Describe Cisco Dynamic IPv4 Routing with OSPF Flashcards
In OSPF, what is an RID and what is it used for?
- Stands for Router ID
- Uniquely identifies a router on the network
- Routes and their costs associated with a particular RID
- Duplicate RIDs can cause connectivity issues
How is a default route configured?
- Statically: Manually configured by an admin
- DHCP: If a router interface IP is dynamically configured, the default route may change and can be configured through DHCP
- Redistribution: Redistributed via a dynamic routing protocol such as OSPF
What is the importance of the OSPF process ID?
- A process ID is needed to enable OSPF on a router
- Only locally significant on the router and does not need to match the ID configured on other routers
- It is best practice to run one process ID per router at a time but there may be cases where multiple process IDs can be used.
Describe the OSPF adjacency process and its purpose
- Forms adjacencies between OSPF routers which allows them to trust and exchange routing information between each other
- INIT: routers are powered on and OSPF is enabled. Routers begin sending out OSPF Hellos.
- 2-way: Routers receive hellos from the others and include the other RIDs in their messages. Routers become “aware” of the others
- ExStart/Exchange: routers negotiate communication details. Which router will start sharing DBDs (DataBase Descripters). Router with the higher RID or Priority starts. These are not full LSAs but contain information about remote networks. DBDs are sent
- Loading: Based on exchanged DBDs routers request LSAs for networks they don’t know (LS Requests) and those LSAs are communicated (LS Updates)
- Full Adjacency: LSDBs match and routers freely communicate and trust LSAs from the others
What command displays the reference bandwidth used in OSPF link cost calculations?
show ip ospf
Describe a LSA Type 2?
- Only generated by the DR in a broadcast or non-broadcast multi-access (NBMA) network
- Contains information about all routers adjacent to the DR as part of the segment
- Only advertised in the local area
What is the purpose of default route distribution?
- Allows a default route to be configured on one router and distributed to others in the same area
- Eliminates the need to manually configure a default route on all routers
What is an area in OSPF, where are they defined and what is the advantage of using areas?
- Areas are used to demarcate where certain LSAs are propagated.
- Reduces overhead by limiting the size of the LSAs for a given area.
- Areas are defined at the interface, not at the router. The router interface and the network it connects to are part of a particular area. ABRs, for example, will have multiple interfaces in multiple areas.
What are the two primary types of dynamic routing protocols and what distinguishes them from the other?
- Distance Vector: vector, indicating the direction in which to send traffic addressed for a certain network. Distance in this case refers to hop count.
- Link State: routers running the same link state routing protocol update each other with information regarding links to directly connected networks, using Link State Advertisements (LSAs). Information like link status (up or down) and cost. This information is used by all routers in the same group to maintain link state databases (LSDBs) that are used to make forwarding decisions. Cost used to determine shortest path which is preferred.
- Distance Vector is ok and can update on dynamic route changes but is not as sophisticated as link state. Forwarding decisions are based purely on hop-count and do not consider congestion.
What is a static route? Why is it important to understand and know how to configure static routes? What challenges exist with static routing?
- A static route is a route manually configured by a network admin.
- It is important to understand how static routes work because, to an extent, that is how routing works in general. There are also cases where configuring a static route is necessary or preferable over a dynamic route, such as setting up default routes in key places.
- Static routes are difficult to implement across complex networks.
- Requires manual changes when network environment changes which can be difficult to plan and execute.
By default, what is the OSPF link cost calculation for an ethernet interface with a bandwidth of 10Mbps?
- The default calculation would yield a link cost of 10
On a Cisco router, what command is used to enable OSPF?
R1 (config)# router ospf 1
- 1 represents the OSPF process ID. This can be any number and is only locally significant
How does a dynamic routing protocol make routing decisions when there are multiple paths to the same network?
- Ideally there should be multiple paths for redundancy
- Routing protocols use different metrics to determine path cost, typically preferring lower cost paths.
- Different protocols use different metrics
What is a default route?
- Route of last resort
- If the router receives a packet destined for a network not in its routing table, the packet is sent to the default route if configured
What commands verify that OSPF is running on your router?
- show ip ospf
- show ip protocols
In OSPF, how is an RID determined?
- Can be assigned automatically or manually by an admin with the router preferring the manually configured RID first
- Configured manually with the “router-id A.B.C.D” command in OSPF config mode
- If no RID is manually configured, one is automatically configured using the highest IP assigned to the loopback interfaces
- If there are no loopback interfaces, the RID is configured with the highest IP of an active interface.
