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25 <H1>L2TPNS Manual
</H1>
27 <LI><A HREF=
"#Overview">Overview
</A></LI>
28 <LI><A HREF=
"#Installation">Installation
</A>
30 <LI><A HREF=
"#Requirements">Requirements
</A></LI>
31 <LI><A HREF=
"#Compile">Compile
</A></LI>
32 <LI><A HREF=
"#Install">Install
</A></LI>
33 <LI><A HREF=
"#Running">Running
</A></LI>
36 <LI><A HREF=
"#Configuration">Configuration
</A>
38 <LI><A HREF=
"#startup-config">startup-config
</A></LI>
39 <LI><A HREF=
"#users">users
</A></LI>
40 <LI><A HREF=
"#ip-pool">ip_pool
</A></LI>
41 <LI><A HREF=
"#build-garden">build-garden
</A></LI>
44 <LI><A HREF=
"#ControllingtheProcess">Controlling the Process
</A>
46 <LI><A HREF=
"#Command-LineInterface">Command-Line Interface
</A></LI>
47 <LI><A HREF=
"#nsctl">nsctl
</A></LI>
48 <LI><A HREF=
"#Signals">Signals
</A></LI>
51 <LI><A HREF=
"#Throttling">Throttling
</A></LI>
52 <LI><A HREF=
"#Interception">Interception
</A></LI>
53 <LI><A HREF=
"#Authentication">Authentication
</A></LI>
54 <LI><A HREF=
"#Plugins">Plugins
</A></LI>
55 <LI><A HREF=
"#WalledGarden">Walled Garden
</A></LI>
56 <LI><A HREF=
"#Filtering">Filtering
</A></LI>
57 <LI><A HREF=
"#Clustering">Clustering
</A></LI>
58 <LI><A HREF=
"#Routing">Routing
</A></LI>
59 <LI><A HREF=
"#Performance">Performance
</A></LI>
62 <H2 ID=
"Overview">Overview
</H2>
63 l2tpns a complete L2TP implementation. It supports the LAC, LNS, PPPOE and DHCPv6 server.
<P>
65 L2TP (Layer
2 Tunneling Protocol) is designed to allow any layer
2 protocol (e.g. Ethernet, PPP) to be tunneled over an IP connection. l2tpns implements PPP over L2TP only.
<P>
67 There are a couple of other L2TP implementations, of which
<A HREF=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/l2tpd">l2tpd
</A> is probably the most popular. l2tpd also will handle being either end of a tunnel, and is a lot more configurable than l2tpns. However, due to the way it works, it is nowhere near as scalable.
<P>
69 l2tpns uses the TUN/TAP interface provided by the Linux kernel to receive and send packets. Using some packet manipulation it doesn't require a single interface per connection, as l2tpd does.
<P>
71 This allows it to scale extremely well to very high loads and very high numbers of connections.
<P>
73 It also has a plugin architecture which allows custom code to be run during processing. An example of this is in the walled garden module included.
<P>
76 <EM>Documentation is not my best skill. If you find any problems
77 with this document, or if you wish to contribute, please email
<A
78 HREF=
"mailto:l2tpns-users@lists.sourceforge.net?subject=L2TPNS+Documentation">the mailing list
</A>.
</EM><P>
80 <H2 ID=
"Installation">Installation
</H2>
81 <H3 ID=
"Requirements">Requirements
</H3>
84 <LI>Linux kernel version
2.4 or above, with the Tun/Tap interface either
85 compiled in, or as a module.
</LI>
87 <LI>libcli
1.8.0 or greater.
<BR>You can get this from
<A
88 HREF=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/libcli">http://sourceforge.net/projects/libcli
</A></LI>
91 <H3 ID=
"Compile">Compile
</H3>
93 You can generally get away with just running
<B>make
</B> from the source
94 directory. This will compile the daemon, associated tools and any modules
95 shipped with the distribution.
<P>
97 <H3 ID=
"Install">Install
</H3>
99 After you have successfully compiled everything, run
<B>make
100 install
</B> to install it. By default, the binaries are installed into
101 <EM>/usr/sbin
</EM>, the configuration into
<EM>/etc/l2tpns
</EM>, and the
102 modules into
<EM>/usr/lib/l2tpns
</EM>.
<P>
104 You will definately need to edit the configuration files before you
105 start. See the
<A HREF=
"#Configuration">Configuration
</A> section for
108 <H3 ID=
"Running">Running
</H3>
110 You only need to run
<B>/usr/sbin/l2tpns
</B> as root to start it. It does
111 not detach to a daemon process, so you should perhaps run it from init.
<P>
113 By default there is no log destination set, so all log messages will go to
116 <H2 ID=
"Configuration">Configuration
</H2>
118 All configuration of the software is done from the files installed into
121 <H3 ID=
"startup-config">startup-config
</H3>
123 This is the main configuration file for l2tpns. The format of the file is a
124 list of commands that can be run through the command-line interface. This
125 file can also be written directly by the l2tpns process if a user runs the
126 <EM>write memory
</EM> command, so any comments will be lost. However if your
127 policy is not to write the config by the program, then feel free to comment
128 the file with a # or ! at the beginning of the line.
<P>
130 A list of the possible configuration directives follows. Each of these
131 should be set by a line like:
<P>
133 set configstring
"value"
134 set ipaddress
192.168.1.1
140 <LI><B>debug
</B> (int)
<BR>
141 Sets the level of messages that will be written to the log file. The value
142 should be between
0 and
5, with
0 being no debugging, and
5 being the
143 highest. A rough description of the levels is:
145 <LI VALUE=
0>Critical Errors - Things are probably broken
</LI>
146 <LI>Errors - Things might have gone wrong, but probably will recover
</LI>
147 <LI>Warnings - Just in case you care what is not quite perfect
</LI>
148 <LI>Information - Parameters of control packets
</LI>
149 <LI>Calls - For tracing the execution of the code
</LI>
150 <LI>Packets - Everything, including a hex dump of all packets processed... probably twice
</LI>
152 Note that the higher you set the debugging level, the slower the program
153 will run. Also, at level
5 a LOT of information will be logged. This should
154 only ever be used for working out why it doesn't work at all.
