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CARP(4) 		     Kernel Interfaces Manual			 CARP(4)

NAME
     carp -- Common Address Redundancy Protocol

SYNOPSIS
     device carp

DESCRIPTION
     The  CARP allows multiple hosts on the same local network to share a set of
     IPv4 and/or IPv6 addresses.  Its primary purpose is to  ensure  that  these
     addresses are always available.

     To  use  carp,  the  administrator needs to configure at a minimum a common
     virtual host ID (vhid), and attach at least one IP address to this vhid  on
     each  machine which is to take part in the virtual group.	Additional para-
     meters can also be set on a per-vhid basis: advbase and advskew, which  are
     used to control how frequently the host sends advertisements when it is the
     master  for a virtual host, and pass which is used to authenticate carp ad-
     vertisements.  The advbase parameter stands for "advertisement  base".   It
     is  measured  in seconds and specifies the base of the advertisement inter-
     val.  The advskew parameter stands for "advertisement skew".   It	is  mea-
     sured  in 1/256 of seconds.  It is added to the base advertisement interval
     to make one host advertise a bit slower that the other does.  Both  advbase
     and  advskew  are put inside CARP advertisements.	These values can be con-
     figured using ifconfig(8), or through the SIOCSVH ioctl(2).

     CARP defaults to using multicast messages, but can be configured to unicast
     announcements to peers using the peer and	peer6  parameters.  Default  ad-
     dresses can be restored using mcast and mcast6.  Note that TTL verification
     is  disabled  if the peer address is not a multicast address.  These values
     can be configured using ifconfig(8), or through the SIOCSPEER ioctl(2).

     carp(4) can be configured to use either the non-standard CARP protocol,  or
     VRRPv3  (RFC 5798).  Use the carpver parameter to select either 2 (CARP) or
     3 (VRRPv3).   VRRPv3  specific  parameters  can  be  configured  using  the
     vrrpprio and vrrpinterval parameters.

     CARP  virtual hosts can be configured on multicast-capable interfaces: Eth-
     ernet, layer 2 VLAN, FDDI and Token Ring.	An arbitrary number  of  virtual
     host IDs can be configured on an interface.  An arbitrary number of IPv4 or
     IPv6  addresses can be attached to a particular vhid.  It is important that
     all hosts participating in a vhid have the same list of prefixes configured
     on the vhid, since all the  prefixes  are	included  in  the  cryptographic
     checksum supplied in each advertisement.  Multiple vhids running on one in-
     terface participate in master/backup elections independently.

     Additionally,  there are a number of global parameters which can be set us-
     ing sysctl(8):

     net.inet.carp.allow		   Allow carp operation.  When disabled,
					   virtual  hosts  remain   in	 initial
					   state,  neither sending nor receiving
					   announcements or traffic.  Enabled by
					   default.

     net.inet.carp.preempt		   Allow virtual hosts to  preempt  each
					   other.   When  enabled,  a  vhid in a
					   backup state would preempt  a  master
					   that  is  announcing  itself  with  a
					   lower advskew.  Disabled by default.

     net.inet.carp.dscp 		   DSCP value  in  carp  packet.   Valid
					   Values  are 0 to 63.  A value of 4 is
					   equivalent to the old standard of TOS
					   LOW_DELAY.  TOS  values  were  depre-
					   cated  and  replaced by DSCP in 1998.
					   The default value is 56  (CS7/Network
					   Control).

     net.inet.carp.log			   Determines  what  events  relating to
					   carp vhids are logged.  A value of  0
					   disables  any  logging.  A value of 1
					   enables logging state changes of carp
					   vhids.  Values above 1 enable logging
					   of bad  carp  packets.   The  default
					   value is 1.

