This page was last updated January 13th 1997.

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This page was last updated January 13th 1997.

Mini How-to on Setting Up IP Aliasing On A Linux Machine

GNU Copyleft 1996/1997 Harish Pillay ([email protected])

Primary site: http://home.pacific.net.sg/~harish/linuxipalias.html

Synopsis:

This is a cook book recipe on how to set up and run IP aliasing on a Linux
box. In addition, there are instructions on how to also set up the machine
to receive e-mail on the aliased IP #s.

My setup:

* Latest kernel (2.0.27 - from ftp.funet.fi:/pub/Linux/kernel/src/v2.0) -
has worked since 1.3.7x.
* IP Alias compiled as a loadable module. You would have indicated in the
"make config" command to make your kernel, that you want the IP Masq to
be compiled as a (M)odule. Check the Modules HOW-TO (if that exists) or
check the info in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/modules.txt.
* I have to support 2 additional IPs over and above the IP already
allocated to me.
* A D-Link DE620 pocket adapter (not important, works with any Linux
supported network adapter).

Commands:

* First load the IP Alias module (you can skip this step if you compiled
the module into the kernel):

/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ipv4/ip_alias.o

* Second, setup the loopback, eth0 and all the IP #s beginning with the
main IP # for the eth0 interface:

/sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 up
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 172.16.3.1
/sbin/ifconfig eth0:0 172.16.3.10
/sbin/ifconfig eth0:1 172.16.3.100

172.16.3.1 is the main IP #, while .10 and .100 are the aliases. The
magic is the eth0:x where x=0,1,2,...n for the different IP #s. The
main IP # does not need to be aliased.

* Third, setup the routes. First route the loopback, then the net and,
finally, the various IP #s starting with the default (originally
allocated) one:

/sbin/route add -net 127.0.0.0
/sbin/route add -net 172.16.3.0 dev eth0
/sbin/route add -host 172.16.3.1 dev eth0
/sbin/route add -host 172.16.3.10 dev eth0:0
/sbin/route add -host 172.16.3.100 dev eth0:1
/sbin/route add default gw 172.16.3.200

That's it.

In the example IP # above, I am using the Private IP #s (RFC 1918) for
illustrative purposes. Substitute them with your own official or private IP
#s.

The example shows only 3 IP #s. The max is defined to be 256 in
/usr/include/linux/net_alias.h. 256 IP #s on ONE card is a lot :-)!

Here's what my /sbin/ifconfig looks like:

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Bcast:127.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:3584 Metric:1
RX packets:5088 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
TX packets:5088 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0

eth0 Link encap:10Mbps Ethernet HWaddr 00:8E:B8:83:19:20
inet addr:172.16.3.1 Bcast:172.16.3.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING PROMISC MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:334036 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
TX packets:11605 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
Interrupt:7 Base address:0x378

eth0:0 Link encap:10Mbps Ethernet HWaddr 00:8E:B8:83:19:20
inet addr:172.16.3.10 Bcast:172.16.3.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0

eth0:1 Link encap:10Mbps Ethernet HWaddr 00:8E:B8:83:19:20
inet addr:172.16.3.100 Bcast:172.16.3.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0

And /proc/net/aliases:

device family address
eth0:0 2 172.16.3.10
eth0:1 2 172.16.3.100

And /proc/net/alias_types:

type name n_attach
2 ip 2

Of course, the stuff in /proc/net was created by the ifconfig command and
not by hand!

Question: How can I keep the settings through a reboot?

Answer: Whether you are using BSD-style or SysV-style (Redhat for example)
init, you can always include it in /etc/rc.d/rc.local. Here's what I have on
my SysV init system (Redhat 3.0.3 and 4.0):

* My /etc/rc.d/rc.local: (edited to show the relevant portions)

#setting up IP alias interfaces
echo "Setting 172.16.3.1, 172.16.3.10, 172.16.3.100 IP Aliases ..."
/sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 up
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 172.16.3.1
/sbin/ifconfig eth0:0 172.16.3.10
/sbin/ifconfig eth0:1 172.16.3.100
#setting up the routes
echo "Setting IP routes ..."
/sbin/route add -net 127.0.0.0
/sbin/route add -net 172.16.3.0 dev eth0
/sbin/route add -host 172.16.3.1 eth0
/sbin/route add -host 172.16.3.10 eth0:0
/sbin/route add -host 172.16.3.100 eth0:1
/sbin/route add default gw 172.16.3.200
#

Question: How do I set up the IP aliased machine to receive e-mail on the
various aliased IP #s (on a machine using sendmail)?

* Answer: Create (if not already existing) a file called for example,
/etc/mynames.cw. It does not have to be this exact name nor in the /etc
directory.

* In that file, place the official domain names of the aliased IP #s. If
these aliased IP #s do not have a domain name, then you can place the
IP # itself.

/etc/mynames.cw:
----------------
# /etc/mynames.cw - include all aliases for your machine here; # is a comment.
domain.one.net
domain.two.com
domain.three.org
4.5.6.7

* In your sendmail.cf file, where it defines a file class macro Fw, add
the following:

.
.
.
##################
# local info #
##################
.
.
# file containing names of hosts for which we receive email
Fw/etc/mynames.cw
.
.
.

* That should do it. Test out the new setting by invoking sendmail in
test mode for example:

ganymede$ /usr/lib/sendmail -bt
ADDRESS TEST MODE (ruleset 3 NOT automatically invoked)
Enter < ruleset> < address>
> 0 [email protected]
rewrite: ruleset 0 input: me @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7
rewrite: ruleset 98 input: me @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7
rewrite: ruleset 98 returns: me @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7
rewrite: ruleset 97 input: me @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7
rewrite: ruleset 3 input: me @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7
rewrite: ruleset 96 input: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 >
rewrite: ruleset 96 returns: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . >
rewrite: ruleset 3 returns: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . >
rewrite: ruleset 0 input: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . >
rewrite: ruleset 98 input: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . >
rewrite: ruleset 98 returns: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . >
rewrite: ruleset 0 returns: $# local $: me
rewrite: ruleset 97 returns: $# local $: me
rewrite: ruleset 0 returns: $# local $: me
> 0 [email protected]
rewrite: ruleset 0 input: me @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8
rewrite: ruleset 98 input: me @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8
rewrite: ruleset 98 returns: me @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8
rewrite: ruleset 97 input: me @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8
rewrite: ruleset 3 input: me @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8
rewrite: ruleset 96 input: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
rewrite: ruleset 96 returns: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
rewrite: ruleset 3 returns: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
rewrite: ruleset 0 input: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
rewrite: ruleset 98 input: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
rewrite: ruleset 98 returns: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
rewrite: ruleset 95 input: < > me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
rewrite: ruleset 95 returns: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
rewrite: ruleset 0 returns: $# smtp $@ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 $: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
rewrite: ruleset 97 returns: $# smtp $@ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 $: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
rewrite: ruleset 0 returns: $# smtp $@ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 $: me < @ 4 . 5 . 6 . 8 >
>

Notice when I tested [email protected], it delivered the mail to the local
machine, while [email protected] was to be handed off to the smtp mailer. That
is the correct response.

* You are all set now.

Hope the preceding is useful to someone.

Thanks to all those who have done this great work on Linux and IP Aliasing.
And especially to Juan Jose Ciarlante for clarifying my questions. Also
thanks to all those who caught typos and provided suggestions!

Kudos to the ace programmers!

If you do find this document useful or have suggestions on improvements, do
send me an e-mail at [email protected].

Enjoy.

Questions? E-mail me at [email protected]
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