157 <LI><B>log_file
</B> (string)
<BR>
158 This will be where all logging and debugging information is written to. This may be either a filename, such as
<EM>/var/log/l2tpns
</EM>, or the special magic string
<EM>syslog:facility
</EM>, where
<EM>facility
</EM> is any one of the syslog logging facilities, such as local5.
161 <LI><B>pid_file
</B> (string)
<BR>
162 If set, the process id will be written to the specified file. The value must be an absolute path.
165 <LI><B>random_device
</B>B
> (string)
<BR>
166 Path to random data source (default /dev/urandom). Use
"" to use the rand() library function.
169 <LI><B>l2tp_secret
</B> (string)
<BR>
170 The secret used by l2tpns for authenticating tunnel request. Must be
171 the same as the LAC, or authentication will fail. Only actually be
172 used if the LAC requests authentication.
175 <LI><B>l2tp_mtu
</B> (int)
<BR>
176 MTU of interface for L2TP traffic (default:
1500). Used to set link MRU and adjust TCP MSS.
179 <LI><B>ppp_restart_time
</B> (int)
<BR>
180 <B>ppp_max_configure
</B> (int)
<BR>
181 <B>ppp_max_failure
</B> (int)
<BR>
182 PPP counter and timer values, as described in
§4.1 of
183 <a href=
"ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc1661.txt">RFC1661
</a>.
186 <LI><B>primary_dns
</B> (ip address)
187 <LI><B>secondary_dns
</B> (ip address)
<BR>
188 Whenever a PPP connection is established, DNS servers will be sent to the
189 user, both a primary and a secondary. If either is set to
0.0.0.0, then that
190 one will not be sent.
193 <LI><B>primary_radius
</B> (ip address)
194 <LI><B>secondary_radius
</B> (ip address)
<BR>
195 Sets the RADIUS servers used for both authentication and accounting.
196 If the primary server does not respond, then the secondary RADIUS
197 server will be tried.
<br>
198 <strong>Note:
</strong> in addition to the source IP address and
199 identifier, the RADIUS server
<strong>must
</strong> include the source
200 port when detecting duplicates to supress (in order to cope with a
201 large number of sessions comming on-line simultaneously l2tpns uses a
202 set of udp sockets, each with a seperate identifier).
205 <LI><B>primary_radius_port
</B> (short)
206 <LI><B>secondary_radius_port
</B> (short)
<BR>
207 Sets the authentication ports for the primary and secondary RADIUS
208 servers. The accounting port is one more than the authentication
209 port. If no RADIUS ports are given, the authentication port defaults
210 to
1645, and the accounting port to
1646.
213 <LI><B>radius_accounting
</B> (boolean)
<BR>
214 If set to true, then RADIUS accounting packets will be sent. This
215 means that a Start record will be sent when the session is
216 successfully authenticated, and a Stop record will be sent when the
220 <LI><B>radius_secret
</B> (string)
<BR>
221 This secret will be used in all RADIUS queries. If this is not set then RADIUS queries will fail.
224 <LI><B>radius_authtypes
</B> (string)
</BR>
225 A comma separated list of supported RADIUS authentication methods
226 (
<B>pap
</B> or
<B>chap
</B>), in order of preference (default
<B>pap
</B>).
229 <LI><B>radius_dae_port
</B> (short)
<BR>
230 Port for DAE RADIUS (Packet of Death/Disconnect, Change of Authorization)
231 requests (default:
<B>3799</B>).
234 <LI><B>allow_duplicate_users
</B> (boolean)
</BR>
235 Allow multiple logins with the same username. If false (the default),
236 any prior session with the same username will be dropped when a new
237 session is established.
240 <LI><B>bind_address
</B> (ip address)
<BR>
241 It's the listen address of the l2tp udp protocol sent and received to LAC. This address is also assigned to the tun interface if no iftun_address is specified. Packets containing user traffic should be routed via this address if given, otherwise the primary address of the machine.
244 <LI><B>iftun_address
</B> (ip address)
<BR>
245 This parameter is used when you want a tun interface address different
246 from the address of
"bind_address" (For use in cases of specific configuration).
247 If no address is given to iftun_address and bind_address,
1.1.1.1 is used.
250 <LI><B>bind_multi_address
</B> (ip address)
<BR>
251 This parameter permit to listen several addresss of the l2tp udp protocol
252 (and set several address to the tun interface).
254 WHEN this parameter is set, It OVERWRITE the parameters
"bind_address"
257 these can be interesting when you want do load-balancing in cluster mode
258 of the uploaded from the LAC. For example you can set a bgp.prepend(MY_AS)
259 for Address1 on LNS1 and a bgp.prepend(MY_AS) for Address2 on LNS2
260 (see BGP AS-path prepending).
262 example of use with
2 address:
264 set bind_multi_address
"64.14.13.41, 64.14.13.42"
267 <LI><B>tundevicename
</B> (string)
<BR>
268 Name of the tun interface (default:
"tun0").
271 <LI><B>peer_address
</B> (ip address)
<BR>
272 Address to send to clients as the default gateway.
275 <LI><B>send_garp
</B> (boolean)
<BR>
276 Determines whether or not to send a gratuitous ARP for the
277 bind_address when the server is ready to handle traffic (default:
279 This value is ignored if BGP is configured.
282 <LI><B>throttle_speed
</B> (int)
<BR>
283 Sets the default speed (in kbits/s) which sessions will be limited to.
284 If this is set to
0, then throttling will not be used at all. Note:
285 You can set this by the CLI, but changes will not affect currently
289 <LI><B>throttle_buckets
</B> (int)
<BR>
290 Number of token buckets to allocate for throttling. Each throttled
291 session requires two buckets (in and out).
