Using RIP Dynamic Routing on Debian

Problem

Your networks aren’t all that complex, but you don’t want to hassle with manually configuring routes. Isn’t this the kind of work that computers should be doing, the repetitive boring stuff? Your routers are Debian-based.

Solution

Indeed, this is the sort of drudgery that computers excel at handling. There are two categories of dynamic routing protocols: interior and exterior. In this recipe, we shall look at Routing Information Protocol, the simplest interior routing protocol. RIP is included in the Quagga suite of routing protocols.

Installation is boringly easy:
# aptitude install quagga

Now, you must edit some configuration files. Start with /etc/quagga/daemons, and enable zebra and ripd:

# /etc/quagga/daemons
zebra=yes
bgpd=no
ospfd=no
ospf6d=no

ripd=yes

ripngd=no
isisd=no

Next, create /etc/quagga/zebra.conf:

!/etc/quagga/zebra.conf
hostname router1
password bigsecret
enable password bigsecret
service advanced-vty
log file /var/log/quagga/zebra.log
!
!administrative access controls- local machine only
!
access-list localhost permit 127.0.0.1/32
access-list localhost deny any
!
line vty
access-class localhost

Now, create /etc/quagga/ripd.conf:

!/etc/quagga/ripd.conf
hostname router1
password moresecret
enable password moresecret
router rip
network eth1
redistribute static
redistribute connected
service advanced-vty
log file /var/log/quagga/ripd.log
!
!administrative access controls- local machine only
!
access-list localhost permit 127.0.0.1/32
access-list localhost deny any
!
line vty
access-class localhost

And now, set correct ownership and file permissions:

~# chown quagga:quagga ripd.conf zebra.conf
~# chown :quaggavty vtysh.conf

Finally, add this line to /etc/environment:
VTYSH_PAGER=more

Now, fire it up:

# /etc/init.d/quagga start


Do this on all of your routers, and you’re finished.

Give it a couple of minutes, then fire up your favorite command to view your routing table:

~$ /sbin/route -n
~$ ip route show
~$ netstat -rn

Discussion

Quagga’s configuration files use exclamation marks for comments. All of the Quagga daemons are controlled from a single startup file:
~# /etc/init.d/quagga {start|stop|restart|force-reload| [daemon]}

You could do no more than this recipe and be content. Each Quagga daemon broadcasts its routing table every 30 seconds via multicast to your other RIP-enabled routers, and so you don’t have to hassle with creating static routes all over the place.

Debian, by default, limits vty access to the local machine in /etc/quagga/debian/conf, and Fedora uses /etc/sysconfig/quagga.

Some definitions for ripd.conf:

hostname
This is arbitrary, and has nothing to do with the router’s Linux hostname. It controls the hostname you see displayed on the vtysh or telnet command line.

router rip
Specify the rip routing protocol here. The default is to send v2 and receive 1 and 2. Other protocol options are ripng, ospf, ospf6, and bgp, which of course you would use in their respective configuration files.

network eth1
Which interface or interfaces ripd should listen on. Name additional interfaces on separate lines.

redistribute static
Share any static routes; these are listed in zebra.conf.

redistribute connected
Share directly connected routes. For example, your router is connected to the 10.0.0.1/24 network, so it will tell your other routers how to get to it.

service advanced-vty
Enables advanced vty functions such as command history and tab-completion.

access-list
The two access-list lines define a new class, localhost. The class name can be anything you want; it doesn’t have to be localhost. After defining the class, the line vty access-class localhost lines mean “only allow vty logins on the local machine. No remote loginsallowed.”

The default logging level is debugging, which creates the most output. You may specify any of the following loglevels: emergencies, alerts, critical, errors, warnings, notifications, information, or debugging, like this:

log file /var/log/quagga/ripd.log warnings

Quagga includes five routing daemons: ripd, ripngd, ospfd, ospf6d, and bgpd, and one manager daemon, zebra. zebra must always be started first. Each daemon has its own port that it listens on:

zebrasrv 2600/tcp
zebra    2601/tcp
ripd     2602/tcp
ripngd   2603/tcp
ospfd    2604/tcp
bgpd     2605/tcp
ospf6d   2606/tcp
ospfapi  2607/tcp
isisd    2608/tcp

See Also

• Quagga documentation: http://www.quagga.net/docs/docs-info.php
• /usr/share/doc/quagga/README.Debian
• man 8 ripd
• man 8 zebra 

/etc/amazon

biOos