Networking with multiple Zephyr instances
This page describes how to set up a virtual network between multiple Zephyr instances. The Zephyr instances could be running inside QEMU or could be native_sim board processes. The Linux host can be used to route network traffic between these systems.
Prerequisites
On the Linux Host, fetch the Zephyr net-tools project, which is located
in a separate Git repository:
git clone https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/net-tools
Basic Setup
For the steps below, you will need five terminal windows:
Terminal #1 and #2 are terminal windows with net-tools being the current directory (
cd net-tools)Terminal #3, where you setup bridging in Linux host
Terminal #4 and #5 are your usual Zephyr development terminal, with the Zephyr environment initialized.
As there are multiple ways to setup the Zephyr network, the example below uses
qemu_x86 board with e1000 Ethernet controller and native_sim board
to simplify the setup instructions. You can use other QEMU boards and drivers
if needed, see Networking with QEMU Ethernet for details. You can also use
two or more native_sim board Zephyr instances and connect them together.
Step 1 - Create configuration files
Before starting QEMU with network connectivity, a network interfaces for each Zephyr instance should be created in the host system. The default setup for creating network interface cannot be used here as that is for connecting one Zephyr instance to Linux host.
For Zephyr instance #1, create file called zephyr1.conf to net-tools
project, or to some other suitable directory.
# Configuration file for setting IP addresses for a network interface.
INTERFACE="$1"
HWADDR="00:00:5e:00:53:11"
IPV6_ADDR_1="2001:db8:100::2"
IPV6_ROUTE_1="2001:db8:100::/64"
IPV4_ADDR_1="198.51.100.2/24"
IPV4_ROUTE_1="198.51.100.0/24"
ip link set dev $INTERFACE up
ip link set dev $INTERFACE address $HWADDR
ip -6 address add $IPV6_ADDR_1 dev $INTERFACE nodad
ip -6 route add $IPV6_ROUTE_1 dev $INTERFACE
ip address add $IPV4_ADDR_1 dev $INTERFACE
ip route add $IPV4_ROUTE_1 dev $INTERFACE > /dev/null 2>&1
For Zephyr instance #2, create file called zephyr2.conf to net-tools
project, or to some other suitable directory.
# Configuration file for setting IP addresses for a network interface.
INTERFACE="$1"
HWADDR="00:00:5e:00:53:22"
IPV6_ADDR_1="2001:db8:200::2"
IPV6_ROUTE_1="2001:db8:200::/64"
IPV4_ADDR_1="203.0.113.2/24"
IPV4_ROUTE_1="203.0.113.0/24"
ip link set dev $INTERFACE up
ip link set dev $INTERFACE address $HWADDR
ip -6 address add $IPV6_ADDR_1 dev $INTERFACE nodad
ip -6 route add $IPV6_ROUTE_1 dev $INTERFACE
ip address add $IPV4_ADDR_1 dev $INTERFACE
ip route add $IPV4_ROUTE_1 dev $INTERFACE > /dev/null 2>&1
Step 2 - Create Ethernet interfaces
The following net-setup.sh commands should be typed in net-tools
directory (cd net-tools).
In terminal #1, type:
./net-setup.sh -c zephyr1.conf -i zeth.1
In terminal #2, type:
./net-setup.sh -c zephyr2.conf -i zeth.2
Step 3 - Setup network bridging
In terminal #3, type:
sudo brctl addbr zeth-br
sudo brctl addif zeth-br zeth.1
sudo brctl addif zeth-br zeth.2
sudo ifconfig zeth-br up
Step 4 - Start Zephyr instances
In this example we start Echo server (advanced) and Echo client (advanced) sample applications. You can use other applications too as needed.
In terminal #4, if you are using QEMU, type this:
west build -d build/server -b qemu_x86 -t run \
samples/net/sockets/echo_server -- \
-DEXTRA_CONF_FILE=overlay-e1000.conf \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV4_ADDR=\"198.51.100.1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_PEER_IPV4_ADDR=\"203.0.113.1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV6_ADDR=\"2001:db8:100::1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_PEER_IPV6_ADDR=\"2001:db8:200::1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV4_GW=\"203.0.113.1\" \
-DCONFIG_ETH_QEMU_IFACE_NAME=\"zeth.1\" \
-DCONFIG_ETH_QEMU_EXTRA_ARGS=\"mac=00:00:5e:00:53:01\"
or if you want to use native_sim board, type this:
west build -d build/server -b native_sim -t run \
samples/net/sockets/echo_server -- \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV4_ADDR=\"198.51.100.1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_PEER_IPV4_ADDR=\"203.0.113.1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV6_ADDR=\"2001:db8:100::1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_PEER_IPV6_ADDR=\"2001:db8:200::1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV4_GW=\"203.0.113.1\" \
-DCONFIG_ETH_NATIVE_POSIX_DRV_NAME=\"zeth.1\" \
-DCONFIG_ETH_NATIVE_POSIX_MAC_ADDR=\"00:00:5e:00:53:01\" \
-DCONFIG_ETH_NATIVE_POSIX_RANDOM_MAC=n
In terminal #5, if you are using QEMU, type this:
west build -d build/client -b qemu_x86 -t run \
samples/net/sockets/echo_client -- \
-DEXTRA_CONF_FILE=overlay-e1000.conf \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV4_ADDR=\"203.0.113.1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_PEER_IPV4_ADDR=\"198.51.100.1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV6_ADDR=\"2001:db8:200::1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_PEER_IPV6_ADDR=\"2001:db8:100::1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV4_GW=\"198.51.100.1\" \
-DCONFIG_ETH_QEMU_IFACE_NAME=\"zeth.2\" \
-DCONFIG_ETH_QEMU_EXTRA_ARGS=\"mac=00:00:5e:00:53:02\"
or if you want to use native_sim board, type this:
west build -d build/client -b native_sim -t run \
samples/net/sockets/echo_client -- \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV4_ADDR=\"203.0.113.1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_PEER_IPV4_ADDR=\"198.51.100.1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV6_ADDR=\"2001:db8:200::1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_PEER_IPV6_ADDR=\"2001:db8:100::1\" \
-DCONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV4_GW=\"198.51.100.1\" \
-DCONFIG_ETH_NATIVE_POSIX_DRV_NAME=\"zeth.2\" \
-DCONFIG_ETH_NATIVE_POSIX_MAC_ADDR=\"00:00:5e:00:53:02\" \
-DCONFIG_ETH_NATIVE_POSIX_RANDOM_MAC=n
Also if you have firewall enabled in your host, you need to allow traffic
between zeth.1, zeth.2 and zeth-br interfaces.