Main IP Address
IPv4
Dedicated Servers
The main IP of a dedicated server is usually located in a /26 or /27 subnet. In order to prevent the accidental use of a foreign IP address, our infrastructure rejects any Ethernet packets that are not addressed to the gateway address. In order to reach a server in the same subnet, our standard images already have a static route in their network configuration. The static route forwards the entire traffic to the subnet via the gateway.
This is not the best solution as duplicate and inconsistent information appears in the routing table. A better way to reach a server in your subnet is to set the netmask to 255.255.255.255 (/32). The server assumes it is alone in this subnet and will not send any packets directly. However, an explicit host route to the gateway is now needed. This is very easy to do with Debian by adding the option "pointopoint 192.168.0.1" in the configuration. Please change "192.168.0.1" to the valid IP address of your gateway.
## /etc/network/interfaces example vcclhosting root server # Loopback-Adapter auto lo iface lo inet loopback # # LAN interface auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static # Main IP address of the server address 192.168.0.250 # Netmask 255.255.255.255 (/32) independent from the # real subnet size (e.g. /27) netmask 255.255.255.255 # explicit host route to the gateway gateway 192.168.0.1 pointopoint 192.168.0.1
The additional route to the gateway is now no longer necessary.
Virtual Servers
With virtual servers, the configuration is similar to that of dedicated servers. There is no differentiation. However, unlike the dedicated server, the additional route can be removed directly as the assignment between IP addresses and MAC addresses has already been set up in the virtual server host.
Servers in the same subnet can be reached directly without any further adjustment..
IPv6
Dedicated Servers / vServers
In principle the above applies to IPv6 as well. But instead of a single main IP, you get a /64 block.
As opposed to the IPv4 configuration, there is no "pointopoint" setting in IPv6.
For example:
- Address block: 2a01:4f8:61:20e1::2 untill 2a01:4f8:61:20e1:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
- We use the first address from this: 2a01:4f8:61:20e1::2
- Gateway: fe80::1
## /etc/network/interfaces example vcclhosting root server # Loopback-Adapter auto lo iface lo inet loopback # # IPv6 LAN auto eth0 iface eth0 inet6 static # Main IPv6 Address of the server address 2a01:4f8:61:20e1::2 netmask 64 gateway fe80::1
vServers
With these virtual server models, the gateway is within the allocated /64 subnet.
For example:
- Address block: 2a01:4f8:61:20e1::2 untill 2a01:4f8:61:20e1:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
- Gateway: 2a01:4f8:61:20e1::1
## /etc/network/interfaces example vcclhosting Virtual Server # Loopback-Adapter auto lo iface lo inet loopback # # IPv6 LAN auto eth0 iface eth0 inet6 static # Main IPv6 Address of the server address 2a01:4f8:61:20e1::2 netmask 64 gateway 2a01:4f8:61:20e1::1
IPv4 + IPv6
It is expected that over the next few years, IPv4 and IPv6 will be used in parallel. Both configuration files are simply joined together and duplicate entries omitted.
Dedicated Servers
## /etc/network/interfaces example vcclhosting root server # Loopback-Adapter auto lo iface lo inet loopback # # LAN interface auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static # Main IP address of the server address 192.168.0.250 # Netmask 255.255.255.255 (/32) independent from the # real subnet size (e.g. /27) netmask 255.255.255.255 # explicit host route to the gateway gateway 192.168.0.1 pointopoint 192.168.0.1 # iface eth0 inet6 static # Main IPv6 Address of the server address 2a01:4f8:61:20e1::2 netmask 64 gateway fe80::1
Virtual Servers
## /etc/network/interfaces Example vcclhosting Virtual Server # Loopback-Adapter auto lo iface lo inet loopback # # LAN interface auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static # Main IP address of the server address 192.168.0.250 netmask 255.255.255.224 gateway 192.168.0.1 # # IPv6 LAN iface eth0 inet6 static # Main IPv6 Address of the server address 2a01:4f8:61:20e1::2 netmask 64 gateway 2a01:4f8:61:20e1::1
Additional IP Addresses (Host)
For our dedicated root servers (with the exception of some models), you can order up to 6 additional single IPs. The network configuration is similar in both cases.
In order to use the additional addresses on the server (no virtualization) the package "iproute" and service program "ip" are needed. Configuration with alias interfaces (such as eth0:1, eth0:2 etc.) are outdated and should no longer be used. To add an address please run:
ip addr add 10.4.2.1/32 dev eth0
The command "ip addr" shows the IP addresses which are currently active. As the server uses the entire subnet, it is also useful here to add the addresses with the prefix /32, which means the subnet mask is 255.255.255.255
Configuration
In /etc/network/interfaces, insert the following two lines in the appropriate interface (e.g. "eth0"):
up ip addr add 10.4.2.1/32 dev eth0 down ip addr del 10.4.2.1/32 dev eth0
"up" and "down" expect just one line of shell code and this can be repeated for several addresses. The disadvantage is that both the interface name and address must be listed twice. If many IPs are used, the configuration file becomes confusing and prone to errors. If the data is changed, all entries need to be adjusted.
