Surface the netem extensions delivered in uBridge feature/tc-netem-ext
as GNS3 filter types: rate (tc-style bandwidth string), reorder (needs
delay), gemodel (Gilbert-Elliot bursty loss, exclusive with
packet_loss), duplicate, seed and limit, plus the delay jitter
distribution and the loss/dup correlation parameters. All are
kernel-datapath only — the relay's packet-filter registry has no
equivalent, so available_filters hides them on relay links, setting one
on a created relay link returns 409, and the project-load path drops
them with a warning (update_filters runs before the datapath is
decided, so it cannot reject there). Validation mirrors the tc grammar:
reorder requires delay, gemodel and packet_loss are mutually exclusive,
a distribution requires jitter > 0, rate is integer+unit capped at
100gbit.
The translation in DockerVM._netem_command_parts emits the frozen
grammar order and gates extension keywords on the 'tc capabilities'
netem token list (probed once per uBridge process; a plain
delay/loss/corrupt/dup filter never probes, keeping old uBridge builds
untouched; the correl suffix has no token and gates on 'rate' as the
extension-build marker).
Reconcile became reset-before-set: the kernel's netem change merges
optional attributes (rate, correlation, reorder, corrupt, gemodel,
distribution, seed keep their previous value when the new message omits
them), so removing a parameter needs an explicit 'tc reset' — the
bpf_drop filters are re-added right after in the same flow, so the
clsact churn is invisible. The capability check runs before the reset
so a failed update leaves the previous qdisc in place.
e2e (isolated instance, kernel link): 24/24 — rate 512kbit adds exactly
2x the per-packet serialization to the RTT (45.5 ms for 1400-byte
pings), paretonormal jitter + rate-cleared leak check, reorder gap 5,
gemodel 50% bursty loss, duplicate, loss 30% correl 50%, seed 42 +
limit 5000 visible in the qdisc dump, suspend/resume and node restart
keep the filters, relay link rejects rate with 409, teardown leaves no
netem. Full unit suite: 1916 passed.
The GNS3 bpf filter (one expression per line, any line matching drops the
packet) now runs on the kernel datapath: uBridge's tc bpf_drop compiles
each line with libpcap (same compiler as the relay filter) into classic
BPF, attaches it to the veth host end's clsact egress as a cls_bpf
classifier with a gact TC_ACT_SHOT action, and the kernel migrates the
cBPF to eBPF internally -- no CAP_BPF needed.
- reconcile is flush + one add per line at priorities 10, 11, ... (OR
semantics, same as the relay's per-line filters); tc reset (link
delete / clear) is the full restore in uBridge and clears them
- capability-gated: the compute probes "tc capabilities" once per uBridge
process (cached, invalidated on stop); without cbpf=1 the filter apply
fails with an actionable upgrade error, and old uBridge builds without
the tc module are never touched when no bpf filter is present
- a line that compiled for the controller's tcpdump but not for the
compute's uBridge libpcap is skipped with a warning, mirroring the
relay path
- KERNEL_UNSUPPORTED_FILTERS shrinks to frequency_drop (its eBPF stateful
classifier is still pending, spec part B)
e2e (22/22): bpf "icmp" = 100% loss; size-discriminating expression
("greater 150") passes 98-byte and drops 300-byte pings (real byte-level
match); two-line OR; coexistence with netem (delay 50 -> small pings
100.2 ms while big dropped); clear removes clsact; suspend/resume keeps
the drops; link delete + recreate leaves no residual filters.
Impairment filters with a netem equivalent (delay, packet_loss, corrupt)
now run on the kernel datapath as one tc netem qdisc per veth host end,
pushed through uBridge's netlink tc module (tc netem set / tc reset).
This removes the relay delay filter's nanosleep bottleneck (upstream
Both link endpoints carry the filters: each end's qdisc egress covers
the traffic entering that container, so every direction is impaired
exactly once -- the same net effect as the relay, where both directions
cross the single filtered bridge.
- controller: eligibility keys on relay-only types (frequency_drop, bpf)
instead of any filter; kernel links push the real filters (the
synthetic suspend frequency_drop no longer flips a suspended link to
relay on reopen/reset); update_filters 409s only relay-only types;
available_filters hides them on kernel links
- compute: create_nio whitelists netem-capable filter types; the NIO
update path keeps its own guard (PUT mutates the NIO in place);
_ubridge_apply_netem translates the filter dict into one atomic
netem-set (full re-apply IS the reconcile); node restart restores the
qdisc, link deletion detaches it (the veth survives the link)
- e2e (27/27): delay 100 -> 200.2 ms RTT, atomic replace 50 -> 100.2 ms,
clear -> baseline, packet_loss 30 -> 48 % round-trip (expected 51 %),
suspend/resume and node restart keep the qdisc, link delete leaves no
residual impairment
Markers no longer disqualify the kernel datapath. They ride the NIO like
on the relay path and attach to the veth host end through uBridge's
marker add_kernel/delete_kernel/enable_kernel commands (AF_PACKET taps,
same BPF/direction/signal semantics as the relay mark filter).
