netdev - Re: Using gretap to tunnel layer 2 traffic

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Message-ID: <20110912125250.GA3020447@jupiter.n2.diac24.net>
Date:	Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:52:50 +0200
From:	David Lamparter <equinox@...c24.net>
To:	John H <uothrawn@...oo.com>
Cc:	"netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Using gretap to tunnel layer 2 traffic

On Fri, Sep 09, 2011 at 10:25:04AM -0700, John H wrote:
> [...]                         All VLANs and physical devices have MTUs of 
> 1500.  The gretap device has a resultant MTU of 1462, thereby causing the 
> bridge device to have an MTU of 1462.
> [...]
> The real question is, however, why is any client able to send a single ICMP
> packet with size 1478 bytes when one of the hops along the way only 
> supports 1462 bytes per its MTU? Shouldn't this have been negotiated 
> beforehand?

No.

An Ethernet segment needs a single, unbroken, identical MTU at all of
its (packet-sending) participants. Your configuration is invalid; there
is no Ethernet-builtin mechanism to negotiate MTU.

You need to set all devices, hosts and possibly switches to the same MTU
value. (A switch with its default of 1500 isn't a problem as long as it
does not generate packets that large.) A way to do that is by DHCP,
which has a MTU option; that option is however not honoured by all
clients.

Alternatively, you need to change your gretap/bridge MTU to 1500, but
you'll somehow need to make gretap aware of the underlying
fragmentation support, from whereever it may come.

Alter-alternatively, you can use a layer 3 (IP/IPv6) router. IP, unlike
Ethernet, is designed to cope with varying MTUs...

-David
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