Network Requirements

Here’s the scenario. You’ve installed Bastille at home or in the cloud and want to get started putting applications in secure little containers, but how do I get these containers on the network?

Bastille tries to be flexible about how to network containerized applications. The two most common methods are described here. Consider both options to decide which design work best for your needs. One of the methods works better across clouds while the other is simpler if used in local area networks.

As you’ve probably seen, Bastille containers require certain information when they are created. An IP address has to be assigned to the container through which all network traffic will flow.

When the container is started the IP address assigned at creation will be bound to a network interface. In FreeBSD these interfaces have different names, but look something like em0, bge0, re0, etc. On a virtual machine it may be vtnet0. You get the idea…

Note: if you are running in the cloud and only have a single public IP you may want the Public Network option. See below.

Local Area Network

I will cover the local area network (LAN) method first. This method is simpler to get going and works well in a home network (or similar) where adding alias IP addresses is no problem.

Bastille allows you to define the interface you want the IP attached to when you create it. An example:

bastille create alcatraz 12.1-RELEASE 192.168.1.50 em0

When the alcatraz container is started it will add 192.168.1.50 as an IP alias to the em0 interface. It will then simply be another member of the hosts network. Other networked systems (firewall permitting) should be able to reach services at that address.

This method is the simplest. All you need to know is the name of your network interface and a free IP on your current network.

(Bastille does try to verify that the interface name you provide it is a valid interface. This validation has not been exhaustively tested yet in Bastille’s beta state.)

Public Network

In this section I’ll describe how to network containers in a public network such as a cloud hosting provider (AWS, digital ocean, vultr, etc)

In the public cloud you don’t often have access to multiple private IP addresses for your virtual machines. This means if you want to create multiple containers and assign them all IP addresses, you’ll need to create a new network.

What I recommend is creating a cloned loopback interface (bastille0) and assigning all the containers private (rfc1918) addresses on that interface. The setup I develop on and use Bastille day to day uses the 10.0.0.0/8 address range. I have the ability to use whatever address I want within that range because I’ve created my own private network. The host system then acts as the firewall, permitting and denying traffic as needed.

I find this setup the most flexible across all types of networks. It can be used in public and private networks just the same and it allows me to keep containers off the network until I allow access.

Having said all that here are instructions I used to configure the network with a private loopback interface and system firewall. The system firewall NATs traffic out of containers and can selectively redirect traffic into containers based on connection ports (ie; 80, 443, etc.)

First, create the loopback interface:

ishmael ~ # sysrc cloned_interfaces+=lo1
ishmael ~ # sysrc ifconfig_lo1_name="bastille0"
ishmael ~ # service netif cloneup

Second, enable the firewall:

ishmael ~ # sysrc pf_enable="YES"

Create the firewall rules:

/etc/pf.conf

ext_if="vtnet0"

set block-policy return
scrub in on $ext_if all fragment reassemble
set skip on lo

table <jails> persist
nat on $ext_if from <jails> to any -> ($ext_if)

## rdr example
## rdr pass inet proto tcp from any to any port {80, 443} -> 10.17.89.45

block in all
pass out quick modulate state
antispoof for $ext_if inet
pass in inet proto tcp from any to any port ssh flags S/SA modulate state
  • Make sure to change the ext_if variable to match your host system interface.
  • Make sure to include the last line (port ssh) or you’ll end up locked out.

Note: if you have an existing firewall, the key lines for in/out traffic to containers are:

nat on $ext_if from <jails> to any -> ($ext_if)

## rdr example
## rdr pass inet proto tcp from any to any port {80, 443} -> 10.17.89.45

The nat routes traffic from the loopback interface to the external interface for outbound access.

The rdr pass … will redirect traffic from the host firewall on port X to the ip of Container Y. The example shown redirects web traffic (80 & 443) to the containers at 10.17.89.45.

Finally, start up the firewall:

ishmael ~ # service pf restart

At this point you’ll likely be disconnected from the host. Reconnect the ssh session and continue.

This step only needs to be done once in order to prepare the host.