Configure Ubuntu 20.04 as Linux Router

Last updated on September 12th, 2022 at 10:22 pm

Follow through this tutorial to learn how to configure Ubuntu 20.04 as Linux router. Linux is awesome, It can function as “anything”, -:). Just like how you can use any other router to route your traffic between local networks and even to the internet.

Configure Ubuntu 20.04 as Linux Router

There is more to configuring a Linux system to function as a router. However, in this tutorial, we will be covering how to configure Linux router to route traffic to Internet via WAN interface as well as route traffic between LAN via LAN interfaces.

Below is our basic setup diagram;

Assign Static IP Addresses to the Linux Router

As per our setup, our Linux router has three interfaces attached:

• enp0s3: WAN Interface with IP 192.168.100.101 (bidged, static)
• enp0s8: LAN, 172.16.0.1/24, (static)
• enp0s9: LAN 172.16.1.1/24, (static)

IP Address details on the router

ip add

1: lo:  mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3:  mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:df:2c:b4 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.100.101/24 brd 192.168.100.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
       valid_lft 86100sec preferred_lft 86100sec
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fedf:2cb4/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: enp0s8:  mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:12:62:bf brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 172.168.0.1/24 brd 172.168.0.255 scope global enp0s8
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe12:62bf/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
4: enp0s9:  mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:66:4b:4f brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 172.16.1.1/24 brd 172.16.1.255 scope global enp0s9
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe66:4b4f/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

IP addresses assignment;

cat /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp0s3:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses: [192.168.100.101/24]
      gateway4: 192.168.100.1
      nameservers:
              addresses:
                      - 192.168.100.1
                      - 8.8.8.8
    enp0s8:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses: [172.16.0.1/24]
    enp0s9:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses: [172.16.1.1/24]

IP Address details on Other LAN Servers;

Host on 172.16.1.0/24 Network:

ip add

1: lo:  mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3:  mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:79:66:34 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 172.16.1.10/24 brd 172.16.1.255 scope global enp0s3
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe79:6634/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

cat /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp0s3:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses:
              - 172.16.1.10/24
      gateway4: 172.16.1.1
      nameservers:
              addresses:
                      - 172.16.1.1
                      - 8.8.8.8

Host on 172.16.1.0/24 Network:

ip add

1: lo:  mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3:  mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:00:27:3e:fe:0e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 172.16.0.10/24 brd 172.16.0.255 scope global noprefixroute enp0s3
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::eb09:7797:df2d:d54b/64 scope link noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-enp0s3

TYPE=Ethernet
PROXY_METHOD=none
BROWSER_ONLY=no
BOOTPROTO=none
IPADDR=172.16.0.10
PREFIX=24
GATEWAY=172.16.0.1
DEFROUTE=yes
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6INIT=yes
IPV6_AUTOCONF=yes
IPV6_DEFROUTE=yes
IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6_ADDR_GEN_MODE=stable-privacy
NAME=enp0s3
UUID=ea93c07b-a40e-4e1f-a850-f97e2a762f9a
DEVICE=enp0s3
ONBOOT=yes
DNS1=172.16.0.1
DNS2=8.8.8.8
NM_CONTROLLED=no

At this point;

• no LAN device has Internet access
• only devices on same LAN can access each other
• No device can access devices on different LAN

Enable Kernel IP forwarding on Ubuntu Linux Router

Next, you need to enable IP forwarding in order for the Linux router box for it to function as a router, receive and forward packets.

Once this is done, devices on both 172.16.0.0/24 and 172.16.1.0/24 should be able to communicate.

To enable IP forwarding, you need to uncomment the line net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 on the /etc/sysctl.conf configuration file.

So, first check if the said line is already defined on the configuration file;

grep net.ipv4.ip_forward /etc/sysctl.conf

Sample output;

#net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

if the line is present in the config file and comment, simply uncomment by running the command below;

sed -i '/net.ipv4.ip_forward/s/^#//' /etc/sysctl.conf

Otherwise, just insert the line;

echo 'net.ipv4.ip_forward=1' >> /etc/sysctl.conf

Next, apply the changes;

sysctl -p

Check the status by running the command below;

sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward

Value should be 1.

Verify IP forwarding between the two LANs.

Configure NATing and Forwarding on Linux Router

NATing and Forwarding can be handled using iptables or via the iptables front-end utility like UFW.

Configure Packet Forwarding

Configure the packets received from router LAN interfaces (enp0s8 and enp0s9) to be forwarded through the WAN interface, which in our case is enp0s3.

iptables -A FORWARD -i enp0s8 -o enp0s3 -j ACCEPT

iptables -A FORWARD -i enp0s9 -o enp0s3 -j ACCEPT

Similarly, configure packets that are associated with existing connections received on a WAN interface to be forwarded to the LAN interfaces;

iptables -A FORWARD -i  enp0s3 -o enp0s8 -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

iptables -A FORWARD -i  enp0s3 -o enp0s9 -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

Configure NATing

Next, configure NATing;

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o enp0s3 -j MASQUERADE

To ensure that the two local networks can also communicate, run the commands below;

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o enp0s8 -j MASQUERADE

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o enp0s9 -j MASQUERADE

Consult man iptables for more information.

Save iptables rules Permanently in Linux

In order to permanently save iptables rules, simply install the iptables-persistent package and run the iptables-save command as follows.

apt install iptables-persistent

The current rules will be saved during package installation but can still save them thereafter by running the command;

iptables-save > /etc/iptables/rules.v4

Your LAN systems should be now be able to connect to internet via the Linux router;

And there you go. You vms can now route traffic through your Linux router.

That concludes our guide on how to configure Ubuntu 20.04 as Linux Router.

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