An L2 bypass enables you to perform a physical bypass of the appliance when an interface is bridged to another interface with LAN bypass capability. This allows network traffic to continue flowing when an unrecoverable firewall failure occurs.
When the L2 bypass relay is closed, the network cables attached to the bypassed interfaces (X0 and X1) are physically connected as if they were a single continuous network cable. The Engage physical bypass on malfunction option provides you the choice of avoiding disruption of network traffic by bypassing the firewall in the event of a malfunction.
L2 bypass is only applicable to interfaces in Layer 2 Bridged Mode. The Engage physical bypass on malfunction option only appears when the Layer 2 Bridged Mode option is selected from Mode / IP Assignment. This option does not appear unless a physical bypass relay exists between the two interfaces of the bridge-pair.
When the Engage physical bypass on malfunction option is enabled, the other Layer 2 Bridged Mode options are automatically set
To configure an L2 bypass
Select Engage physical bypass on malfunction.
The Engage physical bypass on malfunction option is available only when the X0 and X1 interfaces are bridged together on an NSA-6600 or above.