294 <LI><B>accounting_dir
</B> (string)
<BR>
295 If set to a directory, then every
5 minutes the current usage for
296 every connected use will be dumped to a file in this directory. Each
297 file dumped begins with a header, where each line is prefixed by #.
298 Following the header is a single line for every connected user, fields
299 separated by a space.
<BR> The fields are username, ip, qos,
300 uptxoctets, downrxoctets, origin (optional). The qos field is
1 if a standard user, and
301 2 if the user is throttled. The origin field is dump if account_all_origin is set to true
302 (origin value: L=LAC data, R=Remote LNS data, P=PPPOE data).
305 <LI><B>account_all_origin
</B> (boolean)
<BR>
306 If set to true, all origin of the usage is dumped to the accounting file (LAC+Remote LNS+PPPOE)(default false).
309 <LI><B>dump_speed
</B> (boolean)
<BR>
310 If set to true, then the current bandwidth utilization will be logged every
311 second. Even if this is disabled, you can see this information by running
312 the
<EM>uptime
</EM> command on the CLI.
315 <LI><B>multi_read_count
</B> (int)
<BR>
316 Number of packets to read off each of the UDP and TUN fds when
317 returned as readable by select (default:
10). Avoids incurring the
318 unnecessary system call overhead of select on busy servers.
321 <LI><B>scheduler_fifo
</B> (boolean)
<BR>
322 Sets the scheduling policy for the l2tpns process to SCHED_FIFO. This
323 causes the kernel to immediately preempt any currently running SCHED_OTHER
324 (normal) process in favour of l2tpns when it becomes runnable.
325 Ignored on uniprocessor systems.
328 <LI><B>lock_pages
</B> (boolean)
<BR>
329 Keep all pages mapped by the l2tpns process in memory.
332 <LI><B>icmp_rate
</B> (int)
<BR>
333 Maximum number of host unreachable ICMP packets to send per second.
336 <LI><B>packet_limit
</B> (int
><BR>
337 Maximum number of packets of downstream traffic to be handled each
338 tenth of a second per session. If zero, no limit is applied (default:
339 0). Intended as a DoS prevention mechanism and not a general
340 throttling control (packets are dropped, not queued).
343 <LI><B>cluster_address
</B> (ip address)
<BR>
344 Multicast cluster address (default:
239.192.13.13). See the section
345 on
<A HREF=
"#Clustering">Clustering
</A> for more information.
348 <LI><B>cluster_interface
</B> (string)
<BR>
349 Interface for cluster packets (default: eth0).
352 <LI><B>cluster_mcast_ttl
</B> (int)
<BR>
353 TTL for multicast packets (default:
1).
356 <LI><B>cluster_hb_interval
</B> (int)
<BR>
357 Interval in tenths of a second between cluster heartbeat/pings.
360 <LI><B>cluster_hb_timeout
</B> (int)
<BR>
361 Cluster heartbeat timeout in tenths of a second. A new master will be
362 elected when this interval has been passed without seeing a heartbeat
366 <LI><B>cluster_master_min_adv
</B> (int)
<BR>
367 Determines the minumum number of up to date slaves required before the
368 master will drop routes (default:
1).
371 <LI><B>echo_timeout
</B> (int)
<BR>
372 Time between last packet sent and LCP ECHO generation
373 (default:
10 (seconds)).
376 <LI><B>idle_echo_timeout
</B> (int)
<BR>
377 Drop sessions who have not responded within idle_echo_timeout seconds
378 (default:
240 (seconds))
381 <LI><B>auth_tunnel_change_addr_src
</B> (boolean)
<BR>
382 This parameter authorize to change the source IP of the tunnels l2tp.
383 This parameter can be used when the remotes BAS/LAC are l2tpns server
384 configured in cluster mode, but that the interface to remote LNS are
385 not clustered (the tunnel can be coming from different source IP)
389 <LI><B>disable_sending_hello
</B> (boolean)
<BR>
390 Disable l2tp sending HELLO message for Apple compatibility.
391 Some OS X implementation of l2tp no manage the L2TP
"HELLO message".
397 <P><U><B>LAC configuration
</B></U></P>
399 <LI><B>bind_address_remotelns
</B> (ip address)
<BR>
400 Address of the interface to listen the remote LNS tunnels.
401 If no address is given, all interfaces are listened (Any Address).
404 <LI><B>bind_portremotelns
</B> (short)
<BR>
405 Port to bind for the Remote LNS (default:
65432).
410 <P>A static REMOTES LNS configuration can be entered by the command:
</P>
411 <DL> <DD><B>setforward
</B> <I>MASK
</I> <I>IP
</I> <I>PORT
</I> <I>SECRET
</I> </DL>
413 where
<I>MASK
</I> specifies the mask of users who have forwarded to
414 remote LNS (ex:
"/friendISP@company.com").
</BR>
415 where
<I>IP
</I> specifies the IP of the remote LNS (ex:
"66.66.66.55").
</BR>
416 where
<I>PORT
</I> specifies the L2TP Port of the remote LNS
417 (Normally should be
1701) (ex:
1701).
</BR>
418 where
<I>SECRET
</I> specifies the secret password the remote LNS (ex: mysecret).
</BR>
420 The static Remote LNS configuration can be used when the friend ISP not
421 have a proxied Radius.
</BR>
422 If the proxied Radius is used, It will return the RADIUS attributes:
</BR>
423 Tunnel-Type:
1 = L2TP
</BR>
424 Tunnel-Medium-Type:
1 = IPv4
</BR>
425 Tunnel-Password:
1 =
"LESECRETL2TP"</BR>
426 Tunnel-Server-Endpoint:
1 =
"88.xx.xx.x1"</BR>
427 Tunnel-Assignment-Id:
1 =
"friendisp_lns1"</BR>
428 Tunnel-Type:
2 = L2TP
</BR>
429 Tunnel-Medium-Type:
2 = IPv4
</BR>
430 Tunnel-Password:
2 =
"LESECRETL2TP"</BR>
431 Tunnel-Server-Endpoint:
2 =
"88.xx.xx.x2"</BR>
432 Tunnel-Assignment-Id:
2 =
"friendisp_lns2"</BR>
434 <P><U><B>PPPOE configuration
</B></U></P>
437 <LI><B>pppoe_if_to_bind
</B> (string)
<BR>
438 PPPOE server interface to bind (ex:
"eth0.12"), If not specified the server PPPOE is not enabled.
