Linux Bridge question

[ianm_ozzy]

 

Is it possible to connect two nics  to  a linux bridge at different speeds.

 

It is for trunas scale.

It will be a 2.5Gb and 25Gb.

Any any traffic heading in/out of the 2.5Gb is obviously capped at that  speed.

 

For traffic to/from the NAS  with the 25Gb NIC - will it get the full speed.

 

The plan:

 Dual boot windows linux machine. A 1Gb connection to a managed switch & direct connect to the NAS.

 

Windows -  Gaming only.  All traffic through the bridge to the internet/NAS.

Games stored on ISCSI and  a lancache instance. 1Gb connection disabled.

So 25Gb  access to games storage & lancache - I hope.

 

Linux.  Connection  to the 1Gb switch on -  intenet access.

Still direct access to the NAS, with no gateway specified.

They are different lans.

 

Is it practical & technically possible to bridge 2 NICs at different speeds?

 

The alternative is some sort of NAT/port  forward setup in truenas  That  seems messy.

 

Oh and I AM NOT WASTING CASH ON STUPIDLY  PRICED  SWITCHES.

 

This is a home setup.

 

Useful and informed info is appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

[johnt]

You typically need a hypervisor to split the components between guest OSes. This is completely doable if you use Proxmox for example as the host OS. Passthrough the 25 gbps NIC, GPU, mouse and keyboard to the Windows VM, and the 1 or 2.5 gbps NIC to Linux.

 

You can use the Windows "locally" by plugging in your monitor to the GPU that you passed to the Windows VM, and use Proxmox web interface to access the Linux VM.

 

Otherwise if you want to do a true dual boot, then you have to install GRUB and choose which OS to log into at each start. But the problem is you cannot start and run both OSes at the same time. Proxmox will let you run both simultaneously on the same device. I believe there will be up to a 5% penalty overall in performance, but if your system is good, you probably won't even notice. I have several VMs on a super old tiny HP SFF device and I remote log into my Windows VM while at work and it is smooth as butter. Your use case is a bit different, but Proxmox can handle it.

[ianm_ozzy]

7 minutes ago, johnt said:

You typically need a hypervisor to split the components between guest OSes. This is completely doable if you use Proxmox for example as the host OS. Passthrough the 25 gbps NIC, GPU, mouse and keyboard to the Windows VM, and the 1 or 2.5 gbps NIC to Linux.

 

You can use the Windows "locally" by plugging in your monitor to the GPU that you passed to the Windows VM, and use Proxmox web interface to access the Linux VM.

 

Otherwise if you want to do a true dual boot, then you have to install GRUB and choose which OS to log into at each start. But the problem is you cannot start and run both OSes at the same time. Proxmox will let you run both simultaneously on the same device. I believe there will be up to a 5% penalty overall in performance, but if your system is good, you probably won't even notice. I have several VMs on a super old tiny HP SFF device and I remote log into my Windows VM while at work and it is smooth as butter. Your use case is a bit different, but Proxmox can handle it.

It seems you misunderstood, or I did not explain correctly.

Your reply makes no sense to me.

 

Prommox is on a dell optiplex  micro, with my router and other Vms. I added a 2.5Gb nic to that - which will be  a LAN connected  directly to truenas to the 2.5Gb NIC.

 

I have a 1 Gb managed switch = Wan/Lans

Also a dual boot PC for gaming/general use.

An old machine with truenas scale.  It has a 2.5Gb nic, and may add a 25Gb.

There is  no Windows VM I use to play games.  There is a low spec windows VM in  the proxmox machine, which is used to update games.

 

 

The question is about networking. - specifically using a linux bridge with different speed  NICs.

 

 

 

 

[Eigenvektor]

20 minutes ago, ianm_ozzy said:

It seems you misunderstood, or I did not explain correctly.

Your description doesn't make what you're trying to achieve overly clear.

 

You want to have a Linux machine with two NICs. The machine should serve both as a NAS and a bridge. The NIC connected to the internal network is 25 Gb, the one the goes out to the internet is 2.5 Gb. Is that about right?

 

If so, sure that's entirely possible. Traffic directly to the machine could go up to 25 Gbps. Traffic routed through the machine would be limited to 2.5 Gbps.

