Keepalived for Linux For Linux

Keepalived for Linux is a robust, free and open source command-line software implemented in C and designed from the offset to implement a powerful and complete keepalive daemon into the Linux Virtual Server (LVS) project.

Key features include multilayer TCP/IP stack checks, support for implementing a framework based on the Layer3, Layer4 and Layer5 checks, as well as to check the pool states of a LVS (Linux Virtual Server) server.

Keepalived implements a standalone VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) v2 stack, which can handle director failover. The project has been specifically designed to work only with Linux kernel-based operating systems.

Among its command-line options, we can mention the ability to use a custom configuration file, run only with VRRP or Health-checker subsystems, use a specific PID file for parent process, checkers child process or VRRP child process, as well as to set the syslog functionality to LOG_LOCAL and redirect log messages to local console.

User will be able to add options for preventing the removal of VRRP VROUTEs and VIPs, as well as IPVS topology when the daemon is stopped. It is also possible to add and option for preventing respawn of child processes or an option for preventing forking of the daemon process.

To install and use the Keepalived program on your GNU/Linux distribution, you must download the latest version from Softpedia or via its official website (see link at the end of the review), save the archive on a location of your choice and unpack it.

Open a Terminal app, go to the location of the extracted archive files (e.g. cd /home/softpedia/keepalived-1.2.13), run the ‘./configure && make’ command to configure and compile the program, followed by the ‘sudo make install’ command to install it system wide.