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OSPF Backbone
Why is area 0 the backbone area in OSPF? Why must all other areas connect to it?
This is explained very well in RFC 3509, Section 1.21:
1.2 Motivation
In OSPF domains the area topology is restricted so that there must be
a backbone area (area 0) and all other areas must have either physical
or virtual connections to the backbone....
26
Can anyone explain me what is the need of IBGP communication for the routes, when we have the IGP protocols (OSPF, RIP) for internal communication?
Scalability1: Imagine that you're receiving 500,000 EBGP routes in more than one location2, and you need to influence the per route exit point in your AS. BGP can handle many more routes than IGP protocols. ...
25
EIGRP is now an IETF draft so it's no longer proprietary. See http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-savage-eigrp-01
If we look at EIGRP with default settings and OSPF with default settings and there are multiple loop free paths to a destination then EIGRP will converge much faster because it keeps what are called feasible successors in it's topology database. ...
24
One issue is that authentication ensures that only trusted devices are capable of exchanging routes on the network. Without authentication, you could introduce a non-trusted device and cause significant routing issues. For example:
If area 0 is not authenticated, attach a router in area 0 with bogus routes to null0. You could even create a default route ...
21
Most of the references say "RIP is not scalable" hence can be used only in smaller networks. But none say "WHY?" What is that in RIP that actually preventing it from scaling to larger networks? And HOW OSPF overcomes the disadvantage of RIP?
Summary
RIPv1 floods routes frequently (every 30 seconds), which introduces large CPU loads as ...
19
Area 0 was chosen to be the backbone, the number 0 or 0.0.0.0 is just a number.
Because OSPF is link state the LSDB must be identical within an area. This is to ensure that the SPF calculation is consistent and to prevent routing loops.
If running single area OSPF any area can be used, there is no requirement to have area 0.
When running multi area OSPF, ...
16
Typically you would install a static route on the upstream device (the Juniper MX5 in this example) pointing to the NAT outside network, rather than trying to advertise the network from the ASA. At least, that's how I always go about it.
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It's important to note that type 2 LSA's are only generated on segments where a DR/BDR has been elected - this includes BMA (Broadcast Multi-Access) and NBMA (Non-Broadcast Multi-Access) networks. The DR is what generates the type 2 LSA. This behavior can be bypassed by configuring your Ethernet interfaces that you're choosing to run OSPF on as point-to-...
16
This question is akin to asking, "Why can't I use a screwdriver to hammer nails?"
You could use OSPF in certain inter-AS situations if you REALLY, REALLY wanted to/needed to. There would be many "gotchas" and caveats to keep in mind when utilizing OSPF as an EGP.
Just like you could hammer nails with a screwdriver. However, you would risk breaking the ...
14
This is kind of a complex question, as the two different products are very different. A MPLS L3VPN circuit inherently is a full mesh between all locations that participate, while a MetroE connection is generally a point to point link between two specific sites.
In my experience, a MetroE circuit is a directly provisioned path, with no protect services, ...
14
You can read about the finer workings of these protocols for yourself, they are thoroughly documented on the Internet and it's a doddle to find information on them.
From a practicle perspective I would say that in the case of EIGRP vs OSPF, OSPF always wins for the following reasons:
Convergence Speed:
Everyone always mentioned that EIGRP is faster than ...
14
All routers within an OSPF area keep a link state database (note that this is completely separate from the main routing table), where they're aware of all other routers and their links within the area. Each router within the area builds a topology tree of the area, with shortest paths to all other links/routers with itself as the root. This last part is ...
12
What does the topology look like? How are you doing routing today towards these networks? Or is the router being deployed now? Do you have an OSPF capable router connected to this router that is not running OSPF?
If you do then I suggest you redistribute static on this router. Something like:
ip prefix-list static-routes permit 10.0.0.0/24
ip prefix-list ...
12
On frame-relay point-to-point interfaces, your OSPF priority is set to zero automatically. Also you have no DR election on a p2p links
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If you're asking specifically what Areas do in OSPF, there are many resources out there which have a wealth of information. These are just a few selections:
The Cisco OSPF Design Guide
A Cisco Design Technote What Are OSPF Areas and Virtual Links?
PacketLife.net blog entry on OSPF Area Types
However, a good answer to "What is the advantage of OSPF Areas?",...
