Linux | IPNET - Part 3

How to integrate F5 BIG-IP VE with GNS3

I would like to start by saying Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays season to all. In between spending time with my family, decorating the Christmas three and opening presents, I did find some time to play around with my hobby and testing something in the lab.

Lately I wanted to get a feeling how F5 BIG-IP works, you know, just to get familiar with its interfaces, rules and being capable of setting up a basic LTM or APM. Far from me the idea of becoming an expert on the first touch, but it’s nice to discover new technologies.

Beside getting the F5 BIG-IP VE (Virtual Edition), running up VMware (ESXi, Player, Fusion or Workstation) and starting the virtual machine I also wanted to emulate some kind of real environment to test. So, I did build the below topology in GNS3:

Some explanation:

Client WIN7 is a VM in VirtualBox and integrated in GNS3
WWW Servers are VMs in VirtualBox and integrated in GNS3
WIN2008 AD DC is a VM in VirtualBox and integrated in GNS3
Routers are emulated in GNS3
F5 BIG-IP VE is a VM in VMware Workstation and integrated as a Cloud in GNS3

GNS3 is version 1.2.1 which works perfect. Why VirtualBox and VMware Workstation? Usually I have no problem to have my VMs in VirtualBox, but I could not successfully import the F5 BIG-IP VE OVA image in VirtualBox. I had to download a trial version of VMware Workstation to install the OVA image.

If you want to know more about this F5 product, Ethan Banks has a great article about the BIG-IP VE. Please note that Ethan’s article is about getting a lab license for BIG-IP VE. I just went for the trial version. You can download the OVA image and get the license here:
https://www.f5.com/trial/secure/big-ip-ltm-virtual-edition.php

Download the BIG-IP VE OVA image, get a trial license (valid for 90 days) and install it in VMware Workstation. It may work with other VMware products, but in this article I’m using only VMware Workstation.

The part that gave me some headache was the how to have a successfully network communication between VMware Workstation and GNS3.

Before GNS3 1.2.1, when I had to use a “cloud” to integrate VirtualBox VMs in GNS3, I was configuring a TAP interface and use Bridge mode for the VM NIC to the TAP interface. Then on the GNS3 Cloud, I was adding the TAP as a Generic Ethernet NIO on the NIO Ethernet. If you want to refresh more deeply the above information please read my article about How to integrate GNS3 with VirtualBox.

Unfortunately, in VMware Workstation, I cannot just bridge a VMnet interface to a TAP and use that specific VMnet in a VM. I just could not make it work.

To cut it short, here are the steps that I had to follow to have this working. I assume that you have VMware Workstation installed already. Another detail is that I’m using Ubuntu 14.04 to test the entire scenario.

1. Add two VMnet interfaces in VMware Workstation Virtual Network Editor

Use the image below to have an idea what I mean.

2. Configure the BIG-IP VE NIC as follow in VMware Workstation

I assume that you have the BIG-IP VE OVA imported in VMware Workstation

I had 4 NICs originally, but I only need three:

VMnet0 is bridge to my real LAN interface so I can manage the F5 BIG-IP VE over Web / CLI interfaces
VMnet11 – one “internal” interface facing LAN (server side)
VMnet22 – one “external” interface facing WAN (client side)

3. Configure two tap interfaces for F5 BIG-IP VE to be used in GNS3

11 – internal, 22 – external

sudo tunctl -u user -t tap11
sudo tunctl -u user -t tap22

*user = the non-root user which you use on Ubuntu host.

If you are having problems to find tunctl command please do the following:

sudo apt-get install uml-utilities bridge-utils

Bring the interfaces up

sudo ifconfig tap11 up
sudo ifconfig tap22 up

4. Remove the IP addresses on both TAP and VMnet interfaces

sudo ifconfig tap11 0.0.0.0 promisc up
sudo ifconfig tap22 0.0.0.0 promisc up
sudo ifconfig vmnet11 0.0.0.0 promisc up
sudo ifconfig vmnet22 0.0.0.0 promisc up

5. Bridge the TAP and the VMnet interfaces

sudo brctl addbr br11
sudo brctl addif br11 tap11
sudo brctl addif br11 vmnet11
sudo brctl addbr br22
sudo brctl addif br22 tap22
sudo brctl addif br22 vmnet22

Bring the bridge interfaces up

sudo ifconfig br11 up
sudo ifconfig br22 up

5. Add the F5 BIG-IP VE to GNS3

If with GNS3 1.2.1 you can add the VirtualBox VMs directly, for the VMware Workstation (Player, Fusion, etc…) VMs you still need to you the Cloud part.

My GNS3 for F5 topology looks like this:

And the GNS3 Cloud (representing the F5 BIG-IP VE) settings are the following:

6. Connect the GNS3 Cloud interfaces to R1 and R2

Like shown in the image above, connect the TAP interface of the Cloud to the peer routers.

I’m running all applications (GNS3, VMware Workstation, VirtualBox) as non-root user. If you’re doing the same an error may occur in GNS3. Something like:

Server error [-3200] from x.x.x.x:8000: R1: unable to create TAP NIO

If this is the case, please run the following command on Ubuntu host:

sudo setcap cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw=ep /usr/local/bin/dynamips

This will help you setup the environment to test F5 BIG-IP VE in a lab environment totally virtualized. I’m not going to cover here how to configure the F5 BIG-IP VE. Maybe in one of my next articles.

If you encounter problems, please let me know in Comments.