- base_node: marker anchors are now polymorphic (relay bridge name or
kernel veth host interface); the reconcile loop is datapath-agnostic
and DockerVM overrides the add/delete/enable primitives to translate
the commands. Marker-name validation extracted for both add paths.
- docker_vm: kernel NIO connect/update apply markers on the veth anchor;
link deletion tears markers down explicitly (the veth survives the
link, unlike a relay bridge whose death drops its filters).
- controller: eligibility and start_marker no longer exclude markers or
project-level marker definitions; the kernel NIO carries the capture
node's marker specs.
- NIO creation accepts markers on kernel NIOs (filters still rejected).
Replace the capture rejection with wiring to uBridge's capture module:
an AF_PACKET socket bound to the veth host end writes into the same pcap
file the relay path uses (capture start_kernel <if> "<pcap>" /
capture stop_kernel), so the pcap streaming to clients is unchanged.
- capture survives node restarts: _connect_nio re-arms it when the NIO
is already capturing, mirroring the relay path
- uBridge's kernel capture is a singleton per process: a concurrent
second capture on the same node surfaces uBridge's EALREADY error
- update the datapath docs: filters and markers remain relay-only,
capture is now served on both datapaths
Eligible links (both endpoints Docker, same compute, no filters/markers,
stopped nodes, no unix-socket NIO containers) are wired as veth pairs
enslaved into a per-link Linux kernel bridge (gns3 + 11 hex of the link
id, filling IFNAMSIZ) instead of the uBridge UDP relay, so frames flow
entirely in the kernel.
- NIOBridge NIO type: the controller decides the datapath in
UDPLink._prepare and both computes enslave their deterministic gv*/gc*
veth pair via uBridge's docker/brctl modules
- carrier/suspend = host-end admin state; both endpoints race-safely
create/delete the bridge (EEXIST/EBUSY/ENOENT tolerated)
- veth adapters can still attach relay (UDP) links on a running node:
lazy relay bridge over AF_PACKET on the host end (add_nio_ethernet)
- filters/markers/capture are rejected with explicit errors on this
datapath (they live in the uBridge relay); vendor unix-socket
containers are excluded; Server.enable_kernel_datapath is the
kill-switch (default on)
- host-end veths survive container death and are removed on stop plus
swept by name on the next start (crash/stale recovery)
Preserve image reconciliation, locking, and regression coverage while integrating upstream release, dependency, typing, and formatting updates. Align feature code with the new Ruff checks.
Only relying on the image name lets a moved tag (e.g. a newer :latest)
silently serve stale content from a compute that already has an image
under the same name. When creating a Docker node, the controller now
pins the image id (Id from the Docker daemon on the controller host)
into the create payload. A compute holding a different image under the
same tag reports the image as missing, which routes it through the
image sync added by the previous commit and re-aligns the tag.
No new template fields or database changes: the controller host daemon
remains the source of truth and the pin is resolved per creation. When
the image is not available on the controller host the pin is omitted
and behavior is unchanged (the compute pulls from the repository).
Templates reference a config file with the GNS3_IOL_STARTUP_CONFIG
environment knob; the controller materializes the file content into
startup_config_content on node creation (sent once, knob consumed —
the same pattern as the IOU startup_config mapping). The compute builds
the content into the node's nvram_<app id> at the next start using the
IOU nvram_import utility (IOL and IOU share the nvram container format,
verified against iol-xe 17.18.02): valid config at boot, no setup
dialog, %h hostname substitution, hostname rewrite on rename.
Semantics verified against the runner: IOL boots from NVRAM whenever it
holds a config, so a plain stop/start never re-applies the startup
config and 'write memory' survives restarts; an explicit content edit
(PUT) is re-applied on the next start and wins over the saved config,
like IOU.
IOL interface MACs derive from the application ID (aabb.cc{app}{iface}),
so ids must be unique across opened projects sharing computes — the same
reason IOU has its allocator. IOL Docker nodes draw from the upper half
(512-1022, netiomux's fixed peer is 1023) so the two node types can
neither collide nor starve each other; IOU behavior is unchanged.
The controller sniffs the same GNS3_IOL_RUNNER environment marker the
compute uses to select IOLDockerVM (both the nested-properties and
template/top-level-kwarg shapes), stores the id in node properties like
IOU does, and passes it through the Docker create payload. Without an
allocation the compute falls back to a stable node-derived id in the
same upper range.
The default_admin_username/password descriptions now state that the
values are applied when the controller database is created and only
take effect again after it is re-created (resetting the account).
YueGuobin
Mark Paronyan
Jeremy Grossmann
Cristi