439 For the pppoe clustering, all the interfaces PPPOE of the clusters must use the same HW address (MAC address).
442 <LI><B>pppoe_service_name
</B> (string)
<BR>
443 PPPOE service name (default: NULL).
446 <LI><B>pppoe_ac_name
</B> (string)
<BR>
447 PPPOE access concentrator name (default:
"l2tpns-pppoe").
450 <LI><B>pppoe_only_equal_svc_name
</B> (boolean)
<BR>
451 If set to yes, the PPPOE server only accepts clients with a
"service-name"
452 different from NULL and a
"service-name" equal to server
"service-name" (default: no).
457 <P><U><B>BGP configuration
</B></U></P>
459 <P>BGP routing configuration is entered by the command:
460 The routing configuration section is entered by the command
461 <DL><DD><B>router bgp
</B> <I>as
</I></DL>
462 where
<I>as
</I> specifies the local AS number.
464 <P>Subsequent lines prefixed with
465 <DL><DD><B>neighbour
</B> <I>peer
</I></DL>
466 define the attributes of BGP neighhbours. Valid commands are:
468 <DD><B>neighbour
</B> <I>peer
</I> <B>remote-as
</B> <I>as
</I>
469 <DD><B>neighbout
</B> <I>peer
</I> <B>timers
</B> <I>keepalive hold
</I>
472 Where
<I>peer
</I> specifies the BGP neighbour as either a hostname or
473 IP address,
<I>as
</I> is the remote AS number and
<I>keepalive
</I>,
474 <I>hold
</I> are the timer values in seconds.
476 <P>Named access-lists are configured using one of the commands:
478 <DD><B>ip access-list standard
</B> <I>name
</I>
479 <DD><B>ip access-list extended
</B> <I>name
</I>
482 <P>Subsequent lines prefixed with
<B>permit
</B> or
<B>deny
</B>
483 define the body of the access-list. Standard access-list syntax:
485 <DD>{
<B>permit
</B>|
<B>deny
</B>}
486 {
<I>host
</I>|
<I>source source-wildcard
</I>|
<B>any
</B>}
487 [{
<I>host
</I>|
<I>destination destination-wildcard
</I>|
<B>any
</B>}]
490 Extended access-lists:
492 <DIV STYLE=
"margin-left: 4em; text-indent: -2em">
493 <P>{
<B>permit
</B>|
<B>deny
</B>}
<B>ip
</B>
494 {
<I>host
</I>|
<I>source source-wildcard
</I>|
<B>any
</B>}
495 {
<I>host
</I>|
<I>destination destination-wildcard
</I>|
<B>any
</B>} [
<B>fragments
</B>]
496 <P>{
<B>permit
</B>|
<B>deny
</B>}
<B>udp
</B>
497 {
<I>host
</I>|
<I>source source-wildcard
</I>|
<B>any
</B>}
498 [{
<B>eq
</B>|
<B>neq
</B>|
<B>gt
</B>|
<B>lt
</B>}
<I>port
</I>|
<B>range
</B> <I>from
</I> <I>to
</I>]
499 {
<I>host
</I>|
<I>destination destination-wildcard
</I>|
<B>any
</B>}
500 [{
<B>eq
</B>|
<B>neq
</B>|
<B>gt
</B>|
<B>lt
</B>}
<I>port
</I>|
<B>range
</B> <I>from
</I> <I>to
</I>]
502 <P>{
<B>permit
</B>|
<B>deny
</B>}
<B>tcp
</B>
503 {
<I>host
</I>|
<I>source source-wildcard
</I>|
<B>any
</B>}
504 [{
<B>eq
</B>|
<B>neq
</B>|
<B>gt
</B>|
<B>lt
</B>}
<I>port
</I>|
<B>range
</B> <I>from
</I> <I>to
</I>]
505 {
<I>host
</I>|
<I>destination destination-wildcard
</I>|
<B>any
</B>}
506 [{
<B>eq
</B>|
<B>neq
</B>|
<B>gt
</B>|
<B>lt
</B>}
<I>port
</I>|
<B>range
</B> <I>from
</I> <I>to
</I>]
507 [{
<B>established
</B>|{
<B>match-any
</B>|
<B>match-all
</B>}
508 {
<B>+
</B>|
<B>-
</B>}{
<B>fin
</B>|
<B>syn
</B>|
<B>rst
</B>|
<B>psh
</B>|
<B>ack
</B>|
<B>urg
</B>}
509 ...|
<B>fragments
</B>]
512 <H3 ID=
"users">users
</H3>
514 Usernames and passwords for the command-line interface are stored in
515 this file. The format is
<I>username
</I><B>:
</B><I>password
</I> where
516 <I>password
</I> may either by plain text, an MD5 digest (prefixed by
517 <B>$
1</B><I>salt
</I><B>$
</B>) or a DES password, distinguished from
518 plain text by the prefix
<B>{crypt}
</B>.
<P>
520 The username
<B>enable
</B> has a special meaning and is used to set
521 the enable password.
<P>
523 <B>Note:
</B> If this file doesn't exist, then anyone who can get to
524 port
23 will be allowed access without a username / password.
<P>
526 <H3 ID=
"ip-pool">ip_pool
</H3>
528 This file is used to configure the IP address pool which user
529 addresses are assigned from. This file should contain either an IP
530 address or a CIDR network per line. e.g.:
<P>
541 Keep in mind that l2tpns can only handle
65535 connections per
542 process, so don't put more than
65535 IP addresses in the
543 configuration file. They will be wasted.
