https://www.centlinux.com/2018/08/keepalived-configure-floating-ip-centos-7.

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In this article, we will configure a Floating IP address for the cluster of two web servers by
using KeepAlived.
 

Table of Contents:

 What is Floating IP Address?

 What is KeepAlived?
 System Specification
 Configure KeepAlived on webserver-01
 Configure KeepAlived on webserver-02
 Testing KeepAlived Configuration
 Conclusion
 

What is Floating IP Address? :

Floating IP address is used to support failover in a high-availability cluster. The cluster is

configured such that only the active member of the cluster "owns" or responds to that IP
address at any given time. Should the active member fail, then "ownership" of the floating IP
address would be transferred to a standby member to promote it as the new active member.
Specifically, the member to be promoted issues a gratuitous ARP, announcing the new MAC
address–to–IP address association.
 

What is KeepAlived? :

Keepalived is a routing software written in C. The main goal of this project is to provide simple
and robust facilities for loadbalancing and high-availability to Linux system and Linux based
infrastructures. Loadbalancing framework relies on well-known and widely used Linux Virtual
Server (IPVS) kernel module providing Layer4 loadbalancing. Keepalived implements a set of
checkers to dynamically and adaptively maintain and manage loadbalanced server pool
according their health. On the other hand high-availability is achieved by VRRP protocol. VRRP
is a fundamental brick for router failover. In addition, Keepalived implements a set of hooks to
the VRRP finite state machine providing low-level and high-speed protocol interactions.
Keepalived frameworks can be used independently or all together to provide resilient
infrastructures.
KeepAlived performs well with haproxy load balancers. Have a look at our article on how to
install and configure haproxy load balancer on CentOS 7.
 

System Specification:

We have two webservers webserver-01.centlinux.com and webserver-02.centlinux.com.

Hostname webserver-01.centlinux.com webserver-02.centlinux.com
IP Address 192.168.116.31/24 192.168.116.32/24
Operating System CentOS 7 CentOS 7
Web Server Nginx Nginx
Floating IP Address: 192.168.116.50/24
To ensure that our webservers are properly configured and browsable, open their URLs in a
Browser.
I have set different index pages on both servers, to differentiate between servers, when we are
accessing them via the Floating IP address.
 

Configure KeepAlived on webserver-01:

Connect to webserver-01.centlinux.com and install keepalived by using yum command.

[root@webserver-01 ~]# yum install -y keepalived
Loaded plugins: langpacks, product-id, subscription-manager
This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use
subscription-manager to register.
localyum | 4.1 kB 00:00
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package keepalived.x86_64 0:1.2.10-2.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libnetsnmp.so.31()(64bit) for package: keepalived-
1.2.10-2.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libnetsnmpagent.so.31()(64bit) for package:
keepalived-1.2.10-2.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libnetsnmpmibs.so.31()(64bit) for package:
keepalived-1.2.10-2.el7.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package net-snmp-agent-libs.x86_64 1:5.7.2-18.el7 will be installed
---> Package net-snmp-libs.x86_64 1:5.7.2-18.el7 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

==============================================================================
==
Package Arch Version Repository
Size
==============================================================================
==
Installing:
keepalived x86_64 1.2.10-2.el7 localyum 218
k
Installing for dependencies:
net-snmp-agent-libs x86_64 1:5.7.2-18.el7 localyum 698
k
net-snmp-libs x86_64 1:5.7.2-18.el7 localyum 745
k

Transaction Summary
==============================================================================
==
Install 1 Package (+2 Dependent packages)

Total download size: 1.6 M

Installed size: 5.6 M
Downloading packages:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Total 2.6 MB/s | 1.6 MB 00:00
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Installing : 1:net-snmp-libs-5.7.2-18.el7.x86_64
1/3
Installing : 1:net-snmp-agent-libs-5.7.2-18.el7.x86_64
2/3
Installing : keepalived-1.2.10-2.el7.x86_64
3/3
Verifying : 1:net-snmp-libs-5.7.2-18.el7.x86_64
1/3
Verifying : 1:net-snmp-agent-libs-5.7.2-18.el7.x86_64
2/3
Verifying : keepalived-1.2.10-2.el7.x86_64
3/3

Installed:
keepalived.x86_64 0:1.2.10-2.el7

Dependency Installed:
net-snmp-agent-libs.x86_64 1:5.7.2-18.el7 net-snmp-libs.x86_64 1:5.7.2-
18.el7

Complete!
Set Linux Kernel parameters as follows to support Floating IP.
[root@webserver-01 ~]# echo "net.ipv4.ip_nonlocal_bind = 1" >>
/etc/sysctl.conf
[root@webserver-01 ~]# sysctl -p
net.ipv4.ip_nonlocal_bind = 1
[root@webserver-01 ~]# systemctl stop firewalld; systemctl disable firewalld
Now configure keepalived settings.
[root@webserver-01 ~]# cd /etc/keepalived/
[root@webserver-01 keepalived]# mv keepalived.conf keepalived.conf.org
[root@webserver-01 keepalived]# vi keepalived.conf
Add following directives and save.
! Configuration File for keepalived

global_defs {
notification_email {
root@webserver-01.centlinux.com
}
notification_email_from root@webserver-01.centlinux.com
smtp_server 127.0.0.1
smtp_connect_timeout 30
router_id LVS_DEVEL
}

