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GRE(4)			    Kernel Interfaces Manual			GRE(4)

NAME
       gre -- encapsulating network device

SYNOPSIS
       To  compile the driver into the kernel, place the following line	in the
       kernel configuration file:

	     device gre

       Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at	boot time,  place  the
       following line in loader.conf(5):

	     if_gre_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
       The gre network interface pseudo	device encapsulates datagrams into IP.
       These  encapsulated  datagrams  are routed to a destination host, where
       they are	decapsulated and further routed	to  their  final  destination.
       The "tunnel" appears to the inner datagrams as one hop.

       gre   interfaces	  are  dynamically  created  and  destroyed  with  the
       ifconfig(8) create and destroy subcommands.

       This driver  corresponds	 to  RFC  2784.	  Encapsulated	datagrams  are
       prepended an outer datagram and a GRE header.  The GRE header specifies
       the  type  of  the  encapsulated	datagram and thus allows for tunneling
       other protocols than IP.	 GRE mode is also the default tunnel  mode  on
       Cisco  routers.	 gre also supports Cisco WCCP protocol,	both version 1
       and version 2.

       The gre interfaces support a number of  additional  parameters  to  the
       ifconfig(8):

       grekey	    Set	 the  GRE key used for outgoing	packets.  A value of 0
		    disables the key option.

       enable_csum  Enables checksum calculation for outgoing packets.

       enable_seq   Enables use	of sequence number field in the	GRE header for
		    outgoing packets.

       udpencap	    Enables  UDP-in-GRE	 encapsulation	(see  the  "GRE-IN-UDP
		    ENCAPSULATION" Section below for details).

       udpport	    Set	 the source UDP	port for outgoing packets.  A value of
		    0 disables the persistence of source UDP port for outgoing
		    packets.  See the "GRE-IN-UDP ENCAPSULATION" Section below
		    for	details.

GRE-IN-UDP ENCAPSULATION
       The gre supports	GRE in UDP encapsulation as defined in	RFC  8086.   A
       GRE  in	UDP  tunnel  offers  the possibility of	better performance for
       load-balancing GRE traffic in transit networks.	Encapsulating  GRE  in
       UDP enables use of the UDP source port to provide entropy to ECMP hash-
       ing.

       The  GRE	 in UDP	tunnel uses single value 4754 as UDP destination port.
       The UDP source port contains a 14-bit entropy value that	 is  generated
       by  the	encapsulator  to  identify a flow for the encapsulated packet.
       The udpport option can be used to disable this behaviour	and use	single
       source UDP port value.  The value  of  udpport  should  be  within  the
       ephemeral port range, i.e., 49152 to 65535 by default.

       Note  that a GRE	in UDP tunnel is unidirectional; the tunnel traffic is
       not expected to be returned back	to the UDP source port values used  to
       generate	 entropy.  This	may impact NAPT	(Network Address Port Transla-
       tor) middleboxes.  If such tunnels are expected to be used  on  a  path
       with a middlebox, the tunnel can	be configured either to	disable	use of
       the  UDP	source port for	entropy	or to enable middleboxes to pass pack-
       ets with	UDP source port	entropy.

EXAMPLES
       192.168.1.* --- Router A	 -------tunnel-------- Router B	--- 192.168.2.*
			  \				 /
			   \				/
			    +------ the	Internet ------+

       Assuming	router A has the (external) IP address A and the internal  ad-
       dress  192.168.1.1,  while router B has external	address	B and internal
       address 192.168.2.1, the	following commands will	configure the tunnel:

       On router A:

	     ifconfig greN create
	     ifconfig greN inet	192.168.1.1 192.168.2.1
	     ifconfig greN inet	tunnel A B
	     route add -net 192.168.2 -netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1

       On router B:

	     ifconfig greN create
	     ifconfig greN inet	192.168.2.1 192.168.1.1
	     ifconfig greN inet	tunnel B A
	     route add -net 192.168.1 -netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1

       In case when internal and external IP addresses are the same, different
       routing tables (FIB) should be used.  The default FIB will  be  applied
       to IP packets before GRE	encapsulation.	After encapsulation GRE	inter-
       face  should set	different FIB number to	outgoing packet.  Then differ-
       ent FIB will be applied to such	encapsulated  packets.	 According  to
       this FIB	packet should be routed	to tunnel endpoint.

       Host X -- Host A	(198.51.100.1) ---tunnel--- Cisco D (203.0.113.1) -- Host E
			  \				      /
			   \				     /
			    +----- Host	B -----	Host C -----+
			      (198.51.100.254)

       On Host A (FreeBSD):

       First of	multiple FIBs should be	configured via loader.conf:

	     net.fibs=2
	     net.add_addr_allfibs=0

       Then  routes to the gateway and remote tunnel endpoint via this gateway
       should be added to the second FIB:

	     route add -net 198.51.100.0 -netmask 255.255.255.0	-fib 1 -iface em0
	     route add -host 203.0.113.1 -fib 1	198.51.100.254

       And GRE tunnel should be	configured  to	change	FIB  for  encapsulated
       packets:

	     ifconfig greN create
	     ifconfig greN inet	198.51.100.1 203.0.113.1
	     ifconfig greN inet	tunnel 198.51.100.1 203.0.113.1	tunnelfib 1

NOTES
       The MTU of gre interfaces is set	to 1476	by default, to match the value
       used  by	Cisco routers.	This may not be	an optimal value, depending on
       the link	between	the two	tunnel endpoints.   It	can  be	 adjusted  via
       ifconfig(8).

       For  correct operation, the gre device needs a route to the decapsulat-
       ing host	that does not run over the tunnel, as this would be a loop.

       The  kernel  must  be  set  to  forward	datagrams   by	 setting   the
       net.inet.ip.forwarding sysctl(8)	variable to non-zero.

       By  default, gre	tunnels	may not	be nested.  This behavior may be modi-
       fied    at    runtime	by    setting	 the	sysctl(8)     variable
       net.link.gre.max_nesting	to the desired level of	nesting.

SEE ALSO
       gif(4),	inet(4), ip(4),	me(4), netintro(4), protocols(5), ifconfig(8),
       sysctl(8)

STANDARDS
       S.  Hanks,  T.  Li,  D.	Farinacci,  and	 P.  Traina,  Generic  Routing
       Encapsulation (GRE), RFC	1701, October 1994.

       S.  Hanks,  T.  Li,  D.	Farinacci,  and	 P.  Traina,  Generic  Routing
       Encapsulation over IPv4 networks, RFC 1702, October 1994.

       D. Farinacci, T.	Li, S. Hanks, D. Meyer,	and P. Traina, Generic Routing
       Encapsulation (GRE), RFC	2784, March 2000.

       G. Dommety, Key and  Sequence  Number  Extensions  to  GRE,  RFC	 2890,
       September 2000.

AUTHORS
       Andrey V. Elsukov <ae@FreeBSD.org>
       Heiko W.Rupp <hwr@pilhuhn.de>

BUGS
       The current implementation uses the key only for	outgoing packets.  In-
       coming packets with a different key or without a	key will be treated as
       if they would belong to this interface.

       The sequence number field also used only	for outgoing packets.

FreeBSD	13.2			August 21, 2020				GRE(4)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | GRE-IN-UDP ENCAPSULATION | EXAMPLES | NOTES | SEE ALSO | STANDARDS | AUTHORS | BUGS

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