Ethernet Bypass

The appliance includes a bypass feature for inline mode. In a power failure, a relay closes and the input and output ports become electrically connected. This feature allows the Ethernet signal to pass through from one port to the other, as if the appliance were not there. The appliance functions like a cross-over cable connecting the two ports.

Besides a power failure, any failure of the appliance hardware or software also closes the relay. When the appliance is restarted, the bypass relay remains closed until the appliance is fully initialized, maintaining network continuity always. This feature is automatic and requires no user configuration.

When the bypass relay is closed, the bridge ports of the appliance are inaccessible.

Bypass considerations

  • The bypass feature is disabled when the NetScaler instance is set to L3 mode. Because L3 mode is the factory default, inline mode should be configured before the appliance is placed in line with data traffic.
  • The bypass feature is disabled when the appliance is in high availability mode.
  • A bypass event causes all bypass-enabled port pairs (except the loopback ports) to enter the bypass mode.
  • The loopback ports never enter bypass mode.
  • A bypass event occurs if the NetScaler instance or the bypass daemon in Dom-0 becomes unresponsive.
  • A bypass event is not triggered by accelerators becoming unresponsive.
  • The 1-Gigabit bypass ports are copper, and 10-Gigabit bypass ports are fiber ports.
Ethernet Bypass