IPsec VPN Mikrotik to Linux

After writing the Mikrotik IPsec VPN article and I got some questions about how Mikrotik will work with a Linux device to build an IPsec VPN. I did notice that the questions were more oriented for a copy / paste solution, so I’ll provide one that it’s working. If you need more details about why the solution is like it this, please let me know.
Also don’t forget to customize the solution as you need.

I’ll start with the same topology like in the last post, just that the right side now it’s a Linux device.

Please consider the minimum ports needed to be open on your firewall from my earlier article. Just don’t forget to open these ports also on the Linux device.

First let’s configure the Mikrotik.

The IPsec Proposal

CLI

ip ipsec proposal add name=MyProposal auth-algorithms=sha1 enc-algorithms=aes-256-cbc pfs-group=none

GUI

IP > IPsec > Proposals

Name: MyProposal
Auth. Algorithm: sha1
Encr. Algorithm: aes-256 cbc
PFS Group: none

The IPsec Policy

CLI

ip ipsec policy add src-address=192.168.0.0/24 dst-address=172.30.0.0/24 protocol=all action=encrypt level=require ipsec-protocols=esp tunnel=yes sa-src-address=11.11.11.11 sa-dst-address=22.22.22.22 proposal=MyProposal

GUI

IP > IPsec > Policies

SRC ADDR: 192.168.0.0/24
DST ADDR: 172.30.0.0/24
Protocol: all
Action: Encrypt
Level: require
IPsec protocols: esp
Tunnel: check
SA SRC: 11.11.11.11
SA DST: 22.22.22.22
Proposal: MyProposal

The IPsec Peer

CLI

ip ipsec peer add address=22.22.22.22 port=500 auth-method=pre-shared-key secret=my_preshared_key exchange-mode=main send-initial-contact=yes nat-traversal=yes proposal-check=obey hash-algorithm=sha1 enc-algorithm=3des,aes-128 dh-group=modp1024 generate-policy=no

GUI

IP > IPsec > Peers

Address: 22.22.22.22
Port: 500
Auth. Method: pre shared key
Passive: not checked
Secret: my_preshared_key
Policy Template Group: default
Exchange mode: main
Send Initial Contact: checked
NAT Traversal: checked
My ID: Auto - empty
Proposal Check: obey
Hash Algorithm: sha1
Encryptions Algorithm: 3des aes-128
DH Group: modp1024
Generate policy: no

Now, the Linux part. I’m using Ubuntu, but I’m not going to advocate here for one flavour or another. So, just use any device with Linux or you try solutions such as Amazon AWS. Install Openswan (compile it from source or install via your Linux flavour package system).

The main file for Openswan is ipsec.conf. For me this file is in /etc, but I assume it can reside in another location.

For the above example, the ipsec.conf file looks like this:

version 2.0

# basic configuration
config setup
        nat_traversal=yes
        oe=off
        protostack=netkey
        force_keepalive=yes
        keep_alive=60
        #nhelpers=0

# Add connections here
conn mikrotik-to-linux
        authby=secret
        auto=start
        type=tunnel
        left=22.22.22.22
        leftid=22.22.22.22
        leftsourceip=172.30.0.1
        leftsubnet=172.30.0.0/24
        right=11.11.11.11
        rightsubnet=192.168.0.0/24
        rightid=11.11.11.11
        pfs=no
        forceencaps=yes
        ike=aes256-sha1;modp1024
        phase2=esp
        phase2alg=aes256-sha1

You need to associate the keyword “left” with “local” and “right” with “remote” and it will be easier to read the configuration above.

Also in the /etc location I have another file called ipsec.secrets which has the pre-shared secret key:

22.22.22.22 11.11.11.11 : PSK "my_preshared_key"

This is the minimal configuration that I need to apply to have the IPsec VPN up and running. I’m sure that it can be fine tuned to add more security or features, but that is not in scope of this post.

As always if you have problems please let me know in Comments.

Ubuntu OVF images for download

Lately I’m playing a lot with virtualization features and for this I needed a rapid way to deploy from scratch new instances. First I had the virtual machines converted to templates, but then I had to rebuild from zero the entire ESXi environment and those images were gone.

I realized then it was more easier to have OVF images saved on a distributed storage and deploy them as soon as I need them. I start looking around Internet and I could not find something that suit my needs.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of OVF images around, but mostly have GUI and a lot of packages already installed that I do not need.

I wanted to have OVF files with low-end hardware and only CLI interface. Why should I download and deploy a 20 or 30 GB instance if the only things I need is CLI? From this I could customize it everytime exactly the way I wanted.

I started to create my OVF files and I’m pretty satisfied with them. Then I said why not to share them with the community?

I did chose Sourceforge to host my files because of their CDN and because it is free. On this blog I have to think how to organize them, because I don’t know if “post” format is the best idea. Until then, please find below the first two OVF images for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

All archives contain a text files with details about distro, user/passwd and services enabled. There may be other services enabled like postfix, but the listed ones are mandatory if you want network functionality and remote connection.

Here are the details for the below listed downloads:

Server images 32/64 bits

username: notroot
passwd: 123qweASD!

username: root
passwd: firstdigest
HDD: 8GB, ext4, 1 partition, thin provision
RAM: 256 CPU Core: 1

Services enabled:
SSHd
DHCP client

Downloads

Ubuntu 12.04 Server (i386) OVF

Ubuntu 12.04 Server (x86_64) OVF

If you encounter problems with these images please let me know here in Comments or on Sourceforge Project Discussions page.

In the upcoming days I will add here more images from different distros.