[ianm_ozzy]

57 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Your description doesn't make what you're trying to achieve overly clear.

 

You want to have a Linux machine with two NICs. The machine should serve both as a NAS and a bridge. The NIC connected to the internal network is 25 Gb, the one the goes out to the internet is 2.5 Gb. Is that about right?

 

If so, sure that's entirely possible. Traffic directly to the machine could go up to 25 Gbps. Traffic routed through the machine would be limited to 2.5 Gbps.

 

Pretty much what you said.

I linux machine in question is truenas scale.

 

So NAS and bridge - yes please!

 

A bridge on truenas scale:

 

I do  not  yet have  the 25Gb nics & cable.

 

I have a spare 2.5Gb nic. I will use that &  the 25Gb, put in truenas, and setup.

 

When working, will add the present 2.5Gb in truenas also to the bridge also.

 

Will truenas scale throw an error if using mismatched speeds?

 

 

 

 

[Eigenvektor]

6 hours ago, ianm_ozzy said:

Will truenas scale throw an error if using mismatched speeds?

I don't see why it would. Traffic that has to go through both network cards is simply limited to the lowest speed along the route, so that would be 2.5 Gbps. Any traffic that only goes through the 25 Gb card would be able to transfer at 25 Gbps.

[LIGISTX]

I am not sure I fully understand either... But if you have a truenas box you can have 2 NIC's in it. You don't need to bridge them. Each NIC would be on its own subnet.

 

You would add a 25 GB NIC to both your windows and Truenas box's. You then manually set them up on their own subnet via manually assigning them IP addresses (10.10.10.1 for truenas and 10.10.10.2 for windows for example, this subnet needs to be within the private subnet space, and must be different than all other subnets in your network). In truenas, you then create SMB, NFS, and/or iSCSI shares on BOTH the normal 1 GB subnet, and the new 10.10.10.1 subnet. Then when you mount sotrage on the windows machine, you would use the 10.10.10.1 shares which will "tell" windows to go out over that interface and thus use the full speed of the 25 GB interface.

[ianm_ozzy]

11 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

I am not sure I fully understand either... But if you have a truenas box you can have 2 NIC's in it. You don't need to bridge them. Each NIC would be on its own subnet.

 

You would add a 25 GB NIC to both your windows and Truenas box's. You then manually set them up on their own subnet via manually assigning them IP addresses (10.10.10.1 for truenas and 10.10.10.2 for windows for example, this subnet needs to be within the private subnet space, and must be different than all other subnets in your network). In truenas, you then create SMB, NFS, and/or iSCSI shares on BOTH the normal 1 GB subnet, and the new 10.10.10.1 subnet. Then when you mount sotrage on the windows machine, you would use the 10.10.10.1 shares which will "tell" windows to go out over that interface and thus use the full speed of the 25 GB interface.

 

Then how exactly do I get   do I get  the PC, NAS & my proxmox server all on the same network (LAN).

 

They are a mixture of  2.5Gb and  maybe 25Gb/40Gb.

 

I would appreciate an answer, that does not involve wasting a lot of cash on a switch?

 

The purpose  is high speed access to the  NAS  most important  a lancache.

 

The lancache  software  apparently  cannot deal with multiple networks.

 

 

 

[ianm_ozzy]

16 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

I don't see why it would. Traffic that has to go through both network cards is simply limited to the lowest speed along the route, so that would be 2.5 Gbps. Any traffic that only goes through the 25 Gb card would be able to transfer at 25 Gbps.

 

I hope not.

When I get round to it, have an old machine.

 

I  could test with the onboard 1Gb and put in the 2.5Gb.

I will  just use an old hard drive and sata SSD (boot)  to test.

 

 

[Eigenvektor]

13 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

I am not sure I fully understand either... But if you have a truenas box you can have 2 NIC's in it. You don't need to bridge them. Each NIC would be on its own subnet.

42 minutes ago, ianm_ozzy said:

I hope not.

Wait… are you talking about bridging network cards or about using the machine as a network bridge (similar to a router)?

 

Because I was under the impression you want to use the machine as a network bridge. Are you actually trying to do link aggregation?

[LIGISTX]

1 hour ago, ianm_ozzy said:

Then how exactly do I get   do I get  the PC, NAS & my proxmox server all on the same network (LAN).

