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Introduction
Why are loopbacks advertised as /32 host routes in OSPF?
How do I change the reference bandwidth in OSPF?
How does OSPF calculate its metric or cost?
What algorithm is used by OSPF if equal cost routes exist?
Are OSPF routing protocol exchanges authenticated?
What is the link-state retransmit interval, and what is the command to set it?
What is the purpose of the variable IP-OSPF-Transmit-Delay?
Is it true that only the static option of the virtual link in OSPF allows
discontiguous networks, regardless of the mask propagation properties?
Are the multicast IP addresses mapped to MAC-level multicast addresses?
Does the Cisco OSPF implementation support IP TOS-based routing?
Does the offset-list subcommand work for OSPF?
Can an OSPF default be originated into the system based on external
information on a router that does not itself have a default?
Can I use the distribute-list in/out command with OSPF to filter routes?
How can I give preference to OSPF interarea routes over intra-area routes?
Do I need to manually set up adjacencies for routers on the Switched
Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) cloud with the OSPF neighbor
subcommand?
When routes are redistributed between OSPF processes, are all shortest path
first algorithm (SPF) metrics preserved, or is the default metric value used?
How does Cisco accommodate OSPF routing on partial-mesh Frame Relay
networks?
Which address-wild-mask pair should I use for assigning an unnumbered
interface to an area?
Can I have one numbered side and leave the other side unnumbered in OSPF?
Why do I receive the "cannot allocate router id" error message when I
configure Router OSPF One?
Why do I receive the "unknown routing protocol" error message when I
configure Router OSPF One?
What do the states DR, BDR, and DROTHER mean in show ip ospf interface
command output?
When I issue the show ip ospf neighbor command, why do I only see FULL/DR
and FULL/BDR, with all other neighbors showing 2-WAY/DROTHER?
Why do I not see OSPF neighbors as FULL/DR or FULL/BDR on my serial link?
Do I need any special commands to run OSPF over BRI/PRI links?
Do I need any special commands to run OSPF over asynchronous links?
Which Cisco IOS Software release began support for per-interface
authentication type in OSPF?
Can I control the P-bit when importing external routes into a not-so-stubby
area (NSSA)?
Why are OSPF show commands responding so slowly?
What does the clear ip ospf redistribution command do?
Does OSPF form adjacencies with neighbors that are not on the same subnet?
How often does OSPF send out link-state advertisements (LSAs)?
How do I stop individual interfaces from developing adjacencies in an OSPF
network?
When I have two type 5 link-state advertisements (LSAs) for the same
external network in the OSPF database, which path should be installed in the
IP routing table?
Why is it that my Cisco 1600 router does not recognize the OSPF protocol?
A. Loopbacks are considered host routes in OSPF, and they are advertised as /
32. For more information, refer to section 9.1 of RFC 2328 leavingcisco.com.
In Cisco IOS Software Releases 11.3T and 12.0, if the ip ospf network point-topoint command is configured under loopbacks, OSPF advertises the loopback
subnet as the actual subnet configured on loopbacks. ISDN dialer interface
advertises /32 subnet instead of its configured subnet mask. This is an
expected behavior if ip ospf network point-to-multipoint is configured.
For example, consider two routers (R1 and R2) connected via FastEthernet
interface. R1 has the loopback configured with the ip ospf network point-topoint command and advertises the loopback in OSPF.
interface Loopback0
ip address 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
ip ospf network point-to-point
When checked in router R2 with the show ip route ospf command, the route
1.1.1.1 is seen as:
!..output truncated
A. You can change the reference bandwidth in Cisco IOS Software Release
11.2 and later using the ospf auto-cost reference-bandwidth command under
router ospf. By default, reference bandwidth is 100 Mbps. The ospf link-cost is
a 16-bit number. Therefore, the maximum value supported is 65,535.
Q. How does OSPF calculate its metric or cost?
A. OSPF uses a reference bandwidth of 100 Mbps for cost calculation. The
formula to calculate the cost is reference bandwidth divided by interface
bandwidth. For example, in the case of Ethernet, it is 100 Mbps / 10 Mbps =
10.
Note: If ip ospf cost cost is used on the interface, it overrides this formulated
cost. For more information, refer to OSPF Cost.
