC limit hit, DN - interface down,
                         MMAS - Mac-move action shutdown,  AS - Autostate-exclude enabled,
                         SCTL - shutdown by Storm-control, MI - MAC+IP limit hit)
                                        
Logical         Vlan                   TAG   MAC    MAC+IP STP         Logical          Tagging
interface       members                      limit  limit  state       interface flags
xe-0/0/10.0                                  8192   8192                                untagged 
                vlan10                 10    1024   1024   Forwarding                   untagged 

Would really appreciate if someone can help me out on this.

Answer 1

This is a common misunderstanding when using vQFX and Eve-NG.

For context, most virtualized Juniper devices use a VM for the Routing Engine (RE) and a VM for the FPC (line card), which are in turn connected together to form a single logical node. Typically other nodes are connected to the FPC VM.

However, for vQFX the connections are made to the RE VM.

The image below illustrates this:

• The Red and Blue arrows are the "backplane" connections between the RE and FPC.
• The xe-0/0/0 and xe-0/0/1 interfaces are revenue ports to connect the two logical nodes together.

Answer 2

hosts should be connected to the interfaces of the RE not the PFE