545 <H3 ID=
"build-garden">build-garden
</H3>
547 The garden plugin on startup creates a NAT table called
"garden" then
548 sources the
<B>build-garden
</B> script to populate that table. All
549 packets from gardened users will be sent through this table. Example:
552 iptables -t nat -A garden -p tcp -m tcp --dport
25 -j DNAT --to
192.168.1.1
553 iptables -t nat -A garden -p udp -m udp --dport
53 -j DNAT --to
192.168.1.1
554 iptables -t nat -A garden -p tcp -m tcp --dport
53 -j DNAT --to
192.168.1.1
555 iptables -t nat -A garden -p tcp -m tcp --dport
80 -j DNAT --to
192.168.1.1
556 iptables -t nat -A garden -p tcp -m tcp --dport
110 -j DNAT --to
192.168.1.1
557 iptables -t nat -A garden -p tcp -m tcp --dport
443 -j DNAT --to
192.168.1.1
558 iptables -t nat -A garden -p icmp -m icmp --icmp-type echo-request -j DNAT --to
192.168.1.1
559 iptables -t nat -A garden -p icmp -j ACCEPT
560 iptables -t nat -A garden -j DROP
563 <H2 ID=
"ControllingtheProcess">Controlling the Process
</H2>
565 A running l2tpns process can be controlled in a number of ways. The primary
566 method of control is by the Command-Line Interface (CLI).
<P>
568 You can also remotely send commands to modules via the nsctl client
571 Also, there are a number of signals that l2tpns understands and takes action
572 when it receives them.
574 <H3 ID=
"Command-LineInterface">Command-Line Interface
</H3>
576 You can access the command line interface by telnet'ing to port
23.
577 There is no IP address restriction, so it's a good idea to firewall
578 this port off from anyone who doesn't need access to it. See
579 <A HREF=
"#users">users
</A> for information on restricting access based
580 on a username and password.
<P>
582 The CLI gives you real-time control over almost everything in
583 the process. The interface is designed to look like a Cisco
584 device, and supports things like command history, line editing and
585 context sensitive help. This is provided by linking with the
586 <A HREF=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/libcli">libcli
</A>
587 library. Some general documentation of the interface is
588 <A HREF=
"http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=20501&group_id=79019">
591 After you have connected to the telnet port (and perhaps logged in), you
592 will be presented with a
<I>hostname
</I><B>></B> prompt.
<P>
594 Enter
<EM>help
</EM> to get a list of possible commands. A brief
595 overview of the more important commands follows:
598 <LI><B>show session
</B><BR>
599 Without specifying a session ID, this will list all tunnels currently
600 connected. If you specify a session ID, you will be given all
601 information on a single tunnel. Note that the full session list can
602 be around
185 columns wide, so you should probably use a wide terminal
603 to see the list properly.
<P>
604 The columns listed in the overview are:
606 <TR><TD><B>SID
</B></TD><TD>Session ID
</TD></TR>
607 <TR><TD><B>TID
</B></TD><TD>Tunnel ID - Use with
<EM>show tunnel tid
</EM></TD></TR>
608 <TR><TD><B>Username
</B></TD><TD>The username given in the PPP
609 authentication. If this is *, then LCP authentication has not
611 <TR><TD><B>IP
</B></TD><TD>The IP address given to the session. If
612 this is
0.0.0.0, LCP negotiation has not completed.
</TD></TR>
613 <TR><TD><B>I
</B></TD><TD>Intercept - Y or N depending on whether the
614 session is being snooped. See
<EM>snoop
</EM>.
</TD></TR>
615 <TR><TD><B>T
</B></TD><TD>Throttled - Y or N if the session is
616 currently throttled. See
<EM>throttle
</EM>.
</TD></TR>
617 <TR><TD><B>G
</B></TD><TD>Walled Garden - Y or N if the user is
618 trapped in the walled garden. This field is present even if the
619 garden module is not loaded.
</TD></TR>
620 <TR><TD><B>opened
</B></TD><TD>The number of seconds since the
621 session started
</TD></TR>
622 <TR><TD><B>downloaded
</B></TD><TD>Number of bytes downloaded by the user
</TD></TR>
623 <TR><TD><B>uploaded
</B></TD><TD>Number of bytes uploaded by the user
</TD></TR>
624 <TR><TD><B>idle
</B></TD><TD>The number of seconds since traffic was
625 detected on the session
</TD></TR>
626 <TR><TD><B>LAC
</B></TD><TD>The IP address of the LAC the session is
627 connected to.
</TD></TR>
628 <TR><TD><B>CLI
</B></TD><TD>The Calling-Line-Identification field
629 provided during the session setup. This field is generated by the
635 <LI><B>show users
</B><BR>
636 With no arguments, display a list of currently connected users. If an
637 argument is given, the session details for the given username are
641 <LI><B>show tunnel
</B><BR>
642 This will show all the open tunnels in a summary, or detail on a single
643 tunnel if you give a tunnel id.
<P>
644 The columns listed in the overview are:
646 <TR><TD><B>TID
</B></TD><TD>Tunnel ID
</TD></TR>
647 <TR><TD><B>Hostname
</B></TD><TD>The hostname for the tunnel as
648 provided by the LAC. This has no relation to DNS, it is just
649 a text field.
</TD></TR>
650 <TR><TD><B>IP
</B></TD><TD>The IP address of the LAC
</TD></TR>
651 <TR><TD><B>State
</B></TD><TD>Tunnel state - Free, Open, Dieing,
653 <TR><TD><B>Sessions
</B></TD><TD>The number of open sessions on the
659 <LI><B>show pool
</B><BR>
660 Displays the current IP address pool allocation. This will only display
661 addresses that are in use, or are reserved for re-allocation to a
662 disconnected user.