Q. What algorithm is used by OSPF if equal cost routes exist?
A. If equal cost routes exist, OSPF uses CEF load balancing. For more
information, refer to Troubleshooting Load Balancing Over Parallel Links Using
Cisco Express Forwarding.
Q. Are OSPF routing protocol exchanges authenticated?
A. This variable adds a specified time to the age field of an update. If the
delay is not added before transmission over a link, the time in which the linkstate advertisement (LSA) propagates over the link is not considered. The
default value is 1 second. This parameter has more significance on very lowspeed links.
Q. Is it true that only the static option of the virtual link in OSPF allows
discontiguous networks, regardless of the mask propagation properties?
A. Cisco OSPF only supports TOS 0. This means that routers route all packets
on the TOS 0 path, eliminating the need to calculate nonzero TOS paths.
Q. Does the offset-list subcommand work for OSPF?
A. The offset-list command does not work for OSPF. It is used for distance
vector protocols such as Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP), Routing
Information Protocol (RIP), and RIP version 2.
Q. Can an OSPF default be originated into the system based on external
information on a router that does not itself have a default?
A. In Cisco IOS Software releases earlier than Cisco IOS Software Release
10.0, the neighbor command was required to establish adjacencies over
nonbroadcast multiaccess (NBMA) networks (such as Frame Relay, X.25, and
SMDS). With Cisco IOS Software Release 10.0 and later, you can use the ip
ospf network broadcast command to define the network as a broadcast
network, eliminating the need for the neighbor command. If you are not using
a fully meshed SMDS cloud, you must use the ip ospf network point-tomultipoint command.
Q. When routes are redistributed between OSPF processes, are all shortest
path first algorithm (SPF) metrics preserved, or is the default metric value
used?
A. The SPF metrics are preserved. The redistribution between them is like
redistribution between any two IP routing processes.
Q. How does Cisco accommodate OSPF routing on partial-mesh Frame Relay
networks?
A. No, OSPF does not work if you have one side numbered and the other side
unnumbered. This creates a discrepancy in the OSPF database that prevents
routes from being installed in the routing table.
Q. Why do I receive the "cannot allocate router id" error message when I
configure Router OSPF One?
A. Your software may not support OSPF. This error message occurs most
frequently with the Cisco 1600 series routers. If you are using a 1600 router,
you need a Plus image to run OSPF.
Q. What do the states DR, BDR, and DROTHER mean in show ip ospf interface
command output?
A. You may experience a slow response when issuing OSPF show commands,
but not with other commands. The most common reason for this delay is that
you have the ip ospf name-lookup configuration command configured on the
router. This command causes the router to look up the device Domain Name
System (DNS) names for all OSPF show commands, making it easier to
identify devices, but resulting in a slowed response time for the commands. If
you are experiencing slow response on commands other than just OSPF show
commands, you may want to start looking at other possible causes, such as
the CPU utilization.
Q. What does the clear ip ospf redistribution command do?
A. The clear ip ospf redistribution command flushes all the type 5 and type 7
link-state advertisements (LSAs) and scans the routing table for the
redistributed routes. This causes a partial shortest path first algorithm (SPF)
in all the routers on the network that receive the flushed/renewed LSAs.
When the expected redistributed route is not in OSPF, this command may
help to renew the LSA and get the route into OSPF.
Q. Does OSPF form adjacencies with neighbors that are not on the same
subnet?
A. The only time that OSPF forms adjacencies between neighbors that are not
on the same subnet is when the neighbors are connected through point-topoint links. This may be desired when using the ip unnumbered command,
but in all other cases, the neighbors must be on the same subnet.
Q. How often does OSPF send out link-state advertisements (LSAs)?
A. OSPF sends out its self-originated LSAs when the LSA age reaches the linkstate refresh time, which is 1800 seconds. For more information, refer to LinkState Advertisements.
Q. How do I stop individual interfaces from developing adjacencies in an OSPF
network?
A. When you have two type 5 LSAs for the same external network in the OSPF
database, prefer the external LSA that has the shortest path to the
Autonomous System Boundary Router (ASBR) and install that into the IP
routing table. Use the show ip ospf border-routers command to check the cost
to the ASBR.
Q. Why is it that my Cisco 1600 router does not recognize the OSPF protocol?
A. Cisco 1600 routers require the Plus feature set image of Cisco IOS Software
to run OSPF. Refer to Table 3: Cisco 1600 Series Routers Feature Sets in the
Release Notes for Cisco IOS Release 11.2(11) Software Feature Packs for
Cisco 1600 Series Routers for more information.
