ALOHA load balancer
ALOHA fail over through BGP RHI

Synopsis

Usually, this type of architecture suits well when you have two datacenters or more, over a MAN or WAN. But it can be used in a single DC as well, over the LAN.

Principle is quite simple: building a BGP Autonomous System (aka AS) where the ALOHAs can inject routes into your core routing network. The core routers will be configured to choose an ALOHA if it is available or failover to the second one: this is an Active/Passive infrastructure.

Diagram

The diagram below shows how things are working:

• The core routers will be configured to send traffic to ALOHA1 and failover to ALOHA2.
• The BGP AS number is 65000, the routes injected by the ALOHAs are the subnet dedicated to Virtual IPs: 172.16.2.0/24.
• The Core routers and the ALOHAs can communicate through the subnet 192.168.10.0/24.

ALOHA BGP configuration

In the ALOHA, the dynamic routing service name is bird.

bird startup

On the ALOHA WUI, click on Services tab then scroll down and click on the link advanced mode.

Click on OK when prompted. Advanced services are printed in red.

Click on the edit icon on the bird service line: .

Then comment or delete the line no autostart.

Now you can start bird by clicking the start icon: .

Repeat for both ALOHAs.

ALOHA bird configuration for route health injection

Based on the diagram above, below are the BGP configuration for both ALOHAs. This configuration remains the same, whatever BGP router you are running on the core network. In order to edit bird configuration, just click on the edit icon: in the Services tab.

ALOHA1 configuration:

log syslog all;
router id 192.168.10.1;

protocol device {
 scan time 10;
}

protocol static VIPs {
 route 172.16.2.11/32 via 192.168.10.1;
 route 172.16.2.12/32 via 192.168.10.1;
 route 172.16.2.13/32 via 192.168.10.1;
}

protocol bgp {
 import none;
 export filter {
  if proto = "VIPs" then accept;
  reject;
 };
 local as 65000;
 source address 192.168.10.1;
 neighbor 192.168.10.21 as 65000;
}

ALOHA2 configuration:

log syslog all;
router id 192.168.10.3;

protocol device {
 scan time 10;
}

protocol static VIPs {
 route 172.16.2.11/32 via 192.168.10.3;
 route 172.16.2.12/32 via 192.168.10.3;
 route 172.16.2.13/32 via 192.168.10.3;
}

protocol bgp {
 import none;
 export filter {
 if proto = "VIPs" then accept;
  reject;
 };
 local as 65000;
 source address 192.168.10.3;
 neighbor 192.168.10.21 as 65000;
}

Once you have updated bird configuration, you have to reload them by clicking the reload icon:

BGP routers configuration examples

This chapter introduces BGP configuration on different type of equipements.

bird router

bird is an opensource software and can be used on a BGP core network. Below is the bird configuration to accept BGP announces from ALOHAs:

# Configure logging
log syslog { info, remote, warning, error, auth, fatal, bug };

router id 192.168.10.21;

filter aloha_vip {
 if net ~ 172.16.2.0/24 then accept;
 else reject;
}

protocol kernel {
 scan time 10;
 import none;
 export all;
}

protocol device {
 scan time 10;
}

protocol bgp aloha1 {
 local as 65000;
 export none;
 import filter aloha_vip;
 source address 192.168.10.21;
 neighbor 192.168.10.1 as 65000;
 default bgp_local_pref 300;
}

protocol bgp aloha2 {
 local as 65000;
 export none;
 import filter aloha_vip;
 source address 192.168.10.21;
 neighbor 192.168.10.3 as 65000;
 default bgp_local_pref 200;
}

The weight (bgp_local_pref) is higher for ALOHA1, so it will be chosen first if it is available.

The bird route information table should look like this:

# birdc show route
BIRD 1.2.5 ready.
172.16.2.11/32 via 192.168.10.1 on eth0 [aloha1 16:35] * (100) [i]
via 192.168.10.3 on eth0 [aloha2 16:35] (100) [i]
172.16.2.13/32 via 192.168.10.1 on eth0 [aloha1 16:35] * (100) [i]
via 192.168.10.3 on eth0 [aloha2 16:35] (100) [i]
172.16.2.12/32 via 192.168.10.1 on eth0 [aloha1 16:35] * (100) [i]
via 192.168.10.3 on eth0 [aloha2 16:35] (100) [i]

Prefered route is the one with the star * and bird will use it first.

Let’s confirm this by checking the router’s routing table:

# ip route
172.16.2.13 via 192.168.10.1 dev eth0 proto bird
172.16.2.12 via 192.168.10.1 dev eth0 proto bird
172.16.2.11 via 192.168.10.1 dev eth0 proto bird

From a kernel point of view, only a single route is known.

• If ALOHA1 fails, then core router’s bird will update the router’s routing table with ALOHA2’s IP for all of Virtual IPs.
• If ALOHA1 stops annoucing one route, then core router’s bird will update the router’s routing table with ALOHA2’s IP as a destination for this particular Virtual IP.

Brocade

Brocade is one of the leader in the networking industry.

The configuration below shows how to configure Brocade BGP router to accept the ALOHA Route Health Injection:

ip prefix-list aloha_vip deny 0.0.0.0/0
ip prefix-list aloha_vip permit 172.16.2.0/24 le 32

router bgp
local-as 65000
neighbor aloha peer-group
neighbor aloha remote-as 65000
neighbor 192.168.10.1 peer-group aloha
neighbor 192.168.10.1 description aloha1
neighbor 192.168.10.3 peer-group aloha
neighbor 192.168.10.3 description aloha3
!
address - family ipv4
neighbor 192.168.10.1 activate
neighbor 192.168.10.1 route-map in local_pref_300
neighbor 192.168.10.1 prefix-list aloha_vip in
neighbor 192.168.10.3 activate
neighbor 192.168.10.3 route-map in local_pref_100
neighbor 192.168.10.3 prefix-list aloha_vip in
exit-address-family
exit

route-map local_pref_300 permit 10
set local-preference 300

route-map local_pref_100 permit 10
set local-preference 100

(sorry, no routing table output available)

Cisco

Cisco is one of the leader in the networking industry.

