Configuring Virtual Interfaces

Virtual interfaces are software-based interfaces that you create in the memory of the networking device using
Cisco IOS XE commands. Virtual interfaces do not have a hardware component such as the RJ-45 female
port on a 100BASE-T Fast Ethernet network interface card. This module describes the four common types
of virtual, or logical, interfaces that can be configured using Cisco IOS XE software:
• Loopback interfaces
• Null interfaces
• Subinterfaces
• Tunnel interfaces

• Finding Feature Information, on page 1

• Prerequisites for Configuring Virtual Interfaces, on page 1
• Information About Configuring Virtual Interfaces, on page 2
• How to Configure Virtual Interfaces, on page 6
• Configuration Examples for Virtual Interfaces, on page 14
• Where to Go Next, on page 15
• Additional References, on page 15

Finding Feature Information

Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest caveats and
feature information, see Bug Search Tool and the release notes for your platform and software release. To
find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each
feature is supported, see the feature information table.
Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support.
To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to https://cfnng.cisco.com/. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Prerequisites for Configuring Virtual Interfaces

Before virtual interfaces can be used in your network, you must have some physical (hardware) interfaces
configured and you must be able to communicate between the networking devices on which you wish to use
virtual interfaces.

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

1
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Information About Configuring Virtual Interfaces

Information About Configuring Virtual Interfaces

Virtual Interfaces
Virtual interfaces are network interfaces that are not associated with a physical interface. Physical interfaces
have some form of physical element--for example, an RJ-45 male connector on an Ethernet cable. Virtual
interfaces exist only in software; there are no physical elements. You identify an individual virtual interface
using a numerical ID after the virtual interface name. For example: loopback 0, tunnel 1, and fastethernet
0/0/0.1. The ID is unique per virtual interface type to make the entire name string unique; for example both
a loopback 0 interface and a null 0 interface can exist, but two loopback 0 interfaces cannot exist in a single
networking device.
Cisco IOS XE software supports four types of virtual interfaces:
• Loopback
• Null
• Subinterface
• Tunnel

Benefits of Virtual Interfaces

A loopback interface can provide a stable interface on which you can assign a Layer 3 address such as an IP
or IPX address. This address can be configured as the source address when the networking device needs to
send data for protocols such as NetFlow or Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) to another device in your network
and you want the receiving device to always see the same source IP address from the networking device. This
is an issue in networks with multiple equal-cost paths because under normal circumstances the packets that
are generated by a networking device use the IP address from the outbound interface as the source address
for the packets and because in a network with two or more equal-cost paths from the networking device to
the receiving host each packet might use a different outbound interface.
A null interface provides an alternative method of filtering without the overhead involved with using access
lists. For example, instead of creating an outbound access list that prevents traffic to a destination network
from being transmitted out an interface, you can configure a static route for the destination network that points
to the null interface.
Subinterfaces were invented as a method of virtually subdividing a physical interface into two or more interfaces
so that the IP routing protocols would see the network connection to each remote networking device as a
separate physical interface even though the subinterfaces share a common physical interface. One of the first
uses of subinterfaces was to resolve the problem with split horizon on Frame Relay WANs.
The following are several situations in which tunneling (encapsulating traffic in another protocol) is useful:
• To enable multiprotocol local networks over a single-protocol backbone
• To provide workarounds for networks that use protocols that have limited hop counts; for example, RIP
version 1, AppleTalk
• To connect discontiguous subnetworks
• To allow virtual private networks across WANs

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

2
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Loopback Interfaces

Loopback Interfaces
You can specify a software-only interface called a loopback interface to emulate a physical interface. Loopback
interfaces are supported on all platforms. A loopback interface is a virtual interface on a Cisco router that
remains up (active) after you issue the no shutdown command until you disable it with the shutdown command.
Unlike subinterfaces, loopback interfaces are independent of the state of any physical interface.
The loopback interface can be considered stable because once you enable it, it will remain up until you shut
it down. This makes loopback interfaces ideal for assigning Layer 3 addresses such as IP addresses when you
want a single address as a reference that is independent of the status of any physical interfaces in the networking
device. A good example of this is using the IP address of a loopback interface as the IP address for the domain
name system (DNS) host address for the networking device. Before loopback interfaces were available,
network administrators had to configure a DNS host entry for every interface on a router that had an IP address
assigned to it because they could never be certain which interface IP address might be available at any given
time for managing the router. In the sample interface configuration and DNS entries for Router A shown
below, you can see that there is a DNS entry for each interface.