     net.inet.carp.demotion		   This value shows the current level of
					   CARP demotion.  The value is added to
					   the	actual advskew sent in announce-
					   ments for all vhids.   During  normal
					   system  operation the demotion factor
					   is zero.  However, problematic condi-
					   tions raise its level: when carp  ex-
					   periences  problem  with  sending an-
					   nouncements, when an  interface  run-
					   ning  a  vhid goes down, or while the
					   pfsync(4) interface is  not	synchro-
					   nized.   The  demotion  factor can be
					   adjusted writing to the  sysctl  oid.
					   The	signed	value  supplied  to  the
					   sysctl(8) command is added to current
					   demotion factor.  This allows to con-
					   trol carp behaviour depending on some
					   external conditions, for  example  on
					   the status of some daemon utility.

     net.inet.carp.ifdown_demotion_factor  This     value     is     added    to
					   net.inet.carp.demotion when an inter-
					   face running a vhid goes  down.   The
					   default value is 240 (the maximum ad-
					   vskew value).

     net.inet.carp.senderr_demotion_factor
					   This     value     is     added    to
					   net.inet.carp.demotion when carp  ex-
					   periences   errors  sending	its  an-
					   nouncements.  The  default  value  is
					   240 (the maximum advskew value).

STATE CHANGE NOTIFICATIONS
     Sometimes	it  is	useful	to get notified about carp status change events.
     This can be accomplished by using devd(8) hooks.  Master/slave  events  are
     signalled	under system CARP.  The subsystem specifies the vhid and name of
     the interface where the master/slave event occurred.  The type of the  mes-
     sage  displays  the new state of the vhid.  Please see devd.conf(5) and the
     "EXAMPLES" section for more information.

EXAMPLES
     For firewalls and routers with multiple  interfaces,  it  is  desirable  to
     failover all of the addresses running carp together, when one of the physi-
     cal  interfaces  goes down.  This is achieved by the use of the preempt op-
     tion.  Enable it on both hosts A and B:

	   sysctl net.inet.carp.preempt=1

     Assume that host  A  is  the  preferred  master  and  we  are  running  the
     192.168.1.0/24  prefix on em0 and 192.168.2.0/24 on em1.  This is the setup
     for host A (advskew is above 0 so it could be overwritten in the  emergency
     situation from the other host):

	   ifconfig em0 vhid 1 advskew 100 pass mekmitasdigoat 192.168.1.1/24
	   ifconfig em1 vhid 2 advskew 100 pass mekmitasdigoat 192.168.2.1/24

     The setup for host B is identical, but it has a higher advskew:

	   ifconfig em0 vhid 1 advskew 200 pass mekmitasdigoat 192.168.1.1/24
	   ifconfig em1 vhid 2 advskew 200 pass mekmitasdigoat 192.168.2.1/24

     When  one of the physical interfaces of host A fails, advskew is demoted to
     a configured value on all its carp vhids.	Due to the preempt option,  host
     B would start announcing itself, and thus preempt host A on both interfaces
     instead of just the failed one.

     Processing  of carp status change events can be set up by using the follow-
     ing devd.conf rule:

	   notify 0 {
		   match "system"	   "CARP";
		   match "subsystem"	   "[0-9]+@[0-9a-z.]+";
		   match "type" 	   "(MASTER|BACKUP)";
		   action "/root/carpcontrol.sh $subsystem $type";
	   };

     To see carp packets decoded in tcpdump(1) output, one needs to specify  the
     -T carp option, otherwise tcpdump(1) will interpret them as VRRP packets:

	   tcpdump -npi vlan0 -T carp

SEE ALSO
     tcpdump(1),  inet(4),  pfsync(4),	devd.conf(5),  rc.conf(5),  ifconfig(8),
     sysctl(8)

HISTORY
     The carp device first appeared in OpenBSD 3.5.  The  carp	device	was  im-
     ported  into  FreeBSD 5.4.  In FreeBSD 10.0, carp was significantly rewrit-
     ten, and is no longer a pseudo-interface.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	 April 12, 2024 			 CARP(4)

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