Dual Home (?) ?

[Kent Borg]

On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 06:27:05PM -0500, dsr at tao.merseine.nu wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 03:14:09PM -0500, Kent Borg wrote:
> > I don't know if "dual homing" is the accurate term here, but it's
> > close enough for others to use it that way...
> 
> "dual home" can refer to a couple of different scenarios:
> 
> - a host on multiple ethernet networks -- such as any router
> 
> - an autonomous system (AS) connected to more than one other AS -- such
>   as an ISP connected to UUnet and Sprint
> 
> [...]
> 
> This is a blending of the two scenarios above. If you were an ISP or a
> medium-sized company, you would be buying connectivity from two upstream
> providers, and you would apply for your own AS and exchange BGP routes
> with those upstreams.
> 
> However, neither Covad nor Galaxy are going to speak BGP to you.

Correct, and as this is a transition thing, and I am going to be back
to a single DSL, I don't plan on that.

It turns out the secret seems to be in using the "ip" command in
clever ways.  The Advanced Routing HOWTO even has a section on exactly
what I want to do, leading into a section on load balancing--but I
didn't go that far.  As I have said, I won't be running the two that
long.  I am looking for a smooth transition and to learn something
along the way...

Something I don't understand is what the file /etc/iproute2/rt_tables
is all about.  The HOWTO talks about it but isn't clear on it.  I
tried putting my "ip" commands in it, but I got complaints.  At the
moment I am sourcing them from /etc/rc.d/rc.local, but that seems
wrong.


Thanks,

-kb