Router A Interface Configuration Before Loopback

GigabitEthernet0 10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0

GigabitEthernet1 10.10.11.1 255.255.255.0
GigabitEthernet2 10.10.12.1 255.255.255.0
GigabitEthernet3 10.10.13.1 255.255.255.0
GigabitEthernet4 10.10.14.1 255.255.255.0
GigabitEthernet5 10.10.15.1 255.255.255.0

Router A DNS Entries Before Loopback

RouterA IN A 10.10.10.1
IN A 10.10.11.1
IN A 10.10.12.1
IN A 10.10.13.1
IN A 10.10.14.1
IN A 10.10.15.1

Interfaces on networking devices can fail, and they can also be taken out of service for maintenance. If any
of the interfaces in Router A fails or is taken out of service, another networking device will not be able to
access that interface. When you configure a networking device with a loopback interface and assign it an IP
address that is advertised throughout the network, the networking device will be reachable by using this IP
address as long as the networking device has at least one network interface capable of sending and receiving
IP traffic. In the sample interface configuration and DNS entries for Router A after a loopback interface is
configured, you can see that there is now only one DNS entry that can be used to reach the router over any
of its physical interfaces.

Router A Interface Configuration After Loopback

Loopback 172.16.78.1 255.255.255.0

GigabitEthernet0 10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0
GigabitEthernet1 10.10.11.1 255.255.255.0
GigabitEthernet2 10.10.12.1 255.255.255.0
GigabitEthernet3 10.10.13.1 255.255.255.0
GigabitEthernet4 10.10.14.1 255.255.255.0
GigabitEthernet5 10.10.15.1 255.255.255.0

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

3
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Loopback Interfaces Versus Loopback Mode

Router A DNS Entries After Loopback

RouterA IN A 172.16.78.1

The configured IP address of the loopback interface--172.16.78.1--can be used as the source address for
packets generated by the router and forwarded to networking management applications and routing protocols.
Unless this loopback interface is explicitly shut down, it is always reachable.
You can use the loopback interface as the termination address for open shortest path first (OSPF) or border
gateway protocol (BGP) sessions. A loopback interface can also be used to establish a Telnet session from
the console port of the device to its auxiliary port when all other interfaces are down. In applications where
other routers or access servers attempt to reach this loopback interface, you should configure a routing protocol
to distribute the subnet assigned to the loopback address.
IP Packets routed to the loopback interface are rerouted back to the router or access server and processed
locally. IP packets routed out the loopback interface but not destined to the loopback interface are dropped.
Under these two conditions, the loopback interface can behave like a null interface.

Loopback Interfaces Versus Loopback Mode

Loopback interfaces provide a stable source interface to ensure that the IP address assigned to the interface
is always reachable as long as the IP routing protocols continue to advertise the subnet assigned to the loopback
interface. Loopback mode, however, is used to test and diagnose issues with WAN (serial) links such as bit
loss or data corruption. The idea is to configure a loop to return the data packets that were received by the
interface back out the same interface to the device that originated the traffic. Loopback mode is used to
troubleshoot problems by checking that the data packets are returned in the same condition in which they
were sent. Errors in the data packets indicate a problem with the WAN infrastructure. Many types of serial
interfaces have their own form of loopback command syntax that is entered under interface or controller
configuration mode.

