Configuring LAN intfcs. fails at startup w/ massive static routes

[Mel Burslan]

I have a number of systems (rp3440 and rp4440s running 11.11 some running in serviceguard clusters) in a DMZ environment, and due to the semi-exposed nature of the systems, they do not have default routes as expected. Instead, everything is handled by static routes. Depending on the role of the server, I have anywhere between 20 to 30 static routes on every each of these servers.

Last saturday night, benefiting from the time change, we got approval to reboot all of them to clear out some lingering problems. At the time of reboot, the configuring of LAN interfaces step in the boot sequence has failed on every each of them. And in rc.log file, I have multiples of these error messages:

ERROR: Failed to add route entry because its interface is not
yet initialized. May need to add this route entry with
a route commad after the interface is up :

as many as the number of static routes. In short, none of my static routes got initialized.

I had to login from the console and run

/sbin/init.d/net stop
/sbin/init.d/net start

command sequence to restart the networking and after that servers became responsive to network connections.

All of these interfaces are gbit lan interfaces and with the exception of built-in lan0, they all are HP A9784 PCI/PCI-X 1000Base-T FC/GigE Combo Adapter cards and they are all nailed down to 100FD speeds by the hpigelanconf files.

My question is, why don't my static routes get initialized ? Why doesn't the /sbin/init.d/net script is not waiting for interfaces to stabilize before attempting to initialize the routes ? Is this is a known problem ? I do not want to edit the net script to add a random delay somewhere between interface setups and route adds.

Thanks for all the answers in advance.

[Steven E. Protter]

I do not understand why a default route is a security hazard.

That being the case, your routes being added prior to the network card coming up may be due to misconfiguration in /etc/rc.config.d/netconf

Know that I work with a whole bunch of servers, I understand the need for speed.

1) Please post netconf, if need be with changed ip addresses. Someone might spot something.

2) Run a script after network startup, perhaps run level 3 that just uses the route add command to create the static routes. Surely by this time the network is intialized.

3) 1000BaseT cards will not function properly on any lan setting other than autonegotiate. The fact that you are doing someting elsse in hpieglanconf files is probably the cause of the entire issue.

SEP

[Mel Burslan]

1.
netconf file, as it is extremely long and I do not feel like making a series of sensible ip address changes (many of them are publicly accesible addreses) but in the sense of interface addresses and their default gateways, everything is sane. Interface configurations preceed the route configurations. And there really is nothing unusual about the netconf files other than each of them conatining 20+ routes and no default.

2.
my remedial solution is something like what is at step 2, i.e., running a secondary script. I just did not incorporate it into my startup sequence as I am convinced that, setting up static routes is what the ROUTE statements in netconf file is for. And I am really after not reinventing the wheel but making the netconf file and net script to do what they are supposed to do.

3.
all my rp34xx and 44xx servers have been nailed down to 100FD as we do not have gbit lan infrastructure yet and we found out that if we let them float, they end up in 100HD setting which is not good. But my other servers, which do not have any static routes, only a default route, which are on the intranet only part of the network, are working and booting fine without any problems.

[Peter Stubbs_1]

ROUTE_COUNT[0]="0" in /etc/rc.config.d/netconf will do this. The value needs to be 1 or more.