/etc/frr/frr.conf does not load on start on CentOS 7

[tynany]

On CentOS 7, when a valid /etc/frr/frr.conf file exists, FRR will not load the configuration when it starts. A workaround is to start FRR followed by a reload. This behaviour is not present when you use individual configuration files (zerba.conf, bgpd.conf etc).

I have not been able to reproduce this behaviour on Ubuntu 16.04 kernel 4.4.0-87.

The below page suggests 'vtysh -b' needs to be run, but it's not 100% clear to me whether this is the case. If it is, it's quite problematic given you'd need to automate 'vtysh -b' after each reboot. https://frrouting.org/user-guide/Integrated-configuration-mode.html

OS: Centos 7 Kernel: Linux 3.10.0-693.17.1.el7.x86_64 FRR Version: 3.0.3 FRR packages: frr and frr-pythontools Install Method: Released RPM packages

How to reproduce:

1. Fresh install of Centos 7 (Linux 3.10.0-693.17.1.el7.x86_64)

2. yum install https://github.com/FRRouting/frr/releases/download/frr-3.0.3/frr-3.0.3-2018010901.el7.centos.x86_64.rpm -y

3. sed -i 's/\(bgpd\|zebra\)=.*/\1=yes/g' /etc/frr/daemons

4. systemctl start frr

5. vtysh -c 'configure terminal' -c 'service integrated-vtysh-config' -c 'router bgp 64512'

6. vtysh -c 'write memory'

   Note: this version of vtysh never writes vtysh.conf
   Building Configuration...
   Integrated configuration saved to /etc/frr/frr.conf
   [OK]

7. (optional) echo 'service integrated-vtysh-config' > /etc/frr/vtysh.conf

8. cat /etc/frr/frr.conf

   frr version 3.0.3
   frr defaults traditional
   hostname localhost.localdomain
   no ip forwarding
   no ipv6 forwarding
   !
   router bgp 64512
   !
   line vty
   !

9. cat /etc/frr/vtysh.conf

   service integrated-vtysh-config

10. systemctl restart frr or systemctl stop frr && systemctl start frr

11. vtysh -c 'show running-config'. Notice router bgp 64512 is missing.

    
    Building configuration...

Current configuration: ! frr version 3.0.3 frr defaults traditional no ip forwarding no ipv6 forwarding ! line vty ! end

12. `systemctl reload frr`

11. `vtysh -c 'show running-config'`. `router bgp 64512` is now present.

Building configuration...

Current configuration: ! frr version 3.0.3 frr defaults traditional no ip forwarding no ipv6 forwarding hostname quagga-router username root nopassword ! service integrated-vtysh-config ! router bgp 64512 ! line vty ! end

[donaldsharp]

Add this line: vtysh_enable=yes

to the /etc/frr/daemons file

[tynany]

Yep, that does the trick. How can I help out by adding this to documentation?

[qlyoung]

At present the project lacks documentation on configuration file uses and locations, although this should be rectified in the near future. In the meantime if you wish to add a note, I would do it in this file: https://github.com/FRRouting/frr/blob/master/doc/vtysh.texi

[tynany]

Looks like the documentation has been updated in FRR4.0, so I'll close this issue:

/etc/frr/daemons:

#
# If the vtysh_enable is yes, then the unified config is read
# and applied if it exists.  If no unified frr.conf exists
# then the per-daemon <daemon>.conf files are used)
# If vtysh_enable is no or non-existant, the frr.conf is ignored.
# it is highly suggested to have this set to yes
vtysh_enable=yes

[q2dg]

I've seen in FRR 7.0 this explanation has changed and it's a lot less understandable:

"If this option is set the /etc/init.d/frr script automatically loads the config via "vtysh -b" when the servers are started. Check /etc/pam.d/frr if you intend to use "vtysh"!"

[EricVS]

Hi, I'm encountering the same issue in our cluster but adding vtysh_enable=yes does not solve it for me. We're running FRR 4.0, provided by Cumulus. Kind regards, Eric V.

[Thermi]

Same, but on Debian 10 with version 6.0.2 Config loads fine if it's just written using vtysh, but if I even change a single line using nano or anything, vtysh doesn't load it anymore and there are no errors or logs whatsoever telling me of a problem with it.

[rubenrdp]

Same problem here working on GNS3 with FRR7.3.1 & FRR7.5.1