Null Interfaces
The null interface is a virtual network interface that is similar to the loopback interface. Whereas traffic to
the loopback interface is directed to the router itself, traffic sent to the null interface is discarded. This interface
is always up and can never forward or receive traffic; encapsulation always fails. The null interface functions
similarly to the null devices available on most operating systems.
Null interfaces are used as a low-overhead method of discarding unnecessary network traffic. For example,
if you do not want your network users to be able to reach certain IP subnets, you can create static IP routes
for the subnets that point to the null interface of a networking device. Using the static IP routes takes less
CPU time for the networking device than using IP access lists. The static-route configuration is also easier to
configure than IP access lists because it is done in global configuration mode instead of in interface
configuration mode.
The null interface may not be configured with an address. Traffic can be sent to this interface only by
configuring a static route where the next hop is the null interface--represented by Null 0. One example of
configuring the next hop to be the null interface is to create a route to an aggregate network that can then be
announced through the BGP, or to ensure that traffic to a particular range of addresses is not propagated
through the router, perhaps for security purposes.
The router always has a single null interface. By default, a packet sent to the null interface causes the router
to respond by sending an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) unreachable message to the source IP

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

4
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Subinterfaces

address of the packet. You can configure the router either to send these responses or to drop the packets
silently.

Subinterfaces
Subinterfaces are associated with physical interfaces. Subinterfaces are enabled when the physical interface
with which they are associated is enabled, and subinterfaces are disabled when the physical interface is shut
down.

Note Subinterfaces can be enabled and shut down independently of the physical port with which they are associated.
However, you cannot enable a subinterface of a physical interface that has been shut down.

Subinterfaces are created by subdividing the physical interface into two or more virtual interfaces on which
you can assign unique Layer 3 network addresses such as IP subnets. One of the first uses of subinterfaces
was to resolve the problem with split horizon on Frame Relay WANs. Split horizon is a behavior associated
with IP routing protocols such as RIP in which IP subnets are not advertised back out the same physical
interface that they were learned over. Split horizon was implemented to prevent routing loops in IP networks.
A routing loop can be created when the networking devices at both ends of a network connection advertise
the same IP routes to each other. Split horizon was an issue for Frame Relay multipoint network
interfaces--interfaces that connect to two or more remote networking devices over a single physical
interface--because the default behavior of many networking devices was to implement split horizon, which
means that the networking device did not advertise the IP routes that were learned over an interface back out
the interface to other devices that were also reachable via the same physical interface. Subinterfaces were
invented as a method of virtually subdividing a physical interface into two or more interfaces so that the IP
routing protocols would see the network connection to each remote networking device as a separate physical
interface even though the subinterfaces share a common physical interface. Although TCP/IP now disables
split horizon limitations by default, protocols such as AppleTalk and IPX are still constrained by split horizon.
Subinterfaces are identified by a prefix that consists of the hardware interface descriptor (IDB) followed by
a period and then by a number that is unique for that prefix. The full subinterface number must be unique to
the networking device. For example, the first subinterface for GigabitEthernet interface 0/0/0 might be named
GigabitEthernet 0/0/0.1 where .1 indicates the subinterface.

Tunnel Interfaces
Tunneling provides a way to encapsulate arbitrary packets inside a transport protocol. Tunnels are implemented
as a virtual interface to provide a simple interface for configuration. The tunnel interface is not tied to specific
"passenger" or "transport" protocols, but, rather, it is an architecture that is designed to provide the services
necessary to implement any standard point-to-point encapsulation scheme.
There are several ways to implement tunnel interfaces depending on the connectivity that you need to provide.
One common use for tunnels is to carry data traffic for a network protocol such as IPX over devices in your
network that do not support IPX. For instance, if your network uses IPX in sites at the edge of your network
but not in the core of your network, you can connect the IPX sites at the network edges by tunneling IPX in
IP over the core of the network.
For more details about the various types of tunneling techniques available using Cisco IOS XE software, see
the " Implementing Tunnels " module of the Cisco IOS XE Interface and Hardware Component Configuration
Guide.

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

5
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
How to Configure Virtual Interfaces

How to Configure Virtual Interfaces

Configuring a Loopback Interface
This task explains how to configure a loopback interface. A loopback interface can be considered stable
because once you enable it, it will remain up until you shut it down. This makes loopback interfaces ideal for
assigning Layer 3 addresses such as IP addresses when you want to have a single address to use as a reference
that is independent of the status of any of the physical interfaces in the networking device.

Before you begin

The IP address for the loopback interface must be unique and not in use by another interface.

SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. interface loopback number
4. ip address ip-address mask [secondary]
5. end
6. show interfaces loopback number
7. exit

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action Purpose

Step 1 enable Enables privileged EXEC mode.
Example: • Enter your password if prompted.

Router> enable

Step 2 configure terminal Enters global configuration mode.

Example:

Router# configure terminal

Step 3 interface loopback number Specifies a loopback interface and enters interface
configuration mode.
Example:
• Use the number argument to specify the number of the
Router(config)# interface loopback 0 loopback interface that you want to create or configure.

Note There is no limit on the number of loopback

interfaces that you can create.

Step 4 ip address ip-address mask [secondary] Specifies an IP address for the loopback interface and
enables IP processing on the interface.
Example:

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

6
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Configuring a Loopback Interface

Command or Action Purpose

• Use the ip-address and mask arguments to specify the
Router(config-if)# ip address 10.20.1.2
subnet for the loopback address.
255.255.255.0

Step 5 end Exits interface configuration mode and returns to privileged

EXEC mode.
Example:

Router(config-if)# end

Step 6 show interfaces loopback number (Optional) Displays information about loopback interfaces.
Example: • Use the number argument to display information about
one particular loopback interface.
Router# show interfaces loopback 0
Note Only the syntax applicable to this task is used in
this example. For more details, see the Cisco IOS
Interface and Hardware Component Command
Reference.

Step 7 exit Exits privileged EXEC mode.

Example:

Router# exit

Examples
The following is sample output for the show interfaces loopback command.

Router# show interfaces loopback

Loopback0 is up, line protocol is up
Hardware is Loopback
Internet address is 10.20.1.2/24
MTU 1514 bytes, BW 8000000 Kbit, DLY 5000 usec,
reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
Encapsulation LOOPBACK, loopback not set
Last input never, output never, output hang never
Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
Queueing strategy: fifo
Output queue: 0/0 (size/max)
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
0 packets input, 0 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 0 abort
0 packets output, 0 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

7
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Configuring a Null Interface

Configuring a Null Interface

This task explains how to configure a null interface. Null interfaces provide an alternative method to access
control lists for filtering traffic. All unwanted traffic can be directed to the null interface; the null interface
cannot receive or forward traffic, or allow its traffic to be encapsulated.
The only interface configuration command that you can specify for the null interface is the no ip unreachables
command.

ICMP Unreachable Messages from Null Interfaces

To disable the sending of ICMP unreachable messages in response to packets sent to the null interface, use
the no ip unreachables command in interface configuration mode. To reenable the sending of ICMP
unreachable messages in response to packets sent to the null interface, use the ip unreachables command in
interface configuration mode.
You can configure only one null interface on a device.

SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. interface null number
4. no ip unreachables
5. end
6. show interfaces null [number] [accounting]

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action Purpose

Step 1 enable Enables privileged EXEC mode.
Example: • Enter your password if prompted.

Device> enable

Step 2 configure terminal Enters global configuration mode.

Example:

Device# configure terminal

Step 3 interface null number Specifies a null interface and number, and enters interface
configuration mode.
Example:
• The number argument is always 0.
Device(config)# interface null 0

Step 4 no ip unreachables Prevents the generation of ICMP unreachable messages on

an interface.
Example:
• This command affects all types of ICMP unreachable
Device(config-if)# no ip unreachables messages.

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

8
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Configuring a Subinterface

Command or Action Purpose

Step 5 end Exits to privileged EXEC mode.
Example:

Device(config-if)# end

Step 6 show interfaces null [number] [accounting] (Optional) Displays information about null interfaces.
Example: • For null interfaces, the number argument is always 0.

Device# show interfaces null 0 Note Only the syntax applicable to this task is used in
this example. For more details, see the Cisco IOS
Interface and Hardware Component Command
Reference.

Examples
The following is sample output for the show interfaces null command.