<P>
663 If an address is not currently in use, but has been used, then in the User
664 column the username will be shown in square brackets, followed by the time
665 since the address was used:
667 IP Address Used Session User
668 192.168.100.6 N [joe.user]
1548s
673 <LI><B>show radius
</B><BR>
674 Show a summary of the in-use RADIUS sessions. This list should not be very
675 long, as RADIUS sessions should be cleaned up as soon as they are used. The
678 <TR><TD><B>Radius
</B></TD><TD>The ID of the RADIUS request. This is
679 sent in the packet to the RADIUS server for identification.
</TD></TR>
680 <TR><TD><B>State
</B></TD><TD>The state of the request - WAIT, CHAP,
681 AUTH, IPCP, START, STOP, NULL.
</TD></TR>
682 <TR><TD><B>Session
</B></TD><TD>The session ID that this RADIUS
683 request is associated with
</TD></TR>
684 <TR><TD><B>Retry
</B></TD><TD>If a response does not appear to the
685 request, it will retry at this time. This is a unix timestamp.
</TD></TR>
686 <TR><TD><B>Try
</B></TD><TD>Retry count. The RADIUS request is
687 discarded after
3 retries.
</TD></TR>
692 <LI><B>show running-config
</B><BR>
693 This will list the current running configuration. This is in a format that
694 can either be pasted into the configuration file, or run directly at the
699 <LI><B>show counters
</B><BR>
700 Internally, counters are kept of key values, such as bytes and packets
701 transferred, as well as function call counters. This function displays all
702 these counters, and is probably only useful for debugging.
<P>
703 You can reset these counters by running
<EM>clear counters
</EM>.
707 <LI><B>show cluster
</B><BR>
708 Show cluster status. Shows the cluster state for this server
709 (Master/Slave), information about known peers and (for slaves) the
710 master IP address, last packet seen and up-to-date status.
<P>
711 See
<A HREF=
"#Clustering">Clustering
</A> for more information.
715 <LI><B>write memory
</B><BR>
716 This will write the current running configuration to the config file
717 <B>startup-config
</B>, which will be run on a restart.
722 You must specify a username, IP address and port. All packets for the
723 current session for that username will be forwarded to the given
724 host/port. Specify
<EM>no snoop username
</EM> to disable interception
727 If you want interception to be permanent, you will have to modify the RADIUS
728 response for the user. See
<A HREF=
"#Interception">Interception
</A>.
732 <LI><B>throttle
</B><BR>
733 You must specify a username, which will be throttled for the current
734 session. Specify
<EM>no throttle username
</EM> to disable throttling
735 for the current session.
<P>
737 If you want throttling to be permanent, you will have to modify the
738 RADIUS response for the user. See
<A HREF=
"#Throttling">Throttling
</A>.
742 <LI><B>drop session
</B><BR>
743 This will cleanly disconnect a session. You must specify a session id, which
744 you can get from
<EM>show session
</EM>. This will send a disconnect message
749 <LI><B>drop tunnel
</B><BR>
750 This will cleanly disconnect a tunnel, as well as all sessions on that
751 tunnel. It will send a disconnect message for each session individually, and
752 after
10 seconds it will send a tunnel disconnect message.
756 <LI><B>uptime
</B><BR>
757 This will show how long the l2tpns process has been running, and the current
758 bandwidth utilization:
760 17:
10:
35 up
8 days,
2212 users, load average:
0.21,
0.17,
0.16
761 Bandwidth: UDP-ETH:
6/
6 ETH-UDP:
13/
13 TOTAL:
37.6 IN:
3033 OUT:
2569
763 The bandwidth line contains
4 sets of values.
<BR>
764 UDP-ETH is the current bandwidth going from the LAC to the ethernet
765 (user uploads), in mbits/sec.
<BR>
766 ETH-UDP is the current bandwidth going from ethernet to the LAC (user
768 TOTAL is the total aggregate bandwidth in mbits/s.
<BR>
769 IN and OUT are packets/per-second going between UDP-ETH and ETH-UDP.
771 These counters are updated every second.
775 <LI><B>configure terminal
</B><BR>
776 Enter configuration mode. Use
<EM>exit
</EM> or ^Z to exit this mode.
777 The following commands are valid in this mode:
<P>
780 <LI><B>load plugin
</B><BR>
781 Load a plugin. You must specify the plugin name, and it will search in
782 /usr/lib/l2tpns for
<EM>plugin
</EM>.so. You can unload a loaded plugin with
783 <EM>remove plugin
</EM>.
788 Set a configuration variable. You must specify the variable name, and
789 the value. If the value contains any spaces, you should quote the
790 value with double (
") or single (') quotes.<P>
792 You can set any <A HREF="#startup-config
">startup-config</A> value in
793 this way, although some may require a restart to take effect.<P>
797 <H3 ID="nsctl
">nsctl</H3>
799 nsctl allows messages to be passed to plugins.<P>
801 Arguments are <EM>command</EM> and optional <EM>args</EM>. See
802 <STRONG>nsctl</STRONG>(8) for more details.<P>
804 Built-in command are <EM>load_plugin</EM>, <EM>unload_plugin</EM> and
805 <EM>help</EM>. Any other commands are passed to plugins for processing.
