NAME
carp
—
Common Address Redundancy
Protocol
SYNOPSIS
pseudo-device carp
DESCRIPTION
The carp
interface is a pseudo-device
which implements and controls the CARP protocol.
carp
allows multiple hosts on the same local network
to share a set of IP addresses. Its primary purpose is to ensure that these
addresses are always available, but in some configurations
carp
can also provide load balancing
functionality.
A carp
interface can be created at runtime
using the ifconfig carp
N
create
command or by setting up a
hostname.if(5) configuration file for
netstart(8).
To use carp
, the administrator needs to
configure at minimum a common virtual host ID (VHID) and virtual host IP
address on each machine which is to take part in the virtual group.
Additional parameters can also be set on a per-interface basis:
advbase
and advskew
, which
are used to control how frequently the host sends advertisements when it is
the master for a virtual host, and pass
which is
used to authenticate carp advertisements. Finally
carpdev
is used to specify which interface the
carp
device attaches to. These configurations can be
done using
ifconfig(8), or through the SIOCSVH
ioctl.
carp
can also be used in conjunction with
ifstated(8) to respond to changes in CARP state; however, for most
uses this will not be necessary. See the manual page for
ifstated(8) for more information.
Additionally, there are a number of global parameters which can be set using sysctl(8):
- net.inet.carp.allow
- Accept incoming
carp
packets. Enabled by default. - net.inet.carp.preempt
- Allow virtual hosts to preempt each other. Disabled by default.
- net.inet.carp.log
- Make
carp
log state changes, bad packets, and other errors. May be a value between 0 and 7 corresponding with syslog(3) priorities. The default value is 2, which limits logging to changes in CARP state.
LOAD BALANCING
carp
uses IP balancing to load balance
incoming traffic over a group of carp
hosts. IP
balancing is not dependent on ARP and therefore works for traffic that comes
over a router. However it requires the traffic that is destined towards the
load balanced IP addresses to be received by all
carp
hosts. While this is always the case when
connected to a hub, it has to play some tricks in switched networks, which
will result in a higher network load.
To configure load balancing one has to specify multiple carp nodes
using the carpnodes
option. Each node in a load
balancing cluster is represented by at least one
"vhid
:advskew
"
pair in a comma separated list. carp
tries to
distribute the incoming network load over all configured carpnodes. The
following example creates a load balancing group consisting of three nodes,
using vhids 3, 4 and 6:
# ifconfig carp0 carpnodes 3:0,4:0,6:100
The advskew value of the last node is set to 100, so that this
node is designated to the BACKUP state. It will only become MASTER if all
nodes with a lower advskew value have failed. By varying this value
throughout the machines in the cluster it is possible to decide which share
of the network load each node receives. Therefore, all carp interfaces in
the cluster are configured identically, except for a different
advskew
value within the carpnodes
specification.
IP balancing works by utilizing the network itself to distribute
incoming traffic to all carp
nodes in the cluster.
Each packet is filtered on the incoming carp
interface so that only one node in the cluster accepts the packet. All the
other nodes will just silently drop it. The filtering function uses a hash
over the source and destination address of the IPv4 or IPv6 packet and
compares the result against the state of the carpnode.
IP balancing is activated by setting the
balancing
mode to ip
. This
is the recommended default setting. In this mode, carp uses a multicast MAC
address, so that a switch sends incoming traffic towards all nodes.
However, there are a few OS and routers that do not accept a
multicast MAC address being mapped to a unicast IP. This can be resolved by
using one of the following unicast options. For scenarios where a hub is
used it is not necessary to use a multicast MAC and it is safe to use the
ip-unicast mode. Manageable switches can usually be
tricked into forwarding unicast traffic to all cluster nodes ports by
configuring them into some sort of monitoring mode. If this is not possible,
using the ip-stealth mode is another option, which
should work on most switches. In this mode carp
never sends packets with its virtual MAC address as source. Stealth mode
prevents a switch from learning the virtual MAC address, so that it has to
flood the traffic to all its ports. Please note that activating stealth mode
on a carp
interface that has already been running
might not work instantly. As a workaround the VHID of the first carpnode can
be changed to a previously unused one, or just wait until the MAC table
entry in the switch times out. Some layer 3 switches do port learning based
on ARP packets. Therefore the stealth mode cannot hide the virtual MAC
address from these kind of devices.
If IP balancing is being used on a firewall, it is recommended to
configure the carpnodes
in a symmetrical manner.
This is achieved by simply using the same carpnodes
list on all sides of the firewall. This ensures that packets of one
connection will pass in and out on the same host and are not routed
asymmetrically.
EXAMPLES
For most scenarios it is desirable to have a well-defined master,
achieved by enabling the preempt
option. Enable it
on both host A and B:
# sysctl
net.inet.carp.preempt=1
Assume that host A is the preferred master and carp should run on the physical interfaces em0 with the network 192.168.1.0/24 and em1 with network 192.168.2.0/24. This is the setup for host A:
# ifconfig carp0 192.168.1.1/24 carpdev em0 vhid 1 # ifconfig carp1 192.168.2.1/24 carpdev em1 vhid 2
The setup for host B is identical, but it has a higher
advskew
:
# ifconfig carp0 192.168.1.1/24 carpdev em0 vhid 1 advskew 100 # ifconfig carp1 192.168.2.1/24 carpdev em1 vhid 2 advskew 100
LOAD BALANCING
In order to set up a load balanced virtual host, it is necessary
to configure one carpnodes
entry for each physical
host. In the following example, two physical hosts are configured to provide
balancing and failover for the IP address 192.168.1.10.
First the carp
interface on Host A is
configured. The advskew
of 100 on the second
carpnode entry means that its advertisements will be sent out slightly less
frequently and will therefore become the designated backup.
# ifconfig carp0 192.168.1.10 carpdev em0 carpnodes 1:0,2:100 \ balancing ip
The configuration for host B is identical, except the skew is on the carpnode entry with virtual host 1 rather than virtual host 2.
# ifconfig carp0 192.168.1.10 carpdev em0 carpnodes 1:100,2:0 \ balancing ip
If a different mode of load balancing is desired the
balancing
mode can be adjusted accordingly.
SEE ALSO
sysctl(3), inet(4), pfsync(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8), ifstated(8), netstart(8), sysctl(8)
HISTORY
The carp
device first appeared in
OpenBSD 3.5.
BUGS
If load balancing is used in setups where the carpdev does not
share an IP in the same subnet as carp
, it is not
possible to use the IP of the carp
interface for
self originated traffic. This is because the return packets are also subject
to load balancing and might end up on any other node in the cluster.
If an IPv6 load balanced carp interface is taken down manually, it will accept all incoming packets for its address. This will lead to duplicated packets.