Device# show interfaces null

Null0 is up, line protocol is up

Hardware is Unknown
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 10000000 Kbit, DLY 0 usec,
reliability 0/255, txload 0/255, rxload 0/255
Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
Last input never, output never, output hang never
Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
0 packets input, 0 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 0 abort
0 packets output, 0 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

Configuring a Subinterface
This task explains how to configure a subinterface. Subinterfaces can be enabled and shut down independently
of the physical port with which they are associated. However, you cannot enable a subinterface of a physical
interface that has been shut down.

Before you begin

The IP address for the interface must be unique and not in use by another interface.

SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

9
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Configuring a Subinterface

3. interface type number.subinterface-number

4. ip address ip-address mask [secondary]
5. end
6. show interfaces type number.subinterface-number
7. exit

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action Purpose

Step 1 enable Enables privileged EXEC mode.
Example: • Enter your password if prompted.

Router> enable

Step 2 configure terminal Enters global configuration mode.

Example:

Router# configure terminal

Step 3 interface type number.subinterface-number Specifies the interface type, interface number, and
subinterface number and enters interface configuration
Example:
mode.
Router(config)# interface GigabitEthernet 2/3.5

Step 4 ip address ip-address mask [secondary] Specifies an IP address for the interface and enables IP
processing on the interface.
Example:

Router(config-if)# ip address 209.165.200.225

255.255.255.224

Step 5 end Exits interface configuration mode and returns to privileged

EXEC mode.
Example:

Router(config-if)# end

Step 6 show interfaces type number.subinterface-number (Optional) Displays information about the interfaces.
Example:

Router# show interfaces GigabitEthernet 2/3.5

Step 7 exit Exits privileged EXEC mode.

Example:

Router# exit

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

10
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Configuring a Subinterface

Examples
The following is sample output from the show interfacescommand:

Router# show interfaces GigabitEthernet 2/3.5

GigabitEthernet2/3.5432 is down, line protocol is down (notconnect)
Hardware is c7600 1Gb 802.3, address is 001b.0de6.c100 (bia 001b.0de6.c100)
Description: *sample*
Internet address is 10.11.12.13/24
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1000000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,
reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
Encapsulation 802.1Q Virtual LAN, Vlan ID 2339.
ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
Keepalive set (10 sec)
Last clearing of "show interface" counters never

Configuring a Subinterface
This task explains how to configure a subinterface. Subinterfaces can be enabled and shut down independently
of the physical port with which they are associated. However, you cannot enable a subinterface of a physical
interface that has been shut down.

Before you begin

The IP address for the interface must be unique and not in use by another interface.

SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. interface type number.subinterface-number
4. ip address ip-address mask [secondary]
5. end
6. show interfaces type number.subinterface-number
7. exit

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action Purpose

Step 1 enable Enables privileged EXEC mode.
Example: • Enter your password if prompted.

Router> enable

Step 2 configure terminal Enters global configuration mode.

Example:

Router# configure terminal

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

11
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Configuring a Subinterface

Command or Action Purpose

Step 3 interface type number.subinterface-number Specifies the interface type, interface number, and
subinterface number and enters interface configuration
Example:
mode.
Router(config)# interface GigabitEthernet 2/3.5

Step 4 ip address ip-address mask [secondary] Specifies an IP address for the interface and enables IP
processing on the interface.
Example:

Router(config-if)# ip address 209.165.200.225

255.255.255.224

Step 5 end Exits interface configuration mode and returns to privileged

EXEC mode.
Example:

Router(config-if)# end

Step 6 show interfaces type number.subinterface-number (Optional) Displays information about the interfaces.
Example:

Router# show interfaces GigabitEthernet 2/3.5

Step 7 exit Exits privileged EXEC mode.

Example:

Router# exit

Examples
The following is sample output from the show interfacescommand:

Router# show interfaces GigabitEthernet 2/3.5

GigabitEthernet2/3.5432 is down, line protocol is down (notconnect)
Hardware is c7600 1Gb 802.3, address is 001b.0de6.c100 (bia 001b.0de6.c100)
Description: *sample*
Internet address is 10.11.12.13/24
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1000000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,
reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
Encapsulation 802.1Q Virtual LAN, Vlan ID 2339.
ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
Keepalive set (10 sec)
Last clearing of "show interface" counters never

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

12
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Configuring Logical Layer 3 VLAN Interfaces

Configuring Logical Layer 3 VLAN Interfaces

Before you begin
Before you configure logical Layer 3 VLAN interfaces, you must create and configure the VLANs on the
device, assign VLAN membership to the Layer 2 interfaces, enable IP routing if IP routing is disabled, and
specify an IP routing protocol.