Q. Why is it that my Cisco 800 router does not run OSPF?
A. Cisco 800 routers do not support OSPF. However, they do support Routing
Information Protocol (RIP) and Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
(EIGRP). You can use the Software Advisor ( registered customers only) tool
for more information on feature support.
Q. Should I use the same process number while configuring OSPF on multiple
routers within the same network?
A. CEF works by performing the switching of the packet based on the routing
table which is populated by the routing protocols such as OSPF. CEF does the
load-balancing once the routing protocol table has been calculated. For more
details on load balancing, refer to How does load-balancing work?
Q. How does OSPF use two Multilink paths to transfer packets?
A. OSPF uses the metric aCost, which is related to the bandwidth. If there are
equal cost paths (the same bandwidth on both multilinks), OSPF installs both
routes in the routing table. The routing table tries to use both links equally,
regardless of the interface utilization. If one of the links in the first multilink
fails, OSPF does not send all the traffic down the second multilink. If the first
multilink peaks 100%, OSPF does not send any traffic down the second
multilink because OSPF tries to use both links equally, regardless of the
interface utilization. The second is used fully only when the first multilink
goes down.
Q. How can you detect the topological changes rapidly?
A. In order to have a rapid fault detection of topology changes, the hello timer
value needs to be set to 1 second. The hold timer value, which is is four times
that of the hello timer, also needs to be configured. There is a possibility of
more routing traffic if the hello and hold timer values are reduced from their
default values.
Note: Tuning OSPF Timers might result in network as well device resource
overhead. Cisco recommends to use Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
instead of tuning the routing protocol timers. BFD also gives sub-second
convergence. Refer toOSPF Support for BFD over IPv4 for more information.
Q. Does the 3825 Series Router support the OSPF Stub feature?
A. Yes, the 3800 Series Router that runs Advanced IPServices image supports
the OSPF Stub feature.
Q. What does the error message %OSPF-4-FLOOD_WAR: Process process-id
re-originates LSA ID ip address type-2 adv-rtr ip address in area area id
means?
A. The error message is due to the some router that is flushing the network
LSA because the network LSA received by the router whose LSA ID conflicts
with the IP address of one of the router's interfaces and flushes the LSA out of
A. When the NSSA ABR is configured to move from nssa no-summary to nssa,
the OSPF neighborship does not flap.
Q. In the %OSPF-5-ADJCHG: Process ID, Nbr [ip-address] on Port-channel31
from FULL to EXSTART, SeqNumberMismatch error message, what does
SeqNumberMismatch signify?
A. The OSPF neighbor was changed state from FULL to EXSTART because of
the receipt of a Database Description (DBD) packet from the neighbor with an
unexpected sequence number.
SeqNumberMismatch means that a DBD packet during OSPF neighborship
negotiation has been received that either:
has an unexpected DBD sequence number
unexpectedly has the Init bit set
has an Options field differing from the last Options field received in a
Database Description packet.
Q. What is the maximum number of OSPF processes (VRF aware) on
7600/6500 platforms?
A. Cisco IOS has a limit of 32 routing processes. Two of these are saved for
static and directly connected routes. The Cisco 7600 router supports 28 OSPF
processes per VRF.
Q. How does ISPF impact or improve the OSPF network?
A. Incremental SPF is more efficient than the full SPF algorithm, thereby
allowing OSPF to converge faster on a new routing topology in reaction to a
network event. The incremental SPF is designed in such a way that it only
updates the affected nodes without rebuilding the whole tree. This results in a
faster convergence and saves CPU cycles because the unaffected nodes do
not need to be processed. Concerning the best practice ISPF would make
more of a difference for a large OSPF domain.
Incremental SPF provides greater improvements in convergence time for
networks with a high number of nodes and links. Incremental SPF also
provides a significant advantage when the changes in the network topology
are further away from the root of the SPT; for example, the larger the network
the more significant the impact. A segment of 400-1000 nodes should see
improvements. However, it might be hard to verify in a deployed production
network without some kind of facility or tool to measure the end-to-end delay.
For more information, refer to OSPF Incremental SPF.
Q. Is there a way to compare Cisco NX-OS/IOS OSPF commands?
Yes No
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