What message types are used by OSPF routers?
- Unicast: one router to one router
- Multicast to 224.0.0.5: General OSPF communication
- Multicast to 224.0.0.6: Used by DR/BDR
What is an ASBR?
- Autonomous System Boundary Router (ASBR)
- A router used between networks running different routing protocols including static, EIGRP, RIP and BGP
What commands can be used to verify OSPF Adjacencies?
- show ip ospf interface brief
- show ip ospf neighbor
What is a dynamic routing protocol?
- A protocol that communicates routing information between routers running the same protocol.
What command is used to distribute a default route to other OSPF routers?
- default-information originate
- issued from OSPF router configuration mode
What configuration advertises a connected network in OSPF?
- Once OSPF is enabled (router ospf 1) use the “network A.A.A.A B.B.B.B area X” command from OSPF router configuration mode
- A.A.A.A represents the network address you want to advertise
- B.B.B.B represents the wildcard mask you want to use. This identifies the portion of the network address that you want advertised.
- A.A.A.A B.B.B.B can be as specific or as general as you like. Any interfaces that fall within the range of IPs set by your configuration will be advertised by OSPF. This can simplify configuration but be careful you don’t advertise something you didn’t intend to.
- area X represents the area you want the advertised networks to be a part of
What command changes the reference bandwidth used in OSPF link cost calculations? Where must this configuration be made?
- From the OSPF router configuration mode, issue the command “auto-cost reference-bandwidth [bandwidth]”
- Must be issued on every router to ensure matching cost calculations
What command verifies that the networks you want advertised are in fact being advertised?
- show ip ospf interface
- show ip ospf interface brief
What are the key components necessary for successfully negotiating an adjacency between two OSPF routers? What happens if any of these components are off?
- Subnet: For the link between the routers, be it multi-access or point-to-point, they must agree on the network address and subnet mask
- Area: For that same link, both routers must have that network configured with the same area number
- Hello interval: If both routers are not using the same timer for OSPF hello messages the adjacency will fail
- Authentication: If used, both routers must use the same OSPF authentication credentials
- If any of these components are not configured identically on both routers the adjacency will fail and routing information will not be exchanged
How are DRs and BDRs determined?
If all routers connected to a segment are brought up simultaneously
- The router with an interface connected to the segment configured with the highest priority determines the DR. Default priority is 1 for every router.
- Second highest priority becomes the BDR.
- All other routers become DR Other
- If priorities are all the same, the highest RID becomes DR while second highest becomes BDR. All others become DR Others
What command can be used to change the OSPF Hello interval?
- ip ospf hello-interval X
- issued from global config
In OSPF, what is an IR?
- Known as an Internal Router (IR)
- Limited to a single area and only receives LSAs for that area
What metric does OSPF use to determine the shortest path to a destination network? How is this metric calculated?
- OSPF uses a metric called cost to determine the shortest path. When sending out an LSA, OSPF routers include their own cost to a destination network which is added to another routers cost for reaching that network.
- Cost is related to the egress interface bandwidth, that is the bandwidth of the interface the router would use to forward traffic to the destination network.
- Cost is calculated by dividing a benchmark bandwidth by the bandwidth of the egress interface.
- By default the benchmark bandwidth is 100 Mbps, however this can be changed to match more modern LAN speeds.
What are the three OSPF network types?
- Broadcast: multi-access network in which broadcasts are allowed. Requires DR/BDR
- Non-broadcast: multi-access network that does not have broadcasts, such as with ATM and Frame-Relay. Requires DR/BDR
- Point-to-Point: Direct connection between one router interface to another, such as with a serial link. No DR/BDR established.
Describe an LSA Type 1?
- Router LSA generated by every OSPF router.
- Advertises directly connected networks, interface, interface cost and RID for the respective router connected to those networks.
- Only advertised in the local area
In OSPF, what is an ABR?
- Known as an Area Border Router (ABR)
- Router that has interfaces in more than one area and thus maintains LSDBs for those areas.
- Packets from one area destined for another will go through an ABR
What are DRs and BDRs? What is their purpose?
- Stands for Designated Router (DR) and Backup Designated Router (BDR)
- Created when more than one OSPF router is on the same network segment / broadcast domain
- Full Adjacencies are formed only between DR/BDR and other routers on the segment. Non DR/BDR routers do not form full adjacencies with each other
- Reduces overhead for maintaining full adjacency between every router