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Your loopback 100 address is 172.168.100.0/24, but your network statement is 172.16.100.0/24, so Loopback 100 is not in the OSPF domain.
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Pete said:
I can't think of a situation where you would need this. I just wanted to know what the logic was that makes this an explicit check in these routing protocols.
Short answer
Routing protocols are some of the most fundamental building blocks on the internet; we need them to be very reliable in every possible case. It does no good to bring up an ...
11
OSPF is a link state protocol that uses multicast. It sends Link State Advertisements (LSAs) that are flooded.
Every router builds a tree by running SPF where the router itself is the root of the tree. In OSPF we have transit networks and stub networks. Transit networks are networks that are used for transit to reach networks while stub networks are the ...
11
... The load balancing works when I replace the MPLS by ATM switches.
This doesn't sound like a parallel comparison, because routers don't care whether you're forwarding through an ATM PVC or an MPLS LSP, they will load-balance in the same way, assuming the routers have the same configuration. Perhaps you've done something unusual with your ATM VCs, but ...
11
A Tale of Three Stubs...
When using Cisco equipment, OSPF calls several things a "stub"... it gets a bit confusing....
Stub Host
Stub Network
Stub Area
The meanings are very different for each term; even more confusing is the reality that you can potentially apply multiple stub terms to a single OSPF interface. I'll elaborate more below.
Background
Let'...
11
I have a few /30 subnets connecting OSPF routers over a broadcast capable link.. Should I also configure the interfaces involved in the link to ip ospf network point-to-point? Or does it matter?
The network type definitely matters, but you need to be sharp about handling this situation... there are some corner cases to consider. Let's compare the ...
10
Switching from a managed L3VPN (what I assume you meant by "MPLS VPN") to an L2VPN is a nice step up in that you can run non-IP protocols, and get total control of the routing protocols and routing platforms that define your routing topology.
Assuming that you place just one Ethernet MAC address on the CPE-side of each of your sites, it's much simpler for ...
10
Not sure this is a question that can get a really good answer but it's important to know the preference order of OSPF:
intra area routes
inter area routes
external type 1
external type 2
NSSA type 1
NSSA type 2
So in some cases adjusting the metric has no effect on traffic engineering. It's important to change the auto-cost reference-bandwidth on Cisco ...
10
I would HIGHLY recommend getting rid of HSRP and using routing over the tunnels (both up all the time), whether OSPF or EIGRP. Set an inferior metric on one of the tunnels at both ends. Problem solved.
HSRP is BAD NEWS over WAN. I am struggling to see what use the HSRP is. As you're now seeing it also causes a lot of issues when overlaid on top of routing.
...
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IGP usually is OSPF or ISIS which are link-state based, this gives us all the information of the network, everyone knows network from everyone's point-of-view, which allows for very interesting convergence options and traffic engineering options.
BGP is essentially distance-vector, it knows very limited view on the network at whole. BGP handles very well ...
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Nothing prevents you from using OSPF to connect two separate networks. When companies merge this happens quite often. Is it a good idea? Probably not. Why?
Scalability: OSPF needs a lot more resources (by design) than BGP. Every router needs a full OSPF database (ignoring features like stubby areas) and the SPF calculations need lots of CPU time.
Filtering: ...
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Null 0 is a virtual interface that’s used to guarantee routes make it into the RIB; remember, routes must have a next-hop in order to make it into the RIB. When a packet arrives at a device that has a route to Null 0 and nowhere else, it will discard it similar to how an ACL would. Think of this as the virtual interface where packets go to die efficiently. ...
10
iBGP requires a full mesh or use of mitigation like confederations or route reflectors, BGP doesn't converge with anything like the speed of OSPF, etc.
Each OSPF router would have a full understanding of all the routes that are in the area in which it resides without needing a full mesh, and it converges very, very quickly.
Using an IGP is recommended with ...
9
At the point where the non-OSPF domain touches the OSPF domain I would setup static routes and then redistribute those static routes into OSPF.
This ofcourse is a very static (no pun intended) setup, there is always the other option of running another (supported) protocol down to the non-OSPF device and then redistribute between the two protocols.
Have you ...
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You cannot change the LSRefreshTime because it's hard-coded as an "architectural constant" in the OSPF RFC.
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