I'm Bound to Pack it Up

Well over-due for a new entry I suppose.

Let's see... haven't post anything networky for a while. Found out how to abuse NVI's recently while trying to find a way to make NAT TCP hairpinning work - aka tromboning, aka RFC5382, sec 7.2 - on an IOS router. Read: NOT an ASA or Pix-based-hellbox.
After doing the standard Route-Map, NAT-via-loopback-ala-NAT-on-a-stick-based-thing, I found it's ridiculously easy to do if your router supports NAT Virtual Interfaces (NVI).
That said, I can't say I understand what's actually happening or why this works. Documentation on what happens when you use NVI in this sort of a scenario, sans-VRF, is quite slim.

The scenario:
PAT on 172.16.0.1 for some TCP ports - say 80, 110, 443 goto 192.168.0.250
192.168.0.10 needs to get to said TCP services at 192.168.0.250 via the external 172.16.0.1 address
NAT overload on fa0/0 for any other 192.168.0.0/24 hosts to the internets

Queue visual aid:

Queue pseudo code:

int fa0/0
ip address 172.16.0.1 255.255.255.0
ip nat enable
!
int fa0/1
ip address 192.168.0.254 255.255.255.0
ip nat enable
no ip redirects
!
ip nat source static tcp 192.168.0.250 80 int fa0/0 80
ip nat source static tcp 192.168.0.250 443 int fa0/0 443
!
access-list 10 permit 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.255
!
ip nat source list 10 int fa0/0 overload
!

Bam, instant hairpinning. Still need to work out exactly what's going on behind the scenes here. It makes some modicum of sense visualizing the resulting NVI interface as a fancy loopback, but there's certainly more to it than that. Either way, I'm sure it can't be good for a busy production network, but the further R&D will have to wait.
However, if your router doesn't support NVI's... yeah.

Yay, networky stuff out of the way.

Context for the following conversation: Solarwinds Orion Network Performance Monitor. Atlas is the tool provided to create said maps.

Co-Worker says:
That's some pretty fancy shit for maps
You say:
eh?
Co-Worker says:
The BULK stuff that kinda looks like the visio diagrams
You say:
oh, yeah. makes it easier to follow if they're close to same-y
could be better, but Atlas is a peach.
Co-Worker says:
A peach?
You say:
top gear reference. supposedly albanian for a word that rhymes with blunt
more accurately... piçkë
kar would also suffice

Image courtesy CampinZz... Granted I was only shooting from just shy of 20 yards.

I both love and hate this song. Also, the video reminds me too much of Survivor which I despise.