tinc as layer 2 switch doesn't automatically mesh with other nodes

[Etienne Dechamps]

tinc uses direct UDP communication for performance, not reliability.
If you want to establish more metaconnections for increased
reliability, you can use AutoConnect (though it probably won't work
across NATs). A better solution is to use two central nodes (instead
of one) for redundancy.

On 11 June 2015 at 18:59, Daniel J. Grinkevich
<danielgrinkevich at gmail.com> wrote:
> If we have one meta node and it goes offline none of the other nodes can
> talk to each other.  I was under the assumption the mesh would stay up of
> that happens.
>
> We are using tinc strictly as a layer 2 switch, no IP addresses assigned to
> interface.
>
> The build of tinc I'm using only offers 'tincd' (using it on OpenWRT).
>
> Dan
>
> On Jun 11, 2015 13:36, "Etienne Dechamps" <etienne at edechamps.fr> wrote:
>>
>> What do you mean by "connect to each other"? The nodes will not
>> establish new metaconnections besides the ones you configured. They
>> will, however, try to reach other directly over UDP when sending
>> packets. That happens independently of the metaconnections themselves.
>>
>> You can use "tinc info" to check for this. It should say the other
>> node is reachable "directly over UDP". Make sure you use the link at
>> the same time (e.g. ping) so that tinc actively tries to establish a
>> UDP tunnel.
>>
>> On 11 June 2015 at 13:31, Daniel J. Grinkevich
>> <danielgrinkevich at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > We have a handful of nodes set up.  Some are NAT'd but a few have direct
>> > access to the Internet.
>> >
>> > Sample confs:
>> >
>> > HostA:
>> > Name = HostA
>> > AddressFamily = any
>> > Interface = tap0
>> > Mode = switch
>> > Connectto = HostB
>> > GraphDumpFile = /tmp/mesh
>> >
>> > HostB:
>> > Name = HostB
>> > AddressFamily = any
>> > Interface = tap0
>> > Mode = switch
>> > Connectto = HostA
>> > GraphDumpFile = /tmp/mesh
>> >
>> > And so on. If I use HostA as the main meta sever. None of the other
>> > nodes
>> > will connect to each other. I was under the assumption that the nodes
>> > should
>> > establish a mesh and not stay in this star layout.
>> >
>> > Is this because I don't have a layer 3 setup? We are running bmx6 over
>> > the
>> > tunnels. None of the nodes have a subnet assigned to them as we only
>> > need a
>> > layer 2 connection.
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Dan
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> > GPG Key: 45EBD675
>> >
>> >
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>> >