NewsForge: Quick article about CARP -Common Address Redundancy Protocol

[n0cmonkey]

Article here.

The basic definition (taken from the OpenBSD 3.5 page):

CARP (the Common Address Redundancy Protocol) carp(4) allows multiple machines to share responsibility for a given IP address or addresses. If the owner of the address fails, another member of the group will take over for it. A discussion of the history of CARP can be found here.

The lyrics and song are pretty good.

And another goodie for firewallers:

Additions to the pfsync(4) interface allow it to synchronise state table entries between two or more firewalls which are operating in parallel, allowing stateful connections to cross any of the firewalls regardless of where the state was initially created.

Redundancy, not just for the big boys.

 

[n0cmonkey]

No comments on the world's first Free redundancy protocol?

 

[wlee]

Well, at least the song is pretty cool.
I'm a bit curious. If OpenBSD PF and CARP is *REAL* firewall and fail-over, then why do so many commercial firewall appliances use LINUX IP Tables ? ( e.g., WatchGuard ) I've never seen any SOHO or bigger boxes using pre-canned BSD. BTW, it also doesn't look like BSD is very "Spoon-fed, Fat, Dumb, and Happy" when it comes to install and config. All shell based ?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: wlee
Well, at least the song is pretty cool.

All of the songs have been great, and cheesy

I'm a bit curious. If OpenBSD PF and CARP is *REAL* firewall and fail-over, then why do so many commercial firewall appliances use LINUX IP Tables ? ( e.g., WatchGuard )

Linux has recieved "The Hype [TM] (R) (C) (ETC)". BSD is considered "behind" Linux in many ways. Unfortunately, companies don't bother to look at the free-er license.

I've never seen any SOHO or bigger boxes using pre-canned BSD.

How do you know?

NetBSD makes it into plenty of embedded devices, FreeBSD runs Yahoo!, and OpenBSD is all over the place. Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, and probably others use BSD source all the time, just most people don't know. Microsoft's Unix services for Windows are supposedly based on OpenBSD source.

Oh, and Nokia checkpoint firewall-1 appliances use a modified FreeBSD

BTW, it also doesn't look like BSD is very "Spoon-fed, Fat, Dumb, and Happy" when it comes to install and config. All shell based ?

The OpenBSD install is a script. It's simple really. I typically get a total install finished in 30 minutes, which includes the download time of all of the installation sets. NetBSD's install is just as quick (almost, I'm not as used to it), and IIRC FreeBSD installs quickly too.

Configuration and administration is very shelll/source oriented. But you can use KDE/Gnome with it. I don't like gui configuration programs for the most part though, so I don't know what all is really available. I try to use trim and slim GUI environments.

Even though OpenBSD hasn't made much noise in the corporate world (on the outside), I think it will start to get bigger. With CARP, BGP, and plenty of other protocols in the works or already supported it's definitely a contender. Ask the DoD, or atleast one major German web hosting provider.

 

[Mucman]

I have two spare machines at home that I plan on using for trying out CARP

 

[n0cmonkey]

My ideal CARP setup at the moment is a pair of VIA c3s with the built in AES instructions.

I'll definitely be playing with this soon, unfortunately I don't have the resources at the moment.

VRRP ain't free!

Yes, that gets stuck in my head and I end up singing it to myself all the time, especially late at night at work.