The configuration below shows how to configure Cisco BGP router to accept the ALOHA Route Health Injection:

!
configure terminal
!
ip prefix-list aloha_vip deny 0.0.0.0/0
ip prefix-list aloha_vip permit 172.16.2.0/24 le 32
!
router bgp 65000
bgp router-id 192.168.10.21
bgp log-neighbor-changes
neighbor aloha peer-group
neighbor aloha remote-as 65000
neighbor 192.168.10.1 peer-group aloha
neighbor 192.168.10.1 description aloha1
neighbor 192.168.10.3 peer-group aloha
neighbor 192.168.10.3 description aloha3
!
address-family ipv4
neighbor 192.168.10.1 activate
neighbor 192.168.10.1 localpref 300
neighbor 192.168.10.1 prefix-list aloha_vip in
neighbor 192.168.10.3 activate
neighbor 192.168.10.3 localpref 200
neighbor 192.168.10.3 prefix-list aloha_vip in
no auto-summary
no synchronization
exit-address-family
!
exit
exit
!

Now, let’s have a look at the router’s routing table:

Router#sh ip bgp
BGP table version is 4, local router ID is 192.168.10.21
Status codes: s suppressed, d damped, h history, * valid, > best, i - internal,
r RIB-failure, S Stale
Origin codes: i - IGP, e - EGP, ? - incomplete
Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path
* i172.16.2.11/32 192.168.10.3 100 200 i
*>i 192.168.10.1 100 300 i
* i172.16.2.12/32 192.168.10.3 100 200 i
*>i 192.168.10.1 100 300 i
* i172.16.2.13/32 192.168.10.3 100 200 i
*>i 192.168.10.1 100 300 i

Cisco routing table is quite verbose: we can see the route weight and the currently selected route. We can clearly see as well that the routes were learnt through iBGP.

• If ALOHA1 fails, then Cisco router will update its routing table with ALOHA2’s IP for all Virtual IPs.
• If ALOHA1 stops annoucing one route, then Cisco router will update its routing with ALOHA2’s IP for this particular Virtual IP.

Extreme Networks

The configuration below shows how to configure Extreme Networks BGP router to accept the ALOHA Route Health Injection:

# bgp configuration
configure bgp AS-number 65000
configure bgp routerid 192.168.10.21
configure bgp local-preference 300

create bgp peer-group aloha
configure bgp peer-group aloha remote-AS-number 65000
configure bgp peer-group aloha route-policy in aloha_vip
enable bgp peer-group aloha

create bgp neighbor 192.168.10.1 peer-group "aloha"
configure bgp neighbor 192.168.10.1 description "aloha1"
configure bgp neighbor 192.168.10.1 peer-group aloha acquire-all
enable bgp neighbor 192.168.10.1

create bgp neighbor 192.168.10.3 peer-group "aloha"
configure bgp neighbor 192.168.10.3 description "aloha2"
configure bgp neighbor 192.168.10.3 peer-group aloha acquire-all
enable bgp neighbor 192.168.10.3

enable bgp

# policy configuration
edit policy aloha1_vip
 entry filter1 {
  if match all {
   nlri 0.0.0.0/0 exact;
  } then {
   deny;
  }
 }
 entry filter2 {
  if match all {
   nlri 172.16.2.0/24;
  } then {
  permit;
  local-preference 300;
  }
 }

edit policy aloha2_vip
 entry filter1 {
  if match all {
   nlri 0.0.0.0/0 exact;
  } then {
   deny;
  }
 }
 entry filter2 {
  if match all {
   nlri 172.16.2.0/24;
  } then {
   permit;
   local-preference 200;
  }
 }

(sorry, no routing table output available)

OpenBGPd

OpenBGPd is the BGP daemon provided with OpenBSD operating system.

The configuration below shows how to configure OpenBGPd to accept the ALOHA RHI:

AS 65000
router-id 192.168.10.21

log updates

group aloha {
 remote-as 65000
 neighbor 192.168.10.1 {
  descr "aloha1"
  set localpref 300
  announce none
 }
 neighbor 192.168.10.3 {
  descr "aloha2"
  set localpref 200
  announce none
 }
}

deny from any
allow from group aloha inet prefixlen 24 - 32

Now, let’s have a look at the router routing table:

# bgpctl show rib
flags: * = Valid, > = Selected, I = via IBGP, A = Announced
origin: i = IGP, e = EGP, ? = Incomplete
flags destination gateway lpref med aspath origin
I*> 172.16.2.11/32 192.168.10.1 300 0 i
I* 172.16.2.11/32 192.168.10.3 200 0 i
I*> 172.16.2.12/32 192.168.10.1 300 0 i
I* 172.16.2.12/32 192.168.10.3 200 0 i
I*> 172.16.2.13/32 192.168.10.1 300 0 i
I* 172.16.2.13/32 192.168.10.3 200 0 i

OpenBGPd routing information base is quite verbose: we can see the route weight (lpref) and the currently selected route. We can clearly see as well that the route were learnt through iBGP.

• If ALOHA1 fails, then OpenBGPd will update router’s routing table with ALOHA2’s IP for all of Virtual IPs.
• If ALOHA1 stops annoucing one route, then OpenBGPd will update router’s routing with ALOHA2’s IP for this particular Virtual IP.