While in article #001 of the 101 series we learnt how to spawn 2 router instances on the same VM, this use case is only useful for learning/pedagogic purposes. freeRouter can be considered as networking Swiss Army Knife in real networks. We will demonstrate further freeRouter capability to take control a a full VM and then be able to directly communicate with the external real world via the VM network device interface. i.e Out of the VM scope.
Requirement
Basic Linux/Unix knowledge
Basic networking knowledge
Overview
Working with freeRouter inside VM is interesting but working and interact with the outside world is way more exciting !
Article objective
In this article we'll explain how to integrate freeRouter in an existing local area network (my home network) and how to inherit from IPv4 DHCP and IPv6 SLAAC. Though this simple example is consumer/end user oriented, freeRouter can be incorporated into a Internet Service provider environment. You can easily imagine how to build a highly scalable and versatile BGP route Reflector, sophisticated route server, ROA/RPKI validator or even a BGP BMP server ... (and the list offeatures setis huge). For example, in one of my project since 2015 I'm usingfreeRouteras a BGP route reflector inside ak8scluster runningcaliconetwork plugin.
Diagram
[ #002 ] - Cookbook
In our example we will use a genuine debian stable image (buster) installed as a VirtualBox VM.
and we add a bridge network interface to or laptop RJ45 connection.
mkdir -p ~/freeRouter/bin ~/freeRouter/lib ~/freeRouter/etc ~/freeRouter/log
cd ~/freeRouter/lib
wget http://freerouter.nop.hu/rtr.jar
For those you would like to rebuild these binaries you can find the compilation shell script in freeRouter cloned git repository in: ~/freeRouter/src/native/c.sh
FreeRouter uses 2 configuration files in order to run, let's write these configuration files for R1 in ~/freeRouter/etc
freeRouter hardware file: freerouter-hw.txt
int eth1 eth 0000.1111.0001 127.0.0.1 26011 127.0.0.1 26021
tcp2vrf 2323 v1 23
freeRouter software configuration file: r1-sw.txt
freerouter#sh run
hostname freerouter
buggy
!
!
prefix-list p4
sequence 10 permit 0.0.0.0/0 ge 0 le 0
exit
!
prefix-list p6
sequence 10 permit ::/0 ge 0 le 0
exit
!
vrf definition v1
exit
!
interface ethernet1
description freerouter@enp0s9
vrf forwarding v1
ipv4 address dynamic 255.255.255.0
ipv4 gateway-prefix p4
ipv4 dhcp-client enable
ipv4 dhcp-client early
ipv6 address dynamic ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::
ipv6 gateway-prefix p6
ipv6 slaac
no shutdown
no log-link-change
exit
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
server telnet tel
security protocol telnet
no exec authorization
no login authentication
vrf v1
exit
!
!
end
freerouter#
freeRouter launch with supplied freerouter-hw.txt and freerouter-sw.txt with a console prompt
╭─[6:06:13]floui@debian[3] ~/freeRouter
╰─➤ java -jar lib/rtr.jar routersc etc/freerouter-hw.txt etc/freerouter-sw.txt 3 ↵
info cfg.cfgInit.doInit:cfgInit.java:556 booting
info cfg.cfgInit.doInit:cfgInit.java:680 initializing hardware
info cfg.cfgInit.doInit:cfgInit.java:687 applying defaults
info cfg.cfgInit.doInit:cfgInit.java:695 applying configuration
info cfg.cfgInit.doInit:cfgInit.java:721 done
welcome
line ready
freerouter#
Launch pcapInt in order to bind socket localhost:26011 to localhost26021@enp0s9
╭─[6:06:13]floui@debian[1] ~/freeRouter/bin
╰─➤ sudo ./pcapInt.bin enp0s9 26021 127.0.0.1 26011 127.0.0.1 1 ↵
binded to local port 127.0.0.1 26021.
will send to 127.0.0.1 26011.
pcap version: libpcap version 1.8.1
opening interface enp0s9 with pcap1.x api
serving others
>
Verification
FreeRouter telnet access from Virtualbox VM guest via port 2323
╭─[7:07:41]floui@debian[1] ~/freeRouter/etc
╰─➤ telnet localhost 2323 1 ↵
Trying ::1...
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
welcome
line ready
freerouter#
freerouter running configuration
freerouter#sh run
hostname freerouter
buggy
!
!
prefix-list p4
sequence 10 permit 0.0.0.0/0 ge 0 le 0
exit
!
prefix-list p6
sequence 10 permit ::/0 ge 0 le 0
exit
!
vrf definition v1
exit
!
interface ethernet1
description freerouter@enp0s9
vrf forwarding v1
ipv4 address dynamic 255.255.255.0
ipv4 gateway-prefix p4
ipv4 dhcp-client enable
ipv4 dhcp-client early
ipv6 address dynamic ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::
ipv6 gateway-prefix p6
ipv6 slaac
no shutdown
no log-link-change
exit
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
server telnet tel
security protocol telnet
no exec authorization
no login authentication
vrf v1
exit
!
!
end
freerouter#
IPv6 neighbor discovery check ( 192.168.1.1 is the gateway, 192.168.1.143 is the VM host)
freerouter#show ipv6 neighbors eth1
mac address time static router
34ce.0067.18c2 fd7d:a59c:650b::1 00:01:44 false false
9ceb.e8d5.2c51 fd7d:a59c:650b::8926:98c9:bbde:8ed7 00:01:44 false false
freerouter#
Initiate IPv4 ssh from freerouter -> LAN router gateway
freerouter#ssh 192.168.1.1 /vrf v1 /user root
- connecting to 192.168.1.1 22
password: ***************
- securing connection
BusyBox v1.28.4 () built-in shell (ash)
_______ ________ __
| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -__| || | | || _|| _|
|_______|| __|_____|__|__||________||__| |____|
|__| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M
-----------------------------------------------------
OpenWrt 18.06.2, r7676-cddd7b4c77
-----------------------------------------------------
root@OpenWrt:~#
Initiate IPv6 ssh from freerouter -> LAN router gateway
freerouter#ssh fd7d:a59c:650b::1 /vrf v1 /user root
- connecting to fd7d:a59c:650b::1 22
password: ***************
- securing connection
BusyBox v1.28.4 () built-in shell (ash)
_______ ________ __
| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -__| || | | || _|| _|
|_______|| __|_____|__|__||________||__| |____|
|__| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M
-----------------------------------------------------
OpenWrt 18.06.2, r7676-cddd7b4c77
-----------------------------------------------------
root@OpenWrt:~
Conclusion
In this article you:
had a demonstration of how to integrate freeRouter to a local area network
learn how to configure an interface in order to act as an IPv4 DCHP client
learn how to configure an interface using IPv6 SLAAC
[ #002 ] RARE/FreeRouter-101 - key take-away
FreeRouter is using UNIX socket in order to forward packet.
You can use pcapInt binary from freeRouter net-tools that will bind freeRouter socket (locathost:26011) to a physical network interface (localhost:26021@enp0s9)
It support a huge list of feature with IPv4/IPv6 parity. In this example we demonstrated how an interface can inherit IPv4/IPv6 addresses from IPv4 DHCP server or IPv6 SLAAC
freeRouter can interact with the real network (in various flavors. We will develop this in further articles)
It can be used as a BGP route reflector in Internet Service Provider environment, as ROA/RPKI validator, BMP server, BGP looking glass, route server etc.
