# Route Tables

<a id="vpcinneokarm-routetables"></a>

## Introduction

Route tables control the IP forwarding of all traffic in the subnets with which
they are associated. They have the following attributes:

1. A VPC comes with a single built-in, modifiable, main route table.
2. You can create additional custom route tables for your VPC.
3. You cannot delete the main route table, but you can replace the main route
   table with a custom table that you’ve created. This table becomes the default
   table with which each new subnet is associated.
4. Each route in a table specifies a destination CIDR and a target (local/IGW).
5. Every route table contains a local route for communication within the VPC
   over IPv4. You cannot modify or delete this route.

See the video introducing the basics of configuring Route Tables:

<iframe class="embed-responsive-item"
        id="youtubeplayer"
        type="text/html"
        width="640"
        height="390"
        style="border: none"
        src="//www.youtube.com/embed/L2r2b53djrU"
        allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">
</iframe>

## Creating a Route Table

**To create a route table:**

1. Navigate to the **Networking > Route Tables** view.
2. From the top toolbar, click **Create**.
3. In the **Create Route Table** dialog, enter the following:
   * **Name** - name of the route table.
   * **Description** - optional description of the route table.
   * **VPC** - VPC which is associated with this route table.
4. Click OK. A route table is created with a single entry for
   a local route for communication within the VPC.

## Route Table Operations

After creating a route table, it is displayed in the route table list
in the **Networking > Route Tables** view. The following operations can
be performed by selecting a route table from the list, and clicking the
appropriate icon.

**From top toolbar:**

* **Modify** - change the name of the route table.
* **Set main** - set the route table as the main table for a VPC, replacing the
  previous default table.
* **Delete**
* **Test connectivity** - use ping or arping to test connectivity
  to a specific IP covered by routes defined in the route table.  For more
  information on route table testing, see [Testing Route Table Connectivity](#test-route-tables).
* **Soft Reset** - rebind all the ports of the route table.
* **Hard Reset** - restart the route table.

**From lower toolbar:**

* **Add route** - to add route to table, select **Routes** tab in lower
  portion of view and click **Create**.
* **Assocate subnets** - to associate a subnet with the route table, select
  **Subnet Associations** tab in lower portion of view and click
  **Associate**.  Subnet association allows the user to bind an existing subnet
  to a route table, when the subnet is not explictly listed in the table.
* **Events** - to view configuration events (info) or alarms for the
  route table, select the **Events** tab in lower portion of view.

<a id="test-route-tables"></a>

## Testing Route Table Connectivity

Connectivity between a VPC Route Table and a specific IP address can be tested
by ping using either the GUI or CLI.

**Using the GUI**

1. Navigate to the **Networking** > **Route Tables** view.
2. Select a Route Table from the displayed list and click **Test Connectivity** in
   top toolbar.
3. In the **Test Connectivity** window, enter a Destination IP address.
4. Select **ping** or **arping**.
5. Click **OK**.
6. Click **OK**. A message is displayed that the connectivity test is taking place.
7. A few seconds later, the test results will be displayed indicting success
   or failure as well as other relevant details. This status report is also
   available in the right-hand sidebar.

**Using the CLI**

1. The ‘guestnet-admin-tool ping-ip create’ command with which you can test
   a route table’s connectivity requires the ID of the given route table
   (see ‘entity_id’ below).

   Note: ‘–command-type’ is either ‘ping’ (default) or ‘arping’
   ```default
   guestnet-admin-tool ping-ip create [-h]
                                      [-f {adaptive_table,json,shell,table,value,yaml}]
                                      [-c COLUMN] [--max-width <integer>]
                                      [--noindent] [--prefix PREFIX]
                                      [-m [NAME=VALUE [NAME=VALUE ...]]]
                                      [--command-type COMMAND_TYPE]
                                      [--name NAME]
                                      entity_id dest_ip
   ```
2. Run the ‘vpc route-table list’ command to locate the ID of Route Table-1.
   ```default
   vpc route-table list -c id -c name
   ```
3. This returns a list of route tables and their IDs.
   ```default
   +--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
   | id                                   | name                                                |
   +======================================+=====================================================+
   | 2fd55d1e-60b3-4887-b376-204b63ce2fa8 | Route Table-1                                       |
   +--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
   ```
4. Test the connectivity of Route Table-1 to the destination IP address 8.8.8.8.
   ```default
   guestnet-admin-tool ping-ip create 2fd55d1e-60b3-4887-b376-204b63ce2fa 8 8.8.8.8
   ```
5. This returns a temporary, pending status of the route table’s connectivity,
   together with the id of the ping_ip.
   ```default
   +--------------+--------------------------------------+
   | id           | ab1e76df-4531-42db-a455-02a402e70ae5 |
   | name         | none                                 |
   | status       | pending                              |
   | command_type | ping                                 |
   | created_at   | 2019-05-12T14:15:11.379402           |
   | dest_ip      | 8.8.8.8                              |
   | entity_id    | 2fd55d1e-60b3-4887-b376-204b63ce2fa8 |
   | output       | -                                    |
   | project_id   | 07650a05e9dd47c8a3b874a2132e178c     |
   | updated_at   | 2019-05-12T14:15:11.379416           |
   | user_id      | admin                                |
   +--------------+--------------------------------------+
   ```
6. Wait a few seconds and then request the final status of Route Table-1’s
   connectivity test by using the ‘guestnet-admin-tool ping-ip get ping_ip_id‘.
   ```default
   guestnet-admin-tool ping-ip get ab1e76df-4531-42db-a455-02a402e70ae5
   ```
7. This returns the final, succeeded/failed status of Route Table-1’s connectivity
   test with relevant output details.
   ```default
   +--------------+------------------------------------------+
   | id           | ab1e76df-4531-42db-a455-02a402e70ae5     |
   | name         | none                                     |
   | status       | failed                                   |
   | command_type | ping                                     |
   | created_at   | 2019-05-12T14:15:11                      |
   | dest_ip      | 8.8.8.8                                  |
   | entity_id    | 2fd55d1e-60b3-4887-b376-204b63ce2fa8     |
   |              +------------------------------------------+
   | output       |  ; error=connect: Network is unreachable |
   |              |  ; status=2                              |
   |              +------------------------------------------+
   | project_id   | 07650a05e9dd47c8a3b874a2132e178c         |
   | updated_at   | 2019-05-12T14:15:12                      |
   | user_id      | admin                                    |
   +--------------+------------------------------------------+
   ```

This information is automatically deleted after approximately one hour.

## Additional Commands for Route Table (VPC) Connectivity Testing

1. Delete a specific route table connectivity test
   ```default
   guestnet-admin-tool ping-ip delete ping_ip_id
   ```
2. List all ping_ip requests
   ```default
   guestnet-admin-tool ping-ip list
   ```