VPP/Pure L3 Container Networking

This example shows how to configure VPP as an IPv4 router interconnecting containers across two hosts.

VPP itself runs in the root namespace, with a separate namespace for each container.

File:Vpp-container.pdf

The basic setup is to use static ARPs and to unnumber the host interfaces from a loopback. From that perspective this is a hybrid of Methods 1 and 2 from Pure_L3_Between_Namespaces_with_/32s

Network Setup

The two hosts are interconnected by a router. The router has /24 routes for the client subnets - pointed at the appropriate vSwitch interfaces.

File:Vpp-container.pdf

Host Setup

On each host do:

sudo docker create -e MICROSERVICE_LABEL=vpp -it --privileged -v "/tmp/vpp_socket:/tmp" -p 5001:5002 -p 9191:9191 --name vpp --network=host contivvpp/vswitch

create file vpp.conf as follows:

unix {
    nodaemon
    cli-listen 0.0.0.0:5002
    cli-no-pager
}
dpdk {
    dev 0000:09:00.0 # replace this with an Ethernet interface on your host
    uio-driver igb_uio
}

then:

sudo docker cp vpp.conf vpp:/etc/vpp/vpp.conf
sudo docker create -it --name client ubuntu 

(for the server host change the name to "server")

Client-Side Setup

from the Linux command line:

sudo docker start vpp client
export pid="$(sudo docker inspect -f 'Template:.State.Pid' "client")"
sudo ln -sf /proc/$pid/ns/net /var/run/netns/client
sudo ip link add name veth_client type veth peer name client
sudo ip link set dev client up
sudo ip link set dev veth_client up netns client
export mac="$(sudo docker exec client ifconfig veth_client | awk 'NR==1{print $5}')"
echo $mac
export vmac="$(printf '
set int ip address GigabitEthernet1/0/0 192.168.101.1/24\n
set int state GigabitEthernet1/0/0 up\n 
create loopback interface\n
set int ip address loop0 192.168.200.1/24\n
set int state loop0 up\n
create host-interface name client\n
set int unnumbered host-client use loop0\n
set ip arp host-client 192.168.200.2 MAC\n
set int state host-client up\n
ip route add 192.168.200.2/32 via 192.168.200.2 host-client\n
ip route add 192.168.0.0/16 via 192.168.101.254 GigabitEthernet1/0/0\n
show hardware-interfaces host-client\n
quit' | sed s/MAC/$mac/ | nc 0 5002 | awk 'NR==29{print $3}')"
echo $vmac
sudo ip netns exec client ip link set dev lo up
sudo ip netns exec client ip addr add 192.168.200.2/32 dev veth_client
sudo ip netns exec client ip neigh add 192.168.200.1 lladdr $vmac dev veth_client
sudo ip netns exec client ip route add 192.168.200.1 dev veth_client scope link
sudo ip netns exec client ip route add 192.168.0.0/16 via 192.168.200.1 dev veth_client
sudo ip netns exec client ip route add 1.2.3.4/32 via 192.168.200.1 dev veth_client
sudo docker exec client ping -c 1 192.168.200.1

the ping should succeed

Server-Side Setup

Again from the Linux command line:

sudo docker start vpp server
export pid="$(sudo docker inspect -f 'Template:.State.Pid' "server")"
sudo ln -sf /proc/$pid/ns/net /var/run/netns/server
sudo ip link add name veth_server type veth peer name server
sudo ip link set dev server up
sudo ip link set dev veth_server up netns server
export mac="$(sudo docker exec server ifconfig veth_server | awk 'NR==1{print $5}')"
echo $mac
export vmac="$(printf '
set int ip address GigabitEthernet1/0/0 192.168.103.1/24\n
set int state GigabitEthernet1/0/0 up\n
create loopback interface\n
set int ip address loop0 192.168.204.1/24\n
set int state loop0 up\n
create host-interface name server\n
set int unnumbered host-server use loop0\n
set ip arp host-server 192.168.204.2 MAC\n
set int state host-server up\n
ip route add 192.168.204.2/32 via 192.168.204.2 host-server\n
ip route add 192.168.0.0/16 via 192.168.103.254 GigabitEthernet1/0/0\n
show hardware-interfaces host-server\n
quit' | sed s/MAC/$mac/ | nc 0 5002 | awk 'NR==29{print $3}')"
echo $vmac
sudo ip netns exec server ip link set dev lo up
sudo ip netns exec server ip addr add 192.168.204.2/32 dev veth_server
sudo ip netns exec server ip neigh add 192.168.204.1 lladdr $vmac dev veth_server
sudo ip netns exec server ip route add 192.168.204.1 dev veth_server scope link
sudo ip netns exec server ip route add 192.168.0.0/16 via 192.168.204.1 dev veth_server
sudo docker exec server ping -c 1 192.168.204.1

again the ping should succeed