Accessing a remote network interface on an exporter

[colin-foster-in-advantage]

I'm reading the documentation and it isn't clear to me whether what I'm trying to do is possible. I'd like to access a remote Ethernet port on my Labgrid Exporter (Raspberry Pi) from my local PC.

Setup 1 - Local Ethernet

This configuration currently works for me

----------------------- 10.1.1.1                    10.1.1.3 -------------
|         PC          | -------------------------------------|    DUT    |
|      Labgrid        |                                      |           |
|       Client        |                                      |           |
|                     |     WiFi          ------------       |           |
|                     | - - - - - - - - - |   RPi    |=======|           |
|                     |    192.168.1.x    | Exporter |       |           |
-----------------------                   ------------       -------------

From this setup, I'm able to run pytest on my PC (without --lg-env) and Labgrid is a way to access the remote serial port and power switch.

What I'm really looking for is this:

Setup 2 - Remote Ethernet

-----------------------                                      -------------
|         PC          |                                      |    DUT    |
|      Labgrid        |                                      |           |
|       Client        |                                      |           |
|                     |     WiFi          ------------       |           |
|                     | - - - - - - - - - |   RPi    |=======|           |
|                     |    192.168.1.x    | Exporter |-------|           |
-----------------------                   ------------       -------------
                                             10.1.1.2         10.1.1.3

I have configured the RPi to export eth0

vsc-group:                                                          
  location: colins-vsc                                              
  USBSerialPort:                                                    
    match:                                                          
      ID_PATH: platform-fd500000.pcie-pci-0000:01:00.0-usb-0:1.3:1.0
  NetworkInterface:                                                 
    ifname: 'eth0'                                                  

And the resource shows up

(venv) $ labgrid-client -p vsc show
Place 'vsc':
  matches:
    */vsc-group/*
  acquired: colin
  acquired resources:
    lg-vsc/vsc-group/NetworkSerialPort/USBSerialPort
    lg-vsc/vsc-group/RemoteNetworkInterface/NetworkInterface
  created: 2024-06-10 14:53:02.073546
  changed: 2024-08-22 13:55:16.733584
Acquired resource 'USBSerialPort' (lg-vsc/vsc-group/NetworkSerialPort/USBSerialPort):
  {'acquired': 'vsc',
   'avail': True,
   'cls': 'NetworkSerialPort',
   'params': {'extra': {'path': '/dev/ttyUSB0',
                        'proxy': 'lg-vsc',
                        'proxy_required': False},
              'host': 'lg-vsc',
              'port': 38813,
              'speed': 115200}}
Acquired resource 'NetworkInterface' (lg-vsc/vsc-group/RemoteNetworkInterface/NetworkInterface):
  {'acquired': 'vsc',
   'avail': True,
   'cls': 'RemoteNetworkInterface',
   'params': {'extra': {'proxy': 'lg-vsc', 'proxy_required': False},
              'host': 'lg-vsc',
              'ifname': 'eth0'}}

I don't understand what I can do with the remote network interface. Do I need to create an SSH proxy? Is this a resource that is only available via pytest --lg-env?

[colin-foster-in-advantage]

In case it helps anyone, I'm planning to run a WireGuard VPN on the RPi Exporter and connect to it locally. This exposes most of what I need (except UDP broadcast messages). I'm planning to prove it out a bit and hopefully can add functionality into Labgrid in the future.

[Emantor]

The RemoteNetworkInterface allows you to inject packets and receive traffic dumps using the RawNetworkInterfaceDriver. This is meant to be used for network driver testings, i.e. linux switch chip driver development and testing.

[colin-foster-in-advantage]

I think I understand. It doesn't seem like RemoteNetworkInterface is what I'd need to interact with a target in the same manner I would if it were directly connected to my machine. The VPN solution seems to check a lot of boxes.

I'll be sure to send a Pull Request if we get it up and running.