807 <H3 ID="Signals
">Signals</H3>
809 While the process is running, you can send it a few different signals, using
815 The signals understood are:
817 <DT>SIGHUP</DT><DD>Reload the config from disk and re-open log file.</DD>
818 <DT>SIGTERM, SIGINT</DT><DD>Stop process. Tunnels and sessions are not
819 terminated. This signal should be used to stop l2tpns on a
820 <A HREF="#Clustering
">cluster node</A> where there are other machines to
821 continue handling traffic.</DD>
822 <DT>SIGQUIT</DT><DD>Shut down tunnels and sessions, exit process when
826 <H2 ID="Throttling
">Throttling</H2>
828 l2tpns contains support for slowing down user sessions to whatever speed you
829 desire. You must first enable the global setting <EM>throttle_speed</EM>
830 before this will be activated.<P>
832 If you wish a session to be throttled permanently, you should set the
833 Vendor-Specific RADIUS value <B>Cisco-Avpair="throttle=yes
"</B>, which
834 will be handled by the <EM>autothrottle</EM> module.<P>
836 Otherwise, you can enable and disable throttling an active session using
837 the <EM>throttle</EM> CLI command.<P>
839 <H2 ID="Interception
">Interception</H2>
841 You may have to deal with legal requirements to be able to intercept a
842 user's traffic at any time. l2tpns allows you to begin and end interception
843 on the fly, as well as at authentication time.<P>
845 When a user is being intercepted, a copy of every packet they send and
846 receive will be sent wrapped in a UDP packet to the IP address and port set
847 in the <EM>snoop_host</EM> and <EM>snoop_port</EM> configuration
850 The UDP packet contains just the raw IP frame, with no extra headers.<P>
852 To enable interception on a connected user, use the <EM>snoop username</EM>
853 and <EM>no snoop username</EM> CLI commands. These will enable interception
856 If you wish the user to be intercepted whenever they reconnect, you will
857 need to modify the RADIUS response to include the Vendor-Specific value
858 <B>Cisco-Avpair="intercept=yes
"</B>. For this feature to be enabled,
859 you need to have the <EM>autosnoop</EM> module loaded.<P>
861 <H2 ID="Authentication
">Authentication</H2>
863 Whenever a session connects, it is not fully set up until authentication is
864 completed. The remote end must send a PPP CHAP or PPP PAP authentication
865 request to l2tpns.<P>
867 This request is sent to the RADIUS server, which will hopefully respond with
868 Auth-Accept or Auth-Reject.<P>
870 If Auth-Accept is received, the session is set up and an IP address is
871 assigned. The RADIUS server can include a Framed-IP-Address field in the
872 reply, and that address will be assigned to the client. It can also include
873 specific DNS servers, and a Framed-Route if that is required.<P>
875 If Auth-Reject is received, then the client is sent a PPP AUTHNAK packet,
876 at which point they should disconnect. The exception to this is when the
877 walled garden module is loaded, in which case the user still receives the
878 PPP AUTHACK, but their session is flagged as being a garden'd user, and they
879 should not receive any service.<P>
881 The RADIUS reply can also contain a Vendor-Specific attribute called
882 Cisco-Avpair. This field is a freeform text field that most Cisco
883 devices understand to contain configuration instructions for the session. In
884 the case of l2tpns it is expected to be of the form
886 key=value,key2=value2,key3=value3,key<EM>n</EM>=<EM>value</EM>
889 Each key-value pair is separated and passed to any modules loaded. The
890 <EM>autosnoop</EM> and <EM>autothrottle</EM> understand the keys
891 <EM>intercept</EM> and <EM>throttle</EM> respectively. For example, to have
892 a user who is to be throttled and intercepted, the Cisco-Avpair value should
895 intercept=yes,throttle=yes
898 <H2 ID="Plugins
">Plugins</H2>
900 So as to make l2tpns as flexible as possible (I know the core code is pretty
901 difficult to understand), it includes a plugin API, which you can use to
902 hook into certain events.<P>
904 There are a few example modules included - autosnoop, autothrottle and
907 When an event happens that has a hook, l2tpns looks for a predefined
908 function name in every loaded module, and runs them in the order the modules
911 The function should return <B>PLUGIN_RET_OK</B> if it is all OK. If it returns
912 <B>PLUGIN_RET_STOP</B>, then it is assumed to have worked, but that no further
913 modules should be run for this event.<P>
914 A return of <B>PLUGIN_RET_ERROR</B> means that this module failed, and
915 no further processing should be done for this event. <EM>Use this with care.</EM>
917 Every event function called takes a specific structure named
918 param_<EM>event</EM>, which varies in content with each event. The
919 function name for each event will be <B>plugin_<EM>event</EM></B>,
920 so for the event <EM>timer</EM>, the function declaration should look like:
922 int plugin_timer(struct param_timer *data);
925 A list of the available events follows, with a list of all the fields in the
927 <TABLE CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0><TR BGCOLOR=LIGHTGREEN><TD>
928 <TABLE CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=3>
929 <TR BGCOLOR=LIGHTGREEN><TH><B>Event</B></TH><TH><B>Description</B></TH><TH><B>Parameters</B></TH></TR>
930 <TR VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=WHITE><TD><B>pre_auth</B></TD>
931 <TD>This is called after a RADIUS response has been
932 received, but before it has been processed by the
933 code. This will allow you to modify the response in
942 <DT>protocol<DD>0xC023 for PAP, 0xC223 for CHAP
943 <DT>continue_auth<DD>Set to 0 to stop processing authentication modules
947 <TR VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=WHITE><TD><B>post_auth</B></TD>
948 <TD>This is called after a RADIUS response has been
949 received, and the basic checks have been performed. This
950 is what the garden module uses to force authentication
958 <DT>auth_allowed<DD>This is already set to true or
959 false depending on whether authentication has been
960 allowed so far. You can set this to 1 or 0 to force
961 allow or disallow authentication
962 <DT>protocol<DD>0xC023 for PAP, 0xC223 for CHAP
966 <TR VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=WHITE><TD><B>packet_rx</B></TD>
967 <TD>This is called whenever a session receives a
968 packet. <FONT COLOR=RED>Use this sparingly, as this will
969 seriously slow down the system.</FONT>
975 <DT>buf<DD>The raw packet data
976 <DT>len<DD>The length of buf
980 <TR VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=WHITE><TD><B>packet_tx</B></TD>
981 <TD>This is called whenever a session sends a
982 packet. <FONT COLOR=RED>Use this sparingly, as this will
983 seriously slow down the system.</FONT>
989 <DT>buf<DD>The raw packet data
990 <DT>len<DD>The length of buf
994 <TR VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=WHITE><TD><B>timer</B></TD>
995 <TD>This is run every second, no matter what is happening.