You have them all connected to the 2.5 GB LAN, but then you also have the PC and NAS connected directly to eachother with 25GB. 
 

Is this not what you want? If you want all three connected at 25 GB, then you need to just accept the best option is to just buy a switch. But if you only want the two machines (NAS and Windows desktop) connected at 25 GB, while they are also connected to the main network at 2.5GB, then the solution I gave you is the best and cheapest answer. 

[LIGISTX]

44 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Because I was under the impression you want to use the machine as a network bridge. Are you actually trying to do link aggregation?

I was under the impression OP wants a direct connection between TrueNAS and windows desktop at 25GB. We definitely need a better explanation of what OP wants. 

[ianm_ozzy]

1 hour ago, LIGISTX said:

I was under the impression OP wants a direct connection between TrueNAS and windows desktop at 25GB. We definitely need a better explanation of what OP wants. 

This is what I want, but not as its own distinct LAN.

 

[ianm_ozzy]

2 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

You have them all connected to the 2.5 GB LAN, but then you also have the PC and NAS connected directly to eachother with 25GB. 
 

Is this not what you want? If you want all three connected at 25 GB, then you need to just accept the best option is to just buy a switch. But if you only want the two machines (NAS and Windows desktop) connected at 25 GB, while they are also connected to the main network at 2.5GB, then the solution I gave you is the best and cheapest answer. 

Just buy a switch?

Please direct me to a 25 - 40Gb switch with a price of $150 US max.

That would be great.

Oh and not rack size and manged.

 

Not all 3 connected at 25Gb.

25Gb between the NAS & PC.  Also 2.5Gb between  NAS & router (proxmox box with opnsense).

 

What I want is  them all on the same LAN - a  a bridge on the NAS with 2 connected ncis - one 2.5Gb and one 25Gb.

 

 

[ToboRobot]

On 8/16/2025 at 12:10 AM, ianm_ozzy said:

 

 

Oh and I AM NOT WASTING CASH ON STUPIDLY  PRICED  SWITCHES.

 

This is a home setup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

why waste money on 25GB NIC then?

Ubiquiti has $50 2.5GB switches and im sure there are other affordable options
microtik and others have affordable 10GB switches. https://www.servethehome.com/the-ultimate-cheap-10gbe-switch-buyers-guide-netgear-ubiquiti-qnap-mikrotik-qct/

so why spend the money and struggle with the goal of 25GB?  just wait, it gets cheaper and easier for home setups if you wait and don't use the bleeding edge (I know 25GB isn't the fastest speed, but it's not common in homes)

Are you trying to make a problem or solve one?

[LIGISTX]

6 hours ago, ianm_ozzy said:

This is what I want

I think what I am saying is exactly what you want. 
 

6 hours ago, ianm_ozzy said:

Not all 3 connected at 25Gb.

25Gb between the NAS & PC.  Also 2.5Gb between  NAS & router (proxmox box with opnsense).

What I am suggesting is ALL of the devices would be on the standard 2.5 GB LAN. All devices would connect out to the internet over 2.5 GB. All devices would be able to communicate over 2.5 GB. But you would ALSO have a direct 25 GB connection between PC and NAS.  The PC and NAS would both be on the 2.5 GB subnet, AND the 25GB subnet. 
 

In windows when you mount the storage, you would mount the storage with the IP address of the 25GB subnet, which will then force the data to traverse the 25GB interface and not the 2.5GB.

 

I had this type of setup for years. I had a 1GB LAN, my desktop was plugged into it via motherboard ethernet, as well as my Proxmox box which hosts TrueNAS virtually. But I also had a 10GB NIC in my desktop and my Proxmox box (passed through to TrueNAS so only TrueNAS could use it), and I had my PC and TrueNAS on their own subnet in addition to the standard 1GB subnet they were on. Every device in my network communicated with TrueNAS over the 1GB connection except my desktop which had the direct 10GB link. My desktop was able to talk to every other device, including out to the internet at 1G, again, except for the NAS which it could talk 10GB directly. 
 

