ulogd2-mysql patch for NFCT

Filed in Linux | Networking Leave a comment

Seems ulogd2-mysql table schema is outdated, even in git repo is not updated (but pgsql does … WTH!). So it not log conntrack event to database because missing ct_event fields.

So this is [patch version], already submitted upstream and wait for update.

In real world use. logging conntrack event to database is not really good solution because it grows very (very (very)) fast.
By default ulogd use hashing so it only insert connection on DESTROYED state unless to want it to log every events.

In case you log all events, it hard to know when the connection starts and end because it log NEW and DESTROY event separately.
Matching require connection ID which not unique after system restart.

And if you need for only logging not analyze, keep default hashing on (log only DESTROY event) and just DROP ALL INDEXES.
It slow down and quite consume the valueable disk space.

So i have some projects myself for implement real-time selective accounting of conntrack flows which also can do hashing
and also do logging, statistics, etc (For … interface with SNMP). The idea was to use libnfconntrack and netlink. But i need to find good bindings in Perl first.

UPDATE:
There is another NET::Netfilter::Netflow perl that directy use conntrack-tools for conntrack events to export Netflow v5 to netflow collector but lacks support of IPv6.

Why outdated Perl languages ? … It fast and works well with parsing something!

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Flashcache initscripts

Filed in Linux Leave a comment

Just want to share my initscripts for flashcache.

Download [ here ].

Flashcache initscripts from original git repo is full of crap. And intend for use in only one scenario where it use as writeback and need to be mount. So I decided to rewrite the script to fit my requirements. This script can also use writeback/writethrugh mode and optionally can setup LVM and mount it.

In my setup I use flashcache as libvirt datastore backend based on LVM. The script will setup flashcache in writethough mode then run vgscan and vgchange on the configured volume group.

CAUTION!

IF YOU WANT TO USE LVM PV ON TOP OF FLASHCACHE.
MAKE SURE YOU EXCLUDE BACKEND/CACHE DEVICES FROM LVM SCANNING
BY EDIT /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.

For CentOS, add this line in devices {} section. In this example /dev/sda3 is backend device and /dev/sdb is SSD cache.

filter = [ "r|/dev/sda3|","r|/dev/sdb|" ]

and comment

# filter = [ "a/.*/" ]
ANOTHER CAUTION!

qemu/kvm with flashcache backend have problems about data corruption on flashcache. If data get writes to disk with ‘cache=none’ on qemu/kvm with windows guests. Don’t use cache=none on windows guests. This seems to related to DirectIO or FUA which bypass cache mechanism used by flashcache that causes corruption.

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Linux: Prefer IPv4 over IPv6 in dual-stack environment (and prevent problems when only IPv4 exists)

Filed in Linux | Networking Leave a comment

On Linux, there is a feature of IPv6 stack on linux that allow IPv4 mapped as IPv6 address using IPv6 mapped IPv4 address (::ffff/96). This allow IPv6 capable application to use only single socket to accept or connect both IPv4 and IPv6.

By default, if you have both IPv4 and native IPv6. Linux system application (glibc) will use IPv6 by default if it exists because getaddrinfo() will return IPv6 first. This is controlled by glibc’s IPv6 address selection preference for getaddrinfo() in /etc/gai.conf. (Note: some application may have mechanism to decide which address to use other than what provide by getaddrinfo()).

/etc/gai.conf control address selection by label and preferences. This is some of it in Gentoo Linux