SUMMARY STEPS
1. configure terminal
2. interface vlan vlan ID
3. ip address ip_address subnet_mask
4. no shutdown
5. end

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action Purpose

Step 1 configure terminal Enters global configuration mode.
Example:
Device# configure terminal

Step 2 interface vlan vlan ID Selects an interface to configure.

Example:
Device(config)# interface vlan vlan_ID

Step 3 ip address ip_address subnet_mask Configures the IP address and IP subnet.

Example:
Device(config-if)# ip address ip_address
subnet_mask

Step 4 no shutdown Enables the interface.

Example:
Device(config-if)# no shutdown

Step 5 end Exits the configuration mode.

Example:
Device(config-if)# end

Examples
The following is sample output from the show interface vlancommand, which displays the interface
IP address configuration and status of Layer 3 VLAN interface vlan 2
Device# show interface vlan
Vlan2 is up, line protocol is down
Hardware is Ethernet SVI, address is 00D.588F.B604 (bia 00D.588F.B604)

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

13
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Configuration Examples for Virtual Interfaces

Internet address is 172.20.52.106/29

MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1000000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,
reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
Last input never, output never, output hang never
Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
Queueing strategy: fifo
Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
0 packets input, 0 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
0 packets output, 0 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 interface resets
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

Configuration Examples for Virtual Interfaces

Example Configuring a Loopback Interface
The following example shows the configuration sequence of a loopback interface, loopback 0:

interface loopback 0
ip address 209.165.200.225 255.255.255.0
end

Example Configuring a Null Interface

The following example shows the configuration sequence of a null interface and how to drop the ICMP
unreachable messages. All packets sent to the null interface are dropped and in this example, the ICMP
messages usually sent in response to packets being sent to the null interface are dropped.

interface null 0
no ip unreachables
end

Example Configuring a Subinterface

The following example shows the configuration sequence of a subinterface:

interface GigabitEthernet 2/3.5

description *sample*
encapsulation dot1Q 2339
ip address 209.165.200.225 255.255.255.224
end

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

14
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Where to Go Next

Where to Go Next
• If you want to implement tunnels in your network, see the " Implementing Tunnels " module of the Cisco
IOS XE Interface and Hardware Component Configuration Guide .
• If you want to implement physical (hardware) interfaces (such as Gigabit Ethernet or serial interfaces)
in your network, see the " Configuring Physical Interfaces " module of the Cisco IOS XE Interface and
Hardware Component Configuration Guide .

Additional References
Related Documents

Related Topic Document Title

Cisco IOS commands Cisco IOS Master Commands List, All Releases

Interface commands: complete command syntax, Cisco IOS Interface and Hardware Component
command mode, defaults, command history, usage Command Reference
guidelines, and examples

Cisco IOS XE Interface and Hardware Component Cisco IOS XE Interface and Hardware Component
configuration modules Configuration Guide

Configuration example showing how to use loopback Sample Configuration for iBGP and eBGP With or
interfaces with BGP Without a Loopback Address

Standards

Standard Title

No new or modified standards are supported, and support for existing standards has not been modified. --

MIBs

MIB MIBs Link

No new or modified MIBs are supported, and To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco
support for existing MIBs has not been software releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator
modified. found at the following URL:
http://www.cisco.com/go/mibs

RFCs

RFC Title

No new or modified RFCs are supported, and support for existing RFCs has not been modified. --

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

15
 Configuring Virtual Interfaces
Additional References

Technical Assistance

Description Link

The Cisco Support and Documentation website provides http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/support/index.html

online resources to download documentation, software,
and tools. Use these resources to install and configure
the software and to troubleshoot and resolve technical
issues with Cisco products and technologies. Access to
most tools on the Cisco Support and Documentation
website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password.

Configuring Virtual Interfaces

16