It is not mandatory to setup an IP address on a bridge interface. A bridge forwards packets at MAC layer. But of course, if I would like to reach the DB System or the Compute Instance from the ODA, then an IP address will be needed on the bridge interface. I have demonstrate and explain this in one of my blogs : https://www.dbi-services.com/blog/creating-kvm-database-system-on-separate-vlan-network-on-oda/

I have also successfully implemented on customer with ODA running version 19.14, DB System on vnetwork bridge having no IP address. And this to totally isolate the DB System. I recently realised that last 19.17 and 19.18 ODA version will not allow this natively any more. IP address is now mandatory to be supplied. Opening a SR I could get an official WA that I would like to share in this blog.

Trying to create a new vnetwork bridge without IP address

This would be totally unsuccessful as we can see in the following results.

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli create-vnetwork -n tagged38 -if btbond2 -t bridged-vlan -vlan 38
DCS-10045:Validation error encountered: Parameter 'vNetwork IP address' cannot be null.

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli create-vnetwork -n tagged38 -if btbond2 -t bridged-vlan -ip 0.0.0.0 -nm 255.255.255.0 -vlan 38 -gw 10.38.0.1
DCS-10045:Validation error encountered: The IP address 0.0.0.0 is already in use in the network.

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli create-vnetwork -n tagged38 -if btbond2 -t bridged-vlan -ip none -vlan 38
DCS-10045:Validation error encountered: Parameter 'vNetwork netmask' cannot be null.

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli create-vnetwork -n tagged38 -if btbond2 -t bridged-vlan -ip none -nm none -vlan 38
DCS-10045:Validation error encountered: Parameter 'vNetwork IP address' is not a valid IP: none.

Workaround

To workaround this, we need to create the interface with an IP address, and then to remove it later on.

Creating the vnetwork with bridge IP address:

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli create-vnetwork -n tagged38 -if btbond2 -t bridged-vlan -ip 10.38.0.10 -nm 255.255.255.0 -vlan 38 -gw 10.38.0.1

Job details
----------------------------------------------------------------
                     ID:  0f11b59f-2ebc-4122-a8e5-d8498f8123f9
            Description:  vNetwork tagged38 creation
                 Status:  Created
                Created:  March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET
                Message:

Task Name                                Start Time                          End Time                            Status
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli describe-job -i 0f11b59f-2ebc-4122-a8e5-d8498f8123f9

Job details
----------------------------------------------------------------
                     ID:  0f11b59f-2ebc-4122-a8e5-d8498f8123f9
            Description:  vNetwork tagged38 creation
                 Status:  Success
                Created:  March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET
                Message:

Task Name                                Start Time                          End Time                            Status
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------
Validate Virtual Network doesn't exist   March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       Success
Validate interface to use exists         March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       Success
Validate interfaces to create not exist  March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       Success
Create bridge                            March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       Success
Create VLAN                              March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       Success
Bring up VLAN                            March 15, 2023 3:15:33 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:15:38 PM CET       Success
Create metadata                          March 15, 2023 3:15:38 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:15:38 PM CET       Success
Persist metadata                         March 15, 2023 3:15:38 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:15:38 PM CET       Success

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli list-vnetworks
Name                  Type             Interface        Bridge                Uniform   Created                   Updated
--------------------  ---------------  ---------------  --------------------  --------  ------------------------  ------------------------
tagged38              BridgedVlan      btbond2          brtagged38            NO        2023-03-15 15:15:38 CET   2023-03-15 15:15:38 CET
pubnet                Bridged          btbond1          pubnet                NO        2022-11-03 12:06:43 CET   2022-11-03 12:06:43 CET

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli describe-vnetwork -n tagged38
VNetwork details
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       ID:  1356a164-6e46-42b3-b8c8-953bc62f2e84
                     Name:  tagged38
                  Created:  2023-03-15 15:26:20 CET
                  Updated:  2023-03-15 15:26:20 CET
                     Type:  BridgedVlan
           Interface name:  btbond2
              Bridge name:  brtagged38
                  VLAN ID:  38
                       IP:  10.38.0.10
                  Netmask:  255.255.255.0
                  Gateway:  10.38.0.1
 Attached in VMs (config):  NONE
   Attached in VMs (live):  NONE

We can see the bridge interface has been created and have the IP address assigned on:

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# ip addr sh brtagged38
25: brtagged38:  mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:e1:fa:51 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.38.0.10/24 brd 10.38.0.255 scope global brtagged38
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

And I can ping it from my laptop:

maw@DBI-LT-MAW2 ~ % ping 10.38.0.10
PING 10.38.0.10 (10.38.0.10): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.38.0.10: icmp_seq=0 ttl=62 time=39.865 ms
64 bytes from 10.38.0.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=62 time=130.809 ms
64 bytes from 10.38.0.10: icmp_seq=2 ttl=62 time=46.843 ms
^C
--- 10.38.0.10 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 39.865/72.506/130.809/41.325 ms

