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.Dd $Mdocdate: March 31 2022 $
.Dt CARP 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm carp
.Nd Common Address Redundancy Protocol
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd "pseudo-device carp"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
interface is a pseudo-device which implements and controls the
CARP protocol.
.Nm
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
.Nm
can also provide load balancing functionality.
.Pp
A
.Nm
interface can be created at runtime using the
.Ic ifconfig carp Ns Ar N Ic create
command or by setting up a
.Xr hostname.if 5
configuration file for
.Xr netstart 8 .
.Pp
To use
.Nm ,
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:
.Cm advbase
and
.Cm advskew ,
which are used to control how frequently the host sends advertisements when it
is the master for a virtual host, and
.Cm pass
which is used to authenticate carp advertisements.
Finally
.Cm carpdev
is used to specify which interface the
.Nm
device attaches to.
These configurations can be done using
.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
or through the
.Dv SIOCSVH
ioctl.
.Pp
.Nm
can also be used in conjunction with
.Xr ifstated 8
to respond to changes in CARP state;
however, for most uses this will not be necessary.
See the manual page for
.Xr ifstated 8
for more information.
.Pp
Additionally, there are a number of global parameters which can be set using
.Xr sysctl 8 :
.Bl -tag -width xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.It net.inet.carp.allow
Accept incoming
.Nm
packets.
Enabled by default.
.It net.inet.carp.preempt
Allow virtual hosts to preempt each other.
Disabled by default.
.It net.inet.carp.log
Make
.Nm
log state changes, bad packets, and other errors.
May be a value between 0 and 7 corresponding with
.Xr syslog 3
priorities.
The default value is 2, which limits logging to changes in CARP state.
.El
.Sh LOAD BALANCING
.Nm
uses IP balancing to load balance incoming traffic
over a group of
.Nm
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
.Nm
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.
.Pp
To configure load balancing one has to specify multiple
carp nodes using the
.Cm carpnodes
option.
Each node in a load balancing cluster is represented
by at least one
.Qq Cm vhid : Ns Cm advskew
pair in a comma separated list.
.Nm
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:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig carp0 carpnodes 3:0,4:0,6:100
.Ed
.Pp
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
.Cm advskew
value within the carpnodes specification.
.Pp
IP balancing works by utilizing the network itself to distribute
incoming traffic to all
.Nm
nodes in the cluster.
Each packet is filtered on the incoming
.Nm
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.
.Pp
IP balancing is activated by setting the balancing mode to
.Cm 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.
.Pp
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
.Cm 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
.Cm ip-stealth
mode is another option, which should work on most switches.
In this mode
.Nm
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.
Activating stealth mode on a
.Nm
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.
.Pp
If IP balancing is being used on a firewall, it is recommended to
configure the
.Cm carpnodes
in a symmetrical manner.
This is achieved by simply using the same
.Cm 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.
.Sh EXAMPLES
For most scenarios it is desirable to have a well-defined master,
achieved by enabling the
.Cm preempt
option.
Enable it on both host A and B:
.Pp
.Dl # sysctl net.inet.carp.preempt=1
.Pp
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:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig carp0 192.168.1.1/24 carpdev em0 vhid 1
# ifconfig carp1 192.168.2.1/24 carpdev em1 vhid 2
.Ed
.Pp
The setup for host B is identical, but it has a higher
.Cm advskew :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# 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
.Ed
.Ss LOAD BALANCING
In order to set up a load balanced virtual host, it is necessary to configure
one
.Cm 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.
.Pp
First the
.Nm
interface on Host A is configured.
The
.Cm 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.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig carp0 192.168.1.10 carpdev em0 carpnodes 1:0,2:100 \e
	balancing ip
.Ed
.Pp
The configuration for host B is identical, except the skew is on
the carpnode entry with virtual host 1 rather than virtual host 2.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig carp0 192.168.1.10 carpdev em0 carpnodes 1:100,2:0 \e
	balancing ip
.Ed
.Pp
If a different mode of load balancing is desired, the
.Cm balancing
mode can be adjusted accordingly.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr sysctl 2 ,
.Xr inet 4 ,
.Xr pfsync 4 ,
.Xr hostname.if 5 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
.Xr ifstated 8 ,
.Xr netstart 8 ,
.Xr sysctl 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
device first appeared in
.Ox 3.5 .
.Sh BUGS
If load balancing is used in setups where the carpdev does not share
an IP in the same subnet as
.Nm ,
it is not possible to use the IP of the
.Nm
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.
.Pp
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.