# Configuration for getaddrinfo(3).
#
# So far only configuration for the destination address sorting is needed.
# RFC 3484 governs the sorting. But the RFC also says that system
# administrators should be able to overwrite the defaults. This can be
# achieved here.
#
# All lines have an initial identifier specifying the option followed by
# up to two values. Information specified in this file replaces the
# default information. Complete absence of data of one kind causes the
# appropriate default information to be used. The supported commands include:
#
# reload
# If set to yes, each getaddrinfo(3) call will check whether this file
# changed and if necessary reload. This option should not really be
# used. There are possible runtime problems. The default is no.
#
# label
# Add another rule to the RFC 3484 label table. See section 2.1 in
# RFC 3484. The default is:
#
#label ::1/128 0
#label ::/0 1
#label 2002::/16 2
#label ::/96 3
#label ::ffff:0:0/96 4
#label fec0::/10 5
#label fc00::/7 6
#label 2001:0::/32 7
#
# This default differs from the tables given in RFC 3484 by handling
# (now obsolete) site-local IPv6 addresses and Unique Local Addresses.
# The reason for this difference is that these addresses are never
# NATed while IPv4 site-local addresses most probably are. Given
# the precedence of IPv6 over IPv4 (see below) on machines having only
# site-local IPv4 and IPv6 addresses a lookup for a global address would
# see the IPv6 be preferred. The result is a long delay because the
# site-local IPv6 addresses cannot be used while the IPv4 address is
# (at least for the foreseeable future) NATed. We also treat Teredo
# tunnels special.
#
# precedence
# Add another rule to the RFC 3484 precedence table. See section 2.1
# and 10.3 in RFC 3484. The default is:
#
#precedence ::1/128 50
#precedence ::/0 40
#precedence 2002::/16 30
#precedence ::/96 20
#precedence ::ffff:0:0/96 10
#
# For sites which prefer IPv4 connections change the last line to
#
#precedence ::ffff:0:0/96 100
#
# scopev4
# Add another rule to the RFC 3484 scope table for IPv4 addresses.
# The definitions in RFC 3484 are equivalent to:
#
#scopev4 ::ffff:169.254.0.0/112 2
#scopev4 ::ffff:127.0.0.0/104 2
#scopev4 ::ffff:10.0.0.0/104 5
#scopev4 ::ffff:172.16.0.0/108 5
#scopev4 ::ffff:192.168.0.0/112 5
#scopev4 ::ffff:0.0.0.0/96 14
#
# For sites which use site-local IPv4 addresses behind NAT there is
# the problem that even if IPv4 addresses are preferred they do not
# have the same scope and are therefore not sorted first. To change
# this use only these rules:
#
scopev4 ::ffff:169.254.0.0/112 2
scopev4 ::ffff:127.0.0.0/104 2
scopev4 ::ffff:0.0.0.0/96 14

In some network this assumption may cause some problems because most IPv6 connection right now is not as good as IPv4 (more lattency, etc.). Sometimes even cause serious problems because IPv6 link-local (address begin with ff80::) are considered valid IPv6 address. Since current Linux distributions shipped with IPv6 enabled (ipv6 modules loaded or compiled in), some application failed to work if you do not have IPv6 connectivity or at least slow to connect because IPv6 was attempt first and it timed out.

As you see in the comment
If you want to prefer IPv4 over IPv6, just change precedence line of ::ffff:0:0/96 from 10 to 100
(If you do not have /etc/gai.conf at all, create it and add only that line, it should work).

But … Some other default configuration of glibc on some distros are still to have problems with /etc/hosts. Make sure you have this line in [b]/etc/host.conf[/b] if you want dual stack to work as it should. 

multi on
 

This line is require to allow glibc to return multiple addresses when using /etc/hosts, otherwise it will return only the first match. IPv4 or IPv6 only applications will have problems. Let’s say if you have ‘::1 localhost’ first and ‘127.0.0.1 localhost’ second. ping localhost will failed if you not have ‘multi on’ in /etc/host.conf. (This will have performance problems if you have large /etc/hosts, but this is only way until glibc address hinting on /etc/hosts get implemented)

Moreover, many application are not aware that when both IPv4 and IPv6 exists, they don’t do multiple attempts (fallback) using different address family (when glibc return multiple address so). Some times they do but you need to explicitly config it to do that.

One application I found with this problem is [b]postfix[/b] it seems failed to fallback to another address family while multiple address family exists (IPv4 and IPv6). You need to add this line to postfix configuration (main.cf) or your mail may stuck in bounce queue because it cannot connect to another server via IPv6.

smtp_address_preference=any
 

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