NAME

freevrrpd —

Virtual Redundancy Router Protocol Daemon

SYNOPSIS

freevrrpd [-F] [-f config_file] [-c chroot_directory]

DESCRIPTION

freevrrpd is a RFC2338/5798 compliant daemon. VRRP can be used with multiple interfaces as well as multiple VRIDs. For each VRID defined in the configuration file, freevrrpd creates a thread for managing a poll of one or multiple virtual IP addresses. The daemon currently only supports IPv4 but IPv6 is being developed.

When freevrrpd start, it reads /usr/local/etc/freevrrpd.conf file and then daemonizes itself. All of the options are defined in the config file.

freevrrpd is compatible with FreeBSD.

Functionality includes :

Support of multiple VRIDs
State announcements are multicast using the bpf(4) device.
Changing routes and IP in 3 seconds
Sending gratuitous ARP requests to clean the ARP cache of all hosts listening hosts.
Election between different backup and master servers with differing priorities
THe same host can be both a SLAVE and MASTER at the same time for different VRIDs.
Automatic downgrade to BACKUP state if the MASTER returns to service.
Support of netmasks for virtual IP addresses.

CONFIGURATION

freevrrpd reads its configuration data from /usr/local/etc/freevrrpd.conf, or the file specified with -f on the command line. The config file contains keyword-argument pairs, one per line. Each VRID definition is define by the [VRID] keyword. Lines statring with '#' and empty lines are interpreted as comments.

The possible keywords and their meanings are as follows (note that keywords and arguments are cas-sensitive):

serverid: This keyword is followed by a decimal number between 1 and 255 and represent the group identifier (Virtual Router Identifier).
interface: This keyword is followed by an interface name where multicast VRRP annonce on the specified serverid group will be sent.
useVMAC: Specifies wheter Virtual MAC adress (like 00:5E:00:...) is permitted. The default is “yes”. Note that disabling useVMAC is a RFC infragment but must be necessary for some specific cases. If disabled, “sendgratuitousarp” must be enabled.
priority: This keyword can be followed by a decimal number between 0 to 255. a priority of 255 mean a MASTER server. a priority between 0 to 254 is a BACKUP priority. Note that 0 is the minimal BACKUP priority and 254 is the higher. If the VRID MASTER fail, tha higher BACKUP priority will become MASTER.
addr: Specifies all Virtual IP adresses separated by commas of the corresponded VRID. a VIP syntax will be: “xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/yy” or “device:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/yy.” “xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx” represent the IP adress and “yy” is a netmask in CIDR format. device is an optional device where VIP will be setted.
monitoredcirctuis: Specifies whether NIC monitoring is enabled. This option use a special ioctl for getting carrier, duplex and health of the network card. The default is “yes”. Note that your NIC driver must support mii bus functionnality. Some old drivers cannot use this option and must be disabled.
MCClearErrorsCount: This keyword can be followed by a decimal number that represent the number of concurrent valid checks (monitored circuits) before nberrors flag will be resetted at 0. The default is “3600”. Note that the default value mean that 30 concurrent checks ok on a NIC by monitored circuits will reset the error counter for this NIC. If a value of
masterscript: This keyword can be followed by a script name with an absolute path and will be executed during MASTER transition state.
backupscript: This keyword take same argument as “masterscript” except that this script is executed during BACKUP transition state.
vridsdep: This keyword can be followed by a list of VRID in decimal format separated by commas and depends from this one. If this VRID become BACKUP, all VRIDs specified will become BACKUP too.
password: This keyword can be followed by a password for authenticate VRRP packets on a specific VRID. Note that the password will be transmitted in clear with this method.
AHencryption: Not implemented yet
useIKE: Not implemented yet
presharedkey: Not implemented yet

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

This utility doesn't quit properly if you use the -KILL signal. If you want to stop freevrrpd, you can use kill [PID] and not kill -9 [PID], then it can delete virtual IP addresses and routes properly on shutdown.

BUGS

freevrrpd is in active developpement, please send me bugs report and suggestions.

AUTHORS

Sebastien Petit ⟨spe@bsdfr.org⟩

HISTORY

first appeared in FreeBSD-4.3