996 This is called from a signal handler, so make sure anything
1001 <DT>time_now<DD>The current unix timestamp
1005 <TR VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=WHITE><TD><B>new_session</B></TD>
1006 <TD>This is called after a session is fully set up. The
1007 session is now ready to handle traffic.
1016 <TR VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=WHITE><TD><B>kill_session</B></TD>
1017 <TD>This is called when a session is about to be shut down.
1018 This may be called multiple times for the same session.
1027 <TR VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=WHITE><TD><B>radius_response</B></TD>
1028 <TD>This is called whenever a RADIUS response includes a
1029 Cisco-Avpair value. The value is split up into
1030 <EM>key=value</EM> pairs, and each is processed through all
1042 <TR VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=WHITE><TD><B>radius_reset</B></TD>
1043 <TD>This is called whenever a RADIUS CoA request is
1044 received to reset any options to default values before
1045 the new values are applied.
1054 <TR VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=WHITE><TD><B>control</B></TD>
1055 <TD>This is called in whenever a nsctl packet is received.
1056 This should handle the packet and form a response if
1061 <DT>iam_master<DD>Cluster master status
1062 <DT>argc<DD>The number of arguments
1063 <DT>argv<DD>Arguments
1064 <DT>response<DD>Return value: NSCTL_RES_OK or NSCTL_RES_ERR
1065 <DT>additional<DD>Extended response text
1072 <H2 ID="WalledGarden
">Walled Garden</H2>
1074 Walled Garden is implemented so that you can provide perhaps limited service
1075 to sessions that incorrectly authenticate.<P>
1077 Whenever a session provides incorrect authentication, and the
1078 RADIUS server responds with Auth-Reject, the walled garden module
1079 (if loaded) will force authentication to succeed, but set the flag
1080 <EM>garden</EM> in the session structure, and adds an iptables rule to
1081 the <B>garden_users</B> chain to force all packets for the session's IP
1082 address to traverse the <B>garden</B> chain.<P>
1084 This doesn't <EM>just work</EM>. To set this all up, you will to
1085 setup the <B>garden</B> nat table with the
1086 <A HREF="#build-garden
">build-garden</A> script with rules to limit
1087 user's traffic. For example, to force all traffic except DNS to be
1088 forwarded to 192.168.1.1, add these entries to your
1089 <EM>build-garden</EM>:
1091 iptables -t nat -A garden -p tcp --dport ! 53 -j DNAT --to 192.168.1.1
1092 iptables -t nat -A garden -p udp --dport ! 53 -j DNAT --to 192.168.1.1
1095 l2tpns will add entries to the garden_users chain as appropriate.<P>
1097 You can check the amount of traffic being captured using the following
1100 iptables -t nat -L garden -nvx
1103 <H2 ID="Filtering
">Filtering</H2>
1105 Sessions may be filtered by specifying <B>Filter-Id</B> attributes in
1106 the RADIUS reply. <I>filter</I>.<B>in</B> specifies that the named
1107 access-list <I>filter</I> should be applied to traffic from the
1108 customer, <I>filter</I>.<B>out</B> specifies a list for traffic to the
1111 <H2 ID="Clustering
">Clustering</H2>
1113 An l2tpns cluster consists of of one* or more servers configured with
1114 the same configuration, notably the multicast <B>cluster_address</B>.<P>
1116 *A stand-alone server is simply a degraded cluster.<P>
1118 Initially servers come up as cluster slaves, and periodically (every
1119 <B>cluster_hb_interval</B>/10 seconds) send out ping packets
1120 containing the start time of the process to the multicast
1121 <B>cluster_address</B>.<P>
1123 A cluster master sends heartbeat rather than ping packets, which
1124 contain those session and tunnel changes since the last heartbeat.<P>
1126 When a slave has not seen a heartbeat within
1127 <B>cluster_hb_timeout</B>/10 seconds it "elects
" a new master by
1128 examining the list of peers it has seen pings from and determines
1129 which of these and itself is the "best
" candidate to be master.
1130 "Best
" in this context means the server with the highest uptime (the
1131 highest IP address is used as a tie-breaker in the case of equal
1134 After discovering a master, and determining that it is up-to-date (has
1135 seen an update for all in-use sessions and tunnels from heartbeat
1136 packets) will raise a route (see <A HREF="#Routing
">Routing</A>) for
1137 the <B>bind_address</B> and for all addresses/networks in
1138 <B>ip_pool</B>. Any packets recieved by the slave which would alter
1139 the session state, as well as packets for throttled or gardened
1140 sessions are forwarded to the master for handling. In addition, byte
1141 counters for session traffic are periodically forwarded.<P>
1143 A master, when determining that it has at least one up-to-date slave
1144 will drop all routes (raising them again if all slaves disappear) and
1145 subsequently handle only packets forwarded to it by the slaves.<P>
1147 <H2 ID="Routing
">Routing</H2>
1148 If you are running a single instance, you may simply statically route
1149 the IP pools to the <B>bind_address</B> (l2tpns will send a gratuitous
1152 For a cluster, configure the members as BGP neighbours on your router
1153 and configure multi-path load-balancing. Cisco uses "maximum-paths
1154 ibgp
" for IBGP. If this is not supported by your IOS revision, you
1155 can use "maximum-paths
" (which works for EBGP) and set
1156 <B>as_number</B> to a private value such as 64512.<P>
1158 <H2 ID="Performance
">Performance</H2>
1160 Performance is great.<P>
1162 I'd like to include some pretty graphs here that show a linear performance
1163 increase, with no impact by number of connected sessions.<P>
1165 That's really what it looks like.<P>
1169 <A HREF="mailto:l2tpns-users@lists.sourceforge.net?subject=L2TPNS%
20Documentation
">l2tpns-users@lists.sourceforge.net</A>