First example

Suppose that we have two remote hosts:

• host1.cloud1.example.com: running a Web service on TCP port 80
• host2.cloud2.example.com: running another Web service on TCP port 80

These hosts can be logged in from the local host via SSH. However, these hosts are running on different clouds and they are NOT mutually IP-reachable.

The following example allows host2 to connect to host1 as 127.0.42.101:8080, and allows host1 to connect to host2 as 127.0.42.102:8080 using NoRouter.

Step 0: Install norouter

The norouter binary needs to be installed to all the remote hosts and the local host. See Download.

The easiest way is to download the binary on the local host first, and then use norouter show-installer | ssh <USER>@<HOST> to replicate the binary.

$ curl -fsSL https://github.com/norouter/norouter/releases/latest/download/norouter-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m).tgz | sudo tar xzvC /usr/local/bin

$ norouter show-installer | ssh some-user@host1.cloud1.example.com
...
Successfully installed /home/some-user/bin/norouter (version 0.6.0)

$ norouter show-installer | ssh some-user@host2.cloud2.example.com
...
Successfully installed /home/some-user/bin/norouter (version 0.6.0)

Step 1: Create a manifest

Create a manifest file norouter.yaml on the local host as follows:

hosts:
  # host0 is the localhost
  host0:
    vip: "127.0.42.100"
  host1:
    cmd: "ssh some-user@host1.cloud1.example.com -- /home/some-user/bin/norouter"
    vip: "127.0.42.101"
    ports: ["8080:127.0.0.1:80"]
  host2:
    cmd: "ssh some-user@host2.cloud2.example.com -- /home/some-user/bin/norouter"
    vip: "127.0.42.102"
    ports: ["8080:127.0.0.1:80"]

Step 2: Start the main NoRouter process

[localhost]$ ./bin/norouter norouter.yaml

If you are using macOS or BSD, you may see “bind: can’t assign requested address” error. See Troubleshooting for a workaround.

Step 3: connect to host1 (127.0.42.101)

[localhost]$ wget -O - http://127.0.42.101:8080
[host1.cloud1.example.com]$ wget -O - http://127.0.42.101:8080
[host2.cloud2.example.com]$ wget -O - http://127.0.42.101:8080

Confirm that host1’s Web service is shown.

Step 4: connect to host2 (127.0.42.102)

[localhost]$ wget -O - http://127.0.42.102:8080
[host1.cloud1.example.com]$ wget -O - http://127.0.42.102:8080
[host2.cloud2.example.com]$ wget -O - http://127.0.42.102:8080

Confirm that host2’s Web service is shown.