Connecting VMs Using Tunnels with Open vSwitch

This story describes how to use Open vSwitch to allow VMs on one hosts to communicate over port-based GRE tunnels. I want to use 192.168.42.1/24 IP range for these two VMs.

1. To set up Open vSwitch (OVS) on both VMs and configure a simple distributed virtual switch based on a GRE tunnel, follow the steps below. This example assumes you are using Ubuntu as the Linux distribution. Adjust the package installation commands based on your distribution.

Step 1: Install Open vSwitch on Both VMs

# Update package list
sudo apt-get update

# Install Open vSwitch
sudo apt-get install openvswitch-switch

Step 2: Create an OVS bridge on two VMs:

sudo ovs-vsctl add-br br0

Step 3: Configure a Simple Distributed Virtual Switch with a GRE Tunnel

On VM1:

1. Create a TAP device named tap0 and set its type to internal:

sudo ip tuntap add tap0 mode tap
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 tap0
sudo ovs-vsctl set interface tap0 type=internal

2. Assign an IP address to tap0:

sudo ifconfig tap0 192.168.42.1 netmask 255.255.255.0

3. Create a GRE tunnel interface named gre0:

sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 gre0 -- set interface gre0 type=gre options:remote_ip=<VM2_IP>Replace <VM2_IP> with the IP address of VM2.

#Replace <VM2_IP> with the IP address of VM2.

On VM2:

1. Create a TAP device named tap1 and set its type to internal:

sudo ip tuntap add tap0 mode tap
sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 tap1
sudo ovs-vsctl set interface tap1 type=internal

2. Assign an IP address to tap1:

sudo ifconfig tap1 192.168.42.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

3. Create a GRE tunnel interface named gre0:

sudo ovs-vsctl add-port br0 gre0 -- set interface gre0 type=gre options:remote_ip=<VM1_IP>

#Replace <VM1_IP> with the IP address of VM1.

Step 4: Verify the Configuration

1. Check the OVS bridge configuration:

sudo ovs-vsctl show

#Ensure that both tap0 and tap1 and gre0 are listed under the Port section.

2. Verify the TAPs device configurations:

#VM1
ip addr show tap0

#VM2
ip addr show tap1

Step 5: Test Connectivity

1. Ping from VM1 to VM2:

ping 192.168.42.2

2. Ping from VM2 to VM1:

ping 192.168.42.1

Step 6: Cleanup

To remove the configurations and cleanup:

# On VM1
sudo ovs-vsctl del-port br0 tap0
sudo ovs-vsctl del-port br0 gre0
sudo ip link delete tap0
sudo ovs-vsctl del-br br0

# On VM2
sudo ovs-vsctl del-port br0 tap1
sudo ovs-vsctl del-port br0 gre0
sudo ip link delete tap1
sudo ovs-vsctl del-br br0

These steps will remove the configurations and undo the changes made during the setup. Adjust the commands if you are using a different Linux distribution.