22 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

You would add a 25 GB NIC to both your windows and Truenas box's. You then manually set them up on their own subnet via manually assigning them IP addresses (10.10.10.1 for truenas and 10.10.10.2 for windows for example, this subnet needs to be within the private subnet space, and must be different than all other subnets in your network). In truenas, you then create SMB, NFS, and/or iSCSI shares on BOTH the normal 1 GB subnet, and the new 10.10.10.1 subnet. Then when you mount sotrage on the windows machine, you would use the 10.10.10.1 shares which will "tell" windows to go out over that interface and thus use the full speed of the 25 GB interface.

I’m pretty sure this is exactly what you want…. 

[ianm_ozzy]

12 hours ago, ToboRobot said:

why waste money on 25GB NIC then?

Ubiquiti has $50 2.5GB switches and im sure there are other affordable options
microtik and others have affordable 10GB switches. https://www.servethehome.com/the-ultimate-cheap-10gbe-switch-buyers-guide-netgear-ubiquiti-qnap-mikrotik-qct/

so why spend the money and struggle with the goal of 25GB?  just wait, it gets cheaper and easier for home setups if you wait and don't use the bleeding edge (I know 25GB isn't the fastest speed, but it's not common in homes)

Are you trying to make a problem or solve one?

 

Not make a problem.

I had my games stored on a NAS for  while, using a small nvme as a cache. The primocache software is  very useful.

It is/was at 2.5Gb.

 

The economics is store all games on an nvme or use  cheaper hard drive based on the nas.

 

The upsise of the NAS storage is deduplication combined with a low spec VM to update games.

When doing so, it updates the lancache data to  with the  latest updates for my games.

 

The are some very cheap 10Gb dual nic cards available.

 

If  I bought some:

 

One of them in the bridged means 10Gb network speeds. One connected to  my PC with another cheap 10Gb card.

In the dell optplexlex micro, it has a 2.5Gb installed. It has proxmox, with my  router as a VM, so effectively the router.

 

Connecting  to the NAS will be a 2.5Gb & 10Gb.   The point of my post is do determine if that is practical.

The 256Gb nvme in  my proxmox machine  stores the lancache data.

So turning the  the instance there off, and  put the nvme  in truenas,  creating an instance there.

 

Game updates can be up to 10Gb - yay.

 

or

 

25Gb nics directly connected to/from PC/NAS with direct connection & possibly headaches. Maybe  appropriate fibre adapters & a switch to buy.

This  is to benefit  ISCSI access to games.

 

So very cheap 10Gb option with nvme  storage for games on the PC - with games  updating extremely fast. The storage is gradually getting cheaper.

 

or  25 - 40Gb  direct access,  to/from the NAS using iscis for games - maybe saving some money on storage. It is so unclear.

 

 

 

The point of the post is to determine if  a bridge in truenas scale operates well with mis-smatched speed nics.

 

It  seems it will.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also to me more switches means more cables & mess.

 

[ianm_ozzy]

If anyone cares, just bought a quad 10 gigabit RJ45 nic, to put into truenas.

As always on, will function as a switch of sorts.
I could have a direct connection to the nas on a its own lan, as well as one with a bridge with 2.5Gb network speed.

Ethernet seems much cheaper & less trouble.
I have the cables.

Down the track, mabye put a 10Gb NIC into the tiny micro with proxmox & router as a VM.

I am confident it will work ok, and needs a pcie 6 pin power, with is available.
I think I will zip tie a fan onto the side also.

I need to look into a 2 x 10Gb card for the PC & need to certain of windows 11 support.

[LIGISTX]

Just direct connect the NAS and PC… this is an extremely simple solution you are making much more complicated. 
 

Both the windows machine and TrueNAS will live on 2 subnets, the fast,  and the standard 2.5 GB subnet. Don’t use TrueNAS as a “switch”. TrueNAS is not a network appliance, don’t try and turn it into one. 

[ianm_ozzy]

16 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

Just direct connect the NAS and PC… this is an extremely simple solution you are making much more complicated. 
 

Both the windows machine and TrueNAS will live on 2 subnets, the fast,  and the standard 2.5 GB subnet. Don’t use TrueNAS as a “switch”. TrueNAS is not a network appliance, don’t try and turn it into one. 

 

I will be doing a direct connect, as well as the bridge setup I mentioned.

That is why I got the quad port nic.