We will now remove the IP address from the bridge with modify-vnetwork:

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli modify-vnetwork -n tagged38 -ip none

Job details
----------------------------------------------------------------
                     ID:  5d60bfb8-6598-4e48-b329-cf2ad7730dc8
            Description:  vNetwork tagged38 modification
                 Status:  Created
                Created:  March 15, 2023 3:22:44 PM CET
                Message:

Task Name                                Start Time                          End Time                            Status
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli describe-job -i 5d60bfb8-6598-4e48-b329-cf2ad7730dc8

Job details
----------------------------------------------------------------
                     ID:  5d60bfb8-6598-4e48-b329-cf2ad7730dc8
            Description:  vNetwork tagged38 modification
                 Status:  Success
                Created:  March 15, 2023 3:22:44 PM CET
                Message:

Task Name                                Start Time                          End Time                            Status
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------
Validate Virtual Network exists          March 15, 2023 3:22:44 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:22:44 PM CET       Success
Modify VLAN                              March 15, 2023 3:22:44 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:22:44 PM CET       Success
Update metadata                          March 15, 2023 3:22:44 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:22:44 PM CET       Success
Persist metadata                         March 15, 2023 3:22:44 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:22:44 PM CET       Success

I can see that my bridge interface has no more IP address:

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# ip addr sh brtagged38
25: brtagged38:  mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:e1:fa:51 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

And, of course, I can not ping it any more:

maw@DBI-LT-MAW2 ~ % ping 10.38.0.10
PING 10.38.0.10 (10.38.0.10): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3

My vnetwork shows now a configuration without any IP configuration:

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli describe-vnetwork -n tagged38
VNetwork details
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       ID:  b9cbfb0f-5c40-4421-8fd4-439872d630b3
                     Name:  tagged38
                  Created:  2023-03-15 15:15:38 CET
                  Updated:  2023-03-15 15:22:44 CET
                     Type:  BridgedVlan
           Interface name:  btbond2
              Bridge name:  brtagged38
                  VLAN ID:  38
                       IP:
                  Netmask:
                  Gateway:
 Attached in VMs (config):  NONE
   Attached in VMs (live):  NONE

I could even put the IP address back:

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli modify-vnetwork -n tagged38 -ip 10.38.0.10 -nm 255.255.255.0 -gw 10.38.0.1

Job details
----------------------------------------------------------------
                     ID:  0fe45b34-23af-4bea-a887-ff36b76acf22
            Description:  vNetwork tagged38 modification
                 Status:  Created
                Created:  March 15, 2023 3:33:20 PM CET
                Message:

Task Name                                Start Time                          End Time                            Status
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli describe-job -i 0fe45b34-23af-4bea-a887-ff36b76acf22

Job details
----------------------------------------------------------------
                     ID:  0fe45b34-23af-4bea-a887-ff36b76acf22
            Description:  vNetwork tagged38 modification
                 Status:  Success
                Created:  March 15, 2023 3:33:20 PM CET
                Message:

Task Name                                Start Time                          End Time                            Status
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ----------
Validate Virtual Network exists          March 15, 2023 3:33:20 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:33:20 PM CET       Success
Modify VLAN                              March 15, 2023 3:33:20 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:33:25 PM CET       Success
Update metadata                          March 15, 2023 3:33:25 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:33:25 PM CET       Success
Persist metadata                         March 15, 2023 3:33:25 PM CET       March 15, 2023 3:33:25 PM CET       Success

And my bridge configuration will get the IP configuration again:

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# odacli describe-vnetwork -n tagged38
VNetwork details
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       ID:  b6f174d2-6b78-4c2d-8ae7-875b1c7c9705
                     Name:  tagged38
                  Created:  2023-03-15 15:30:25 CET
                  Updated:  2023-03-15 15:33:25 CET
                     Type:  BridgedVlan
           Interface name:  btbond2
              Bridge name:  brtagged38
                  VLAN ID:  38
                       IP:  10.38.0.10
                  Netmask:  255.255.255.0
                  Gateway:  10.38.0.1
 Attached in VMs (config):  NONE
   Attached in VMs (live):  NONE

[root@dbi-oda-x8 ~]# ip addr sh brtagged38
29: brtagged38:  mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:9e:0f:78 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.38.0.10/24 brd 10.38.0.255 scope global brtagged38
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

To finally be able to ping it again:

maw@DBI-LT-MAW2 ~ % ping 10.38.0.10
PING 10.38.0.10 (10.38.0.10): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.38.0.10: icmp_seq=0 ttl=62 time=47.394 ms
64 bytes from 10.38.0.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=62 time=46.711 ms
64 bytes from 10.38.0.10: icmp_seq=2 ttl=62 time=47.371 ms