31.10. Common Address Redundancy Protocol (CARP)

31.10. Common Address Redundancy Protocol (CARP)
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Contributed by Tom Rhodes.

Updated by Allan Jude.

The Common Address Redundancy Protocol (CARP) allows multiple hosts to share the same IP address and Virtual Host ID (VHID) in order to provide high availability for one or more services. This means that one or more hosts can fail, and the other hosts will transparently take over so that users do not see a service failure.

In addition to the shared IP address, each host has its own IP address for management and configuration. All of the machines that share an IP address have the same VHID. The VHID for each virtual IP address must be unique across the broadcast domain of the network interface.

High availability using CARP is built into FreeBSD, though the steps to configure it vary slightly depending upon the FreeBSD version. This section provides the same example configuration for versions before and equal to or after FreeBSD 10.

This example configures failover support with three hosts, all with unique IP addresses, but providing the same web content. It has two different masters named hosta.example.org and hostb.example.org, with a shared backup named hostc.example.org.

These machines are load balanced with a Round Robin DNS configuration. The master and backup machines are configured identically except for their hostnames and management IP addresses. These servers must have the same configuration and run the same services. When the failover occurs, requests to the service on the shared IP address can only be answered correctly if the backup server has access to the same content. The backup machine has two additional CARP interfaces, one for each of the master content server's IP addresses. When a failure occurs, the backup server will pick up the failed master machine's IP address.

31.10.1. Using CARP on FreeBSD 10 and Later

Enable boot-time support for CARP by adding an entry for the carp.ko kernel module in /boot/loader.conf:

carp_load="YES"

To load the module now without rebooting:

# kldload carp

For users who prefer to use a custom kernel, include the following line in the custom kernel configuration file and compile the kernel as described in Chapter 8, Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel:

device	carp

The hostname, management IP address and subnet mask, shared IP address, and VHID are all set by adding entries to /etc/rc.conf. This example is for hosta.example.org:

hostname="hosta.example.org"
ifconfig_em0="inet 192.168.1.3 netmask 255.255.255.0"
ifconfig_em0_alias0="inet vhid 1 pass testpass alias 192.168.1.50/32"

The next set of entries are for hostb.example.org. Since it represents a second master, it uses a different shared IP address and VHID. However, the passwords specified with pass must be identical as CARP will only listen to and accept advertisements from machines with the correct password.

hostname="hostb.example.org"
ifconfig_em0="inet 192.168.1.4 netmask 255.255.255.0"
ifconfig_em0_alias0="inet vhid 2 pass testpass alias 192.168.1.51/32"

The third machine, hostc.example.org, is configured to handle failover from either master. This machine is configured with two CARP VHIDs, one to handle the virtual IP address for each of the master hosts. The CARP advertising skew, advskew, is set to ensure that the backup host advertises later than the master, since advskew controls the order of precedence when there are multiple backup servers.

hostname="hostc.example.org"
ifconfig_em0="inet 192.168.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.0"
ifconfig_em0_alias0="inet vhid 1 advskew 100 pass testpass alias 192.168.1.50/32"
ifconfig_em0_alias1="inet vhid 2 advskew 100 pass testpass alias 192.168.1.51/32"

Having two CARP VHIDs configured means that hostc.example.org will notice if either of the master servers becomes unavailable. If a master fails to advertise before the backup server, the backup server will pick up the shared IP address until the master becomes available again.

Note:

If the original master server becomes available again, hostc.example.org will not release the virtual IP address back to it automatically. For this to happen, preemption has to be enabled. The feature is disabled by default, it is controlled via the sysctl(8) variable net.inet.carp.preempt. The administrator can force the backup server to return the IP address to the master:

# ifconfig em0 vhid 1 state backup

Once the configuration is complete, either restart networking or reboot each system. High availability is now enabled.

CARP functionality can be controlled via several sysctl(8) variables documented in the carp(4) manual pages. Other actions can be triggered from CARP events by using devd(8).

31.10.2. Using CARP on FreeBSD 9 and Earlier

The configuration for these versions of FreeBSD is similar to the one described in the previous section, except that a CARP device must first be created and referred to in the configuration.

Enable boot-time support for CARP by loading the if_carp.ko kernel module in /boot/loader.conf:

if_carp_load="YES"

To load the module now without rebooting:

# kldload carp

For users who prefer to use a custom kernel, include the following line in the custom kernel configuration file and compile the kernel as described in Chapter 8, Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel:

device	carp

Next, on each host, create a CARP device:

# ifconfig carp0 create

Set the hostname, management IP address, the shared IP address, and VHID by adding the required lines to /etc/rc.conf. Since a virtual CARP device is used instead of an alias, the actual subnet mask of /24 is used instead of /32. Here are the entries for hosta.example.org:

hostname="hosta.example.org"
ifconfig_fxp0="inet 192.168.1.3 netmask 255.255.255.0"
cloned_interfaces="carp0"
ifconfig_carp0="vhid 1 pass testpass 192.168.1.50/24"

On hostb.example.org:

hostname="hostb.example.org"
ifconfig_fxp0="inet 192.168.1.4 netmask 255.255.255.0"
cloned_interfaces="carp0"
ifconfig_carp0="vhid 2 pass testpass 192.168.1.51/24"

The third machine, hostc.example.org, is configured to handle failover from either of the master hosts:

hostname="hostc.example.org"
ifconfig_fxp0="inet 192.168.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.0"
cloned_interfaces="carp0 carp1"
ifconfig_carp0="vhid 1 advskew 100 pass testpass 192.168.1.50/24"
ifconfig_carp1="vhid 2 advskew 100 pass testpass 192.168.1.51/24"

Note:

Preemption is disabled in the GENERIC FreeBSD kernel. If preemption has been enabled with a custom kernel, hostc.example.org may not release the IP address back to the original content server. The administrator can force the backup server to return the IP address to the master with the command:

# ifconfig carp0 down && ifconfig carp0 up

This should be done on the carp interface which corresponds to the correct host.

Once the configuration is complete, either restart networking or reboot each system. High availability is now enabled.

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