 

So for games on ISCSI - 10Gb for games updates through the lancache and another 10Gb for ISCSI access.

 

 

I only need access to the NAS at 10GB.

The only downside  I can see  is I cannot play games on Windows in truenas is down & access  files on it obviously.

It is always on & rock sold.

 

Anyway what law says  anyone cannot use a NAS as a switch?

It may be  a smart idea in a data centre, but at home -  why not?

I doubt  very much  truenas scale will be hacked from the outside.

 

 

I have checked the prices on switches, on the sth link someone provided  and  with the number of  ports and functionality I want,  I can pay a  l fraction of the price using cheap nics.

What a waste on money that would be.

 

In the event the NAS is down, I  still have my 8 port 1Gb managed one, connected to my  little proxmox/router machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LIGISTX]

55 minutes ago, ianm_ozzy said:

 

I will be doing a direct connect, as well as the bridge setup I mentioned.

That is why I got the quad port nic.

But why? Why do you need to bridge anything? I don’t think you fully understand the setup I am trying to explain to you. I’d go back and re-read my suggestion. 
 

56 minutes ago, ianm_ozzy said:

Anyway what law says  anyone cannot use a NAS as a switch?

It may be  a smart idea in a data centre, but at home -  why not?

I doubt  very much  truenas scale will be hacked from the outside.

It has nothing at all to do with being hacked… this is all internal, there shouldn’t be ANY access to your NAS from the outside, turning it into a switch doesn’t change this. I think you need to get a little more learning on networking before you do whatever it is you are trying to do because bringing up being hacked from an external source as a result of this means you are not entirely sure what you are talking about. Which brings me to my point about not turning TrueNAS into a switch. TrueNAS, is 100%, a NAS appliance. It is not just a Debian based OS you can go changing things with just because you know some bash. TrueNAS expects things to be exactly how they are, and during OS updates things will go badly if the OS isn’t fairly close to exactly how it expects. You should not be trying to apt instal anything under the hood of TrueNAS. You are almost guaranteed to break things, and your NAS probably isn’t where you want to be breaking things. 
 

But, again, you don’t need to be setting up a bridge, and you don’t need a quad NIC in your NAS for your use case. Just set up a point to point connection for fast networking between desktop and TrueNAS, and then also have both TrueNAS and desktop on the slower LAN as well. No bridging. No turning TrueNAS into a switch. It’ll be exactly what you want and you won’t break anything trying to set it up. 

[ianm_ozzy]

1 hour ago, LIGISTX said:

But why? Why do you need to bridge anything? I don’t think you fully understand the setup I am trying to explain to you. I’d go back and re-read my suggestion. 
 

It has nothing at all to do with being hacked… this is all internal, there shouldn’t be ANY access to your NAS from the outside, turning it into a switch doesn’t change this. I think you need to get a little more learning on networking before you do whatever it is you are trying to do because bringing up being hacked from an external source as a result of this means you are not entirely sure what you are talking about. Which brings me to my point about not turning TrueNAS into a switch. TrueNAS, is 100%, a NAS appliance. It is not just a Debian based OS you can go changing things with just because you know some bash. TrueNAS expects things to be exactly how they are, and during OS updates things will go badly if the OS isn’t fairly close to exactly how it expects. You should not be trying to apt instal anything under the hood of TrueNAS. You are almost guaranteed to break things, and your NAS probably isn’t where you want to be breaking things. 
 

But, again, you don’t need to be setting up a bridge, and you don’t need a quad NIC in your NAS for your use case. Just set up a point to point connection for fast networking between desktop and TrueNAS, and then also have both TrueNAS and desktop on the slower LAN as well. No bridging. No turning TrueNAS into a switch. It’ll be exactly what you want and you won’t break anything trying to set it up. 

It is obvious  you do not know exactly what I want.

 

I want a windows machine  & 10Gb access to game update speeds.

 

I fully intend to do bridging.

 

For windows & gaming at least.

A direct connection to from truenas & PC.  This is for ISCSI access,

 

 1 to my PC, 1 to backup machine, 1 to  proxmox machine (with opnsense router).

 

The bridge  will have a lancache instance connected - on truenas  for up to 10 gigabit game downloads.

The connection to the internet is the 2.5Gb to proxmox/router.

