A ring with six nodes HowTo

This document describes how to configure six nodes in a ring.

See Figure 1 below

            .-------.   .-------.   .-------.
            |       |   |       |   |       |
     <-dir1-+ RICH1 +---+ FRNT1 +---+ RICO1 +-dir2->
            |       |   |       |   |       |
            '---+---'   '-------'   '---+---'
                |                       |
            .---+---.   .-------.   .---+---.
            |       |   |       |   |       |
     <-dir1-+ RICO2 +---+ FRNT2 +---+ RICH2 +-dir2->
            |       |   |       |   |       |
            '-------'   '-------'   '-------'
                      dir1 = (eth3)
                      dir2 = (eth4)

Figure 1: A single ring with six nodes.

It is enough to have one node running an instance of RiCh in active mode. However, in this example there are two nodes (RICH1, RICH2) that are configured with RiCh mode active.

  • RICH - Nodes that have a FRNTv2 instance, 2 RiCo instances and RiCh running as active.
  • RICO - Nodes that have a FRNTv2 instance, 2 RiCo instances and RiCh running as passive.
  • FRNT - Nodes that have a FRNTv2 instance running.

NOTE: In order to configure a ring with six nodes, all extremity nodes need to have the exact same configuration with respect to iface and uuid in the ring chaining context. Other nodes in the ring, here FRNT1 and FRNT2, only needs to be configured with the same iface.

RICH1:#> configure
RICH1:/config/#> iface vlan10
RICH1:/config/iface-vlan10/#> no inet
RICH1:/config/iface-vlan10/#> inet static 10.0.0.1/18
RICH1:/config/iface-vlan10/inet-static-10.0.0.1/#> end
RICH1:/config/iface-vlan10/#> end
RICH1:/config/#> ring
RICH1:/config/ring/#> frntv2 1
RICH1:/config/ring/frnt-1/#> port eth1
RICH1:/config/ring/frnt-1/port-eth1/#> end
RICH1:/config/ring/frnt-1/#> port eth2
RICH1:/config/ring/frnt-1/port-eth2/#> end
RICH1:/config/ring/frnt-1/#> end
RICH1:/config/ring/#> coupling 1
RICH1:/config/ring/coupling-1/#> coupling-port eth3
RICH1:/config/ring/coupling-1/coupling-port-eth3/#> priority 100
RICH1:/config/ring/coupling-1/coupling-port-eth3/#> end
RICH1:/config/ring/coupling-1/#> end
RICH1:/config/ring/#> coupling 2
RICH1:/config/ring/coupling-2/#> end
RICH1:/config/ring/#> chaining
Activating RiCh with default settings.
RICH1:/config/ring/chaining/#> uuid 11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111
RICH1:/config/ring/chaining/#> iface vlan10
RICH1:/config/ring/chaining/#> address 225.1.2.3
RICH1:/config/ring/chaining/#> dir1 1
RICH1:/config/ring/chaining/#> dir2 2
RICH1:/config/ring/chaining/#> mode active
RICH1:/config/ring/chaining/#> end
RICH1:/config/ring/#> end
RICH1:/config/#> end
Applying configuration.
Configuration activated.  Remember "copy run start" to save to flash (NVRAM).
RICH1:/#>

Repeat the same steps for RICH2. RICO1 and RICO2 shall use the same configuration except that RiCh mode is passive. Configure the coupling ports on RICO1 and RICO2 to a lower priority to make them work as backup coupling connections. The nodes FRNT1 and FRNT2 should only configure vlan and frntv2.