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 of features set is huge). For example, in one of my project since 2015 I'm using freeRouter as a BGP route reflector inside a k8s cluster running calico network plugin.

Diagram

Image RemovedImage Added

[ #002 ] - Cookbook

Expand

title	Install your favorite operating system

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.

...

Expand

title	Install freeRouter net-tools

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	get freeRouter net-tools tarball

wget dlfreerouter.nop.hu/rtr.tar

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	Install build tools

tar xvf rtr.tar -C ~/freeRouter/bin/

Note
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

...

Expand

title	Launch router: freerouter

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	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#

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	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

Expand

title	Check telnet access for freerouter@2323

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	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#

...

Expand

title	Connectivity IPv4/IPv6 check for freeRouter

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	Ping IPv4 from freerouter -> LAN router gateway

freerouter#ping 192.168.1.1 /vrf v1                                            
pinging 192.168.1.1, src=null, cnt=5, len=64, tim=1000, ttl=255, tos=0, sweep=false
!!!!!
result=100%, recv/sent/lost=5/5/0, rtt min/avg/max/total=1/1/1/5
freerouter#

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	IPv4 arp check ( 192.168.1.1 is the gateway, 192.168.1.143 is the VM host)

freerouter#sh ipv4 arp eth1                                                    
mac             address        time      static
34ce.0067.18c2  192.168.1.1    00:00:43  false
9ceb.e8d5.2c51  192.168.1.143  00:00:43  false

freerouter#

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	Ping IPv6 from freerouter -> LAN router gateway

freerouter#ping fd7d:a59c:650b::1 /vrf v1                                      
pinging fd7d:a59c:650b::1, src=null, cnt=5, len=64, tim=1000, ttl=255, tos=0, sweep=false
!!!!!
result=100%, recv/sent/lost=5/5/0, rtt min/avg/max/total=0/0/2/4
freerouter#

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	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#

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	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:~#

Code Block

language	bash
theme	Midnight
title	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

...

Blog

Versions Compared

Old Version 19

New Version Current

Key

Requirement

Overview

Article objective

Diagram

[ #002 ] - Cookbook

Verification

Conclusion

Blog

Page History

Versions Compared

Old Version 19

New Version Current

Key

Requirement

Overview

Article objective

Diagram

[ #002 ] - Cookbook

Verification

Conclusion