 

 

 

The way I have it setup, game updates are nearly always in the cache - sometimes many many GB!

 

In linux when using the PC,  I think I will try to use bonding with appropriate vlan settings.

So concurrent syncs between machines & backups will be pretty fast.

 

A switch I am confident that can do this  rack size & very very expensive - 10+ connections needed.  A hard no.

 

 

Bridging is the WHOLE POINT OF  THE POST!

 

I am doing it & would encourage others to save  stacks of cash.

 

 

YAY BRIDGING!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lurick]

4 hours ago, ianm_ozzy said:

 

I will be doing a direct connect, as well as the bridge setup I mentioned.

That is why I got the quad port nic.

 

So for games on ISCSI - 10Gb for games updates through the lancache and another 10Gb for ISCSI access.

 

 

I only need access to the NAS at 10GB.

The only downside  I can see  is I cannot play games on Windows in truenas is down & access  files on it obviously.

It is always on & rock sold.

 

Anyway what law says  anyone cannot use a NAS as a switch?

It may be  a smart idea in a data centre, but at home -  why not?

I doubt  very much  truenas scale will be hacked from the outside.

 

 

I have checked the prices on switches, on the sth link someone provided  and  with the number of  ports and functionality I want,  I can pay a  l fraction of the price using cheap nics.

What a waste on money that would be.

 

In the event the NAS is down, I  still have my 8 port 1Gb managed one, connected to my  little proxmox/router machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Switches use ASICs to switch traffic at line rate, using NICs will use CPU and it will NEVER come anywhere close to performing like a dedicated switch ASIC would perform, full stop.

 

To be clear, even your home router with the four ports of LAN or whatever uses an ASIC for that because those LAN ports are just switch ports

[LIGISTX]

4 hours ago, ianm_ozzy said:

I am doing it & would encourage others to save  stacks of cash.

Don’t try and turn TrueNAS into a switch…. You are going to have a bad time. 
 

4 hours ago, ianm_ozzy said:

I want a windows machine  & 10Gb access to game update speeds.

What I’m suggesting gets you this. You’d run iSCSI over the faster LAN, and all other traffic destined for anything except the NAS would go over the standard LAN. You don’t need to bridge anything. Windows and TrueNAS would be on two subnets, so they can talk to everything, and everything can talk to them. But then they can also talk to each other at the faster speed. This is all very simple to do…. Don’t over complicate it. 
 

But, I have run out of ways to explain this. Good luck. But please do not try and turn TrueNAS into a switch. I’m not kidding, things will break. 

[LIGISTX]

7 hours ago, ianm_ozzy said:

It is obvious  you do not know exactly what I want.

Also, of note…. Assuming I am understanding you correctly, which I think I am, I do know what you want, and I did this myself for about a year until I bought nicer networking gear. 
 

I had a 1 GB LAN that all my devices were on. I had many vlans, but all of that ran over a 1 gig physical LAN. My desktop and TrueNAS box were both on that 1 gig lan (on separate vlans, but for simplicity let’s assume a flat network). I ALSO had a direct 10 gig fiber connection between windows and TrueNAS, and over that direct link I had SMB shares.

 

Let’s say my fast fiber network was 10.10.10.x and my 1 gig network was 192.168.1.x. Windows and TrueNAS were on both. Windows had a 10.10.10.2 IP and a 192.168.1.2 IP, and TrueNAS had 10.10.10.3 and 192.168.1.3. I could add an SMB share in windows via adding 192.168.1.3/myshare, but then the data would only go over the 1 gig network… obviously not what I want. So instead, on TrueNAS, you create an SMB share on the 10.10.10.3 interface. Then in windows, you mount your share as 10.10.10.3/myshare and boom, 10 gig connection. Easy. 
 

TrueNAS and Windows still have the 192.168.1.x subnet, so they can both still talk to the rest of the network, they can talk to WAN, they can do anything like normal. But they also have the 10.10.10.x 10 gig direct link which is what in your case, you would use for iSCSI. No extra switches, no bonding, just a direct link between the two machines for the 10.10.10.x subnet. No switch in the middle. No router in the middle. Literally just a 10 gig SFP NIC in both machines, and fiber running directly from one NIC to the other.

 

If this is not exactly what you want….. I have no idea what you want.