Alternative configuration via addresses script
ATTENTION: The following instructions involve the installation of software by a third party (www.wertarbyte.de). This is not supported by us. In the event of errors or problems, please contact the developer.
The script is in package "ifupdown-scripts-wa", which is not a part of the official Debian distribution. If the following line is added for APT configuration, the "apt-get install ifupdown-scripts-wa" command is sufficient in order to install the script correctly:
# /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wertarbyte.list # Tartarus, ifupdown-scripts etc. deb http://wertarbyte.de/apt/ ./
The complete installation routine can be shortened using the following commands:
wget -P/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ http://wertarbyte.de/apt/wertarbyte-apt.list wget -O - http://wertarbyte.de/apt/software-key.gpg | apt-key add - apt-get update apt-get install ifupdown-scripts-wa
If you do not wish to install the script using the package system, it can also be downloaded manually: http://wertarbyte.de/debian/ifupdown/addresses. It is filed in the /etc/network/if-up.d/ directory and also linked with /etc/network/if-down.d/:
cd /etc/network/if-up.d/ && \ wget http://wertarbyte.de/debian/ifupdown/addresses && \ chmod +x addresses && \ cd ../if-down.d/ && \ ln -s ../if-up.d/addresses .
Installation via packet system is recommended as the current version of the script is always available.
The script extends the syntax of the configuration file by adding a new command "addresses". This enables the specification of additional binding IP addresses (with the netmask in /-notation):
addresses 10.4.2.1/32 10.4.2.2/32 10.4.2.3/32
If this line is added to configure the "eth0" interface, addresses are added upon activating the interface and removed upon deactivation.
It is also possible to use several lines to bundle addresses into categories and to make configuration more transparent:
addresses 10.4.2.1/32 addresses-https 10.4.2.2/32 10.4.2.3/32 # SSL-Websites addresses-mail 10.4.2.4/32 # Mailserver
The script captures various commands that start with the key word "addresses-" and a label of your choice. Labels should not be used twice, as otherwise a syntax error is shown for ifupdown and configuration of the interface is interrupted. This can result in the server not being reachable.
The IP addresses which have been added via "ip addr" are not visible in the output of "ifconfig" ; the command "ip addr show" is required to show these. However, the addresses script can also set up alias devices:
addresses 10.0.0.1/32 10.0.0.2/32 10.0.0.3/32 create_alias_devices yes
The script creates consecutively numbered eth0:X devices using this configuration, which are also visible in "ifconfig".
Instead of simply numbering the devices, it is also possible to use the labels from the configuration:
addresses-https 10.0.0.1/32 10.0.0.3/32 addresses-vhost 10.0.0.2/32 label_addresses yes
The addresses are subsequently labelled "eth0:https" or "eth0:vhost" in the output of "ip addr" and are also shown in "ifconfig".
Additional IP Addresses (Virtualization)
With virtualization the additional IP addresses are used via the guest system. So that these can be reached via the Internet, configuration in the host system needs to be adjusted accordingly in order to forward the packets. There are two ways of doing this for additional single IPs: Routed and Bridged.
Routed (brouter)
In this type of configuration, the packets are routed. This requires the setting up of an additional bridge with almost the same configuration (without gateway) as eth0.
Host:
auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address (Main IP) netmask 255.255.255.255 pointopoint (Gateway IP) gateway (Gateway IP) # iface eth0 inet6 static address 2a01:4f8:XX:YY::2 netmask 128 gateway fe80::1 # auto virbr1 iface virbr1 inet static address (Main IP) netmask 255.255.255.255 bridge_ports none bridge_stp off bridge_fd 0 pre-up brctl addbr virbr1 up ip route add (Additional IP)/32 dev virbr1 down ip route del (Additional IP)/32 dev virbr1 # iface virbr1 inet6 static address 2a01:4f8:XX:YY::2 netmask 64
A corresponding host route needs to be created for each additional IP address. The eth0 configuration remains unchanged for IPv4. For IPv6 the prefix is reduced from /64 to /128.
Guest:
auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address (Additional IP) netmask 255.255.255.255 pointopoint (Main IP) gateway (Main IP) # iface eth0 inet6 static address 2a01:4f8:XX:YY::4 netmask 64 gateway 2a01:4f8:XX:YY::2
Bridged
With a bridged configuration, packets are sent directly. The guest system behaves as if it is independent. As this makes the MAC addresses of the guest system visible from the outside, a virtual MAC address needs to be requested for each IP address via the control panel and assigned to the guest network card. The bridge gets the same network configuration as eth0.
# remove or disable configuration for eth0 #auto eth0 #iface eth0 inet static # auto br0 iface br0 inet static address (Main IP) netmask (like eth0, e.g: 255.255.255.254) gateway (same as that for the main IP) bridge_ports eth0 bridge_stp off bridge_fd 1 bridge_hello 2 bridge_maxage 12
The configuration of eth0 is omitted without replacement.
