go-alived

A lightweight VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) implementation in Go, designed as a simple alternative to keepalived.

Features

• VRRP Protocol: RFC 3768/5798 compliant implementation
• High Availability: Automatic failover with priority-based master election
• Health Checking: TCP, HTTP/HTTPS, ICMP ping, and script-based checks
• Easy Deployment: Built-in install command with systemd/init.d support
• Hot Reload: Configuration reload via SIGHUP without service restart
• Zero Dependencies: Single static binary, no runtime dependencies

Installation

Download Binary

Download the latest release from GitHub Releases:

# Linux amd64
curl -LO https://github.com/loveuer/go-alived/releases/latest/download/go-alived-linux-amd64
chmod +x go-alived-linux-amd64
sudo mv go-alived-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/go-alived

# Linux arm64
curl -LO https://github.com/loveuer/go-alived/releases/latest/download/go-alived-linux-arm64
chmod +x go-alived-linux-arm64
sudo mv go-alived-linux-arm64 /usr/local/bin/go-alived

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/loveuer/go-alived.git
cd go-alived
go build -o go-alived .

Quick Install (Recommended)

# Install as systemd service (default)
sudo ./go-alived install

# Install as init.d service (for OpenWrt/older systems)
sudo ./go-alived install --method service

Quick Start

1. Test Environment

# Check if your environment supports VRRP
sudo go-alived test

# Test with specific interface
sudo go-alived test -i eth0

2. Configure

Edit /etc/go-alived/config.yaml:

global:
  router_id: "node1"

vrrp_instances:
  - name: "VI_1"
    interface: "eth0"          # Network interface
    state: "BACKUP"            # Initial state
    virtual_router_id: 51      # VRID (1-255, must match on all nodes)
    priority: 100              # Higher = more likely to be master
    advert_interval: 1         # Advertisement interval in seconds
    auth_type: "PASS"          # Authentication type
    auth_pass: "secret"        # Password (max 8 chars)
    virtual_ips:
      - "192.168.1.100/24"     # Virtual IP address(es)

3. Start Service

# Systemd
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable go-alived
sudo systemctl start go-alived

# Init.d
sudo /etc/init.d/go-alived start

4. Verify

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status go-alived

# Check VIP
ip addr show eth0 | grep 192.168.1.100

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u go-alived -f

Configuration

Two-Node HA Setup Example

Node 1 (Primary):

global:
  router_id: "node1"

vrrp_instances:
  - name: "VI_1"
    interface: "eth0"
    state: "MASTER"
    virtual_router_id: 51
    priority: 100              # Higher priority
    advert_interval: 1
    auth_type: "PASS"
    auth_pass: "secret"
    virtual_ips:
      - "192.168.1.100/24"

Node 2 (Backup):

global:
  router_id: "node2"

vrrp_instances:
  - name: "VI_1"
    interface: "eth0"
    state: "BACKUP"
    virtual_router_id: 51
    priority: 90               # Lower priority
    advert_interval: 1
    auth_type: "PASS"
    auth_pass: "secret"        # Must match
    virtual_ips:
      - "192.168.1.100/24"     # Must match

Health Checking

vrrp_instances:
  - name: "VI_1"
    # ... other settings ...
    track_scripts:
      - "check_nginx"          # Reference to health checker

health_checkers:
  - name: "check_nginx"
    type: "tcp"
    interval: 3s
    timeout: 2s
    rise: 3                    # Successes to mark healthy
    fall: 2                    # Failures to mark unhealthy
    config:
      host: "127.0.0.1"
      port: 80

Supported Health Check Types:

Type	Description	Config
tcp	TCP port check	host, port
http	HTTP endpoint check	url, method, expected_status
ping	ICMP ping check	host, count
script	Custom script	script, args

Commands

go-alived [command]

Available Commands:
  run         Run the VRRP service
  test        Test environment for VRRP support
  install     Install go-alived as a system service (alias: i)
  help        Help about any command

Flags:
  -h, --help      help for go-alived
  -v, --version   version for go-alived

run

go-alived run [flags]

Flags:
  -c, --config string   Path to config file (default "/etc/go-alived/config.yaml")
  -d, --debug           Enable debug mode

test

go-alived test [flags]

Flags:
  -i, --interface string   Network interface to test
  -v, --vip string         Test VIP address (e.g., 192.168.1.100/24)

install

go-alived install [flags]

Flags:
  -m, --method string   Installation method: systemd, service (default "systemd")

Aliases:
  install, i

Signals

Signal	Action
SIGHUP	Reload configuration
SIGINT / SIGTERM	Graceful shutdown

# Reload configuration
sudo kill -HUP $(pgrep go-alived)

Environment Compatibility

Environment	Support	Notes
Physical servers	Full
KVM/QEMU/Proxmox	Full
VMware ESXi	Full	Enable promiscuous mode
VirtualBox	Full	Bridged network + promiscuous mode
Docker	Limited	Requires --privileged --net=host
OpenWrt/iStoreOS	Full	Use --method service for install
AWS/Aliyun/Azure	None	Multicast disabled

Note

: VRRP requires multicast support (224.0.0.18). Most public clouds disable multicast at the network layer. Use cloud-native HA solutions instead.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. "permission denied" or "operation not permitted"

# VRRP requires root privileges
sudo go-alived run -c /etc/go-alived/config.yaml

2. "authentication failed"

• Ensure auth_pass matches on all nodes
• Password is limited to 8 characters

3. Both nodes become MASTER (split-brain)

• Check network connectivity between nodes
• Verify virtual_router_id matches
• Ensure multicast traffic is allowed

4. VIP not pingable after failover

• Gratuitous ARP may be blocked
• Check switch/router ARP cache timeout

Debug Mode

sudo go-alived run -c /etc/go-alived/config.yaml -d

License

MIT License

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.