vrrp_instance VI_1 {
state MASTER
interface eno16777728
virtual_router_id 51
priority 101 #used in election, 101 for master & 100 for backup
advert_int 1
authentication {
auth_type PASS
auth_pass 1111
}
virtual_ipaddress {
192.168.116.50/24
}
}
Start and enable keepalived service.
[root@webserver-01 keepalived]# systemctl start keepalived ; systemctl enable
keepalived
ln -s '/usr/lib/systemd/system/keepalived.service' '/etc/systemd/system/multi-
user.target.wants/keepalived.service'
Check IP Address of the server.
[root@webserver-01 keepalived]# ip addr | grep "inet" | grep "eno16777728"
inet 192.168.116.31/24 brd 192.168.116.255 scope global eno16777728
inet 192.168.116.50/24 scope global secondary eno16777728
[root@webserver-01 keepalived]#
You might observe that the Floating IP: 192.168.116.50 has been assigned to the network
interface.
 

Configure KeepAlived on webserver-02:

Connect to webserver-02.centlinux.com and install keepalived by using yum command.

[root@webserver-02 ~]# yum install -y keepalived
Loaded plugins: langpacks, product-id, subscription-manager
This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use
subscription-manager to register.
localyum | 4.1 kB 00:00
nginx | 2.9 kB 00:01
rpmforge | 1.9 kB 00:00
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package keepalived.x86_64 0:1.2.10-2.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libnetsnmp.so.31()(64bit) for package: keepalived-
1.2.10-2.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libnetsnmpagent.so.31()(64bit) for package:
keepalived-1.2.10-2.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libnetsnmpmibs.so.31()(64bit) for package:
keepalived-1.2.10-2.el7.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package net-snmp-agent-libs.x86_64 1:5.7.2-18.el7 will be installed
---> Package net-snmp-libs.x86_64 1:5.7.2-18.el7 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

==============================================================================
==
Package Arch Version Repository
Size
==============================================================================
==
Installing:
keepalived x86_64 1.2.10-2.el7 localyum 218
k
Installing for dependencies:
net-snmp-agent-libs x86_64 1:5.7.2-18.el7 localyum 698
k
net-snmp-libs x86_64 1:5.7.2-18.el7 localyum 745
k

Transaction Summary
==============================================================================
==
Install 1 Package (+2 Dependent packages)

Total download size: 1.6 M

Installed size: 5.6 M
Downloading packages:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Total 11 MB/s | 1.6 MB 00:00
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Installing : 1:net-snmp-libs-5.7.2-18.el7.x86_64
1/3
 Installing : 1:net-snmp-agent-libs-5.7.2-18.el7.x86_64
2/3
Installing : keepalived-1.2.10-2.el7.x86_64
3/3
Verifying : 1:net-snmp-libs-5.7.2-18.el7.x86_64
1/3
Verifying : 1:net-snmp-agent-libs-5.7.2-18.el7.x86_64
2/3
Verifying : keepalived-1.2.10-2.el7.x86_64
3/3

Installed:
keepalived.x86_64 0:1.2.10-2.el7

Dependency Installed:
net-snmp-agent-libs.x86_64 1:5.7.2-18.el7 net-snmp-libs.x86_64 1:5.7.2-
18.el7

Complete!
Set Linux Kernel parameters as follows to support Floating IP.
[root@webserver-02 ~]# echo "net.ipv4.ip_nonlocal_bind = 1" >>
/etc/sysctl.conf
[root@webserver-02 ~]# sysctl -p
net.ipv4.ip_nonlocal_bind = 1
Now configure keepalived settings.
[root@webserver-02 ~]# cd /etc/keepalived/
[root@webserver-02 keepalived]# mv keepalived.conf keepalived.conf.org
[root@webserver-02 keepalived]# vi keepalived.conf
Add following directives and save.
! Configuration File for keepalived

global_defs {
notification_email {
root@webserver-02.centlinux.com
}
notification_email_from root@webserver-02.centlinux.com
 smtp_server 127.0.0.1
smtp_connect_timeout 30
router_id LVS_DEVEL
}

vrrp_instance VI_1 {
state BACKUP
interface eno16777728
virtual_router_id 51
priority 100 #used in election, 101 for master & 100 for backup
advert_int 1
authentication {
auth_type PASS
auth_pass 1111
}
virtual_ipaddress {
192.168.116.50/24
}
}
Start and enable keepalived service.
[root@webserver-02 keepalived]# systemctl start keepalived ; systemctl enable
keepalived
ln -s '/usr/lib/systemd/system/keepalived.service' '/etc/systemd/system/multi-
user.target.wants/keepalived.service'
Check IP Address of the server.
[root@webserver-02 keepalived]# ip addr | grep "inet" | grep "eno16777728"
inet 192.168.116.32/24 brd 192.168.116.255 scope global eno16777728
inet 192.168.116.50/24 scope global secondary eno16777728
[root@webserver-02 keepalived]#
You might observe that the Floating IP: 192.168.116.50 has been assigned to the network
interface.
 

Testing KeepAlived Configuration:

Open the Floating IP Address http://192.168.116.50 in a browser.

Refresh webpage multiple times, and you will always get the result from same server
i.e. webserver-01.centlinux.com.
Now, make webserver-01.centlinux.com unavailable by disconnecting its network connection.
[root@webserver-01 ~]# nmcli c down eno16777728
Again Refresh your webpage.
You can see that, due to unavailability of webserver-01.centlinux.com the Floating IP is now
moved to webserver-02.centlinux.com.