Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a routing protocol developed for Internet Protocol (IP) networks by the interior gateway protocol (IGP) working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Infromation about OSPF from Cisco Systems
-- Great document apart from the fact that someone from Cisco must have written it for their Grandma
Ok, to get OSPF going first hack zebra.conf and ospfd.conf
The remote stations need stuff like this ;
# hostname whatever password passwd enable password passwd
router ospf
network 192.168.67.0/24 area 0
# log /var/log/ospd.log
- end
ONLY advertise networks that this device is responsible for.
Global Router Configurations
Router(config)#router ospf <process-number>
- Starts the OSPF process and identifies it with a process ID.
Router(config-router)#network <network> <wildcard-mask> area 0
- Identifies which networks - and which interfaces - partake in the OSPF process.
Router(config-router)#router-id <ip-address>
- Used to define the RID of the router.
Example of configuring the Router ID
Router(config)#interface loopback 0 Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.254.1 255.255.255.0 Router(config-if)#! Router(config)#router ospf 100 Router(config-router)#router-id 192.168.254.1
Interface Level Configurations
Router(config-if)#ip ospf cost <cost>
- Sets the cost or metric for the outgoing interface.
Router(config-if)#auto-cost reference-bandwidth <reference-bandwidth>
- Allows the administrator to change the formula used to calculate the metric.
Router(config-if)#ip ospf priority <number>
- Helps to determine which router on a multicast network will be elected as the DR/BDR.
Router(config-if)#ip ospf network <network-type>
- Identifies the type of network to the OSPF process, which will determine how the adjacencies are created.
Router(config-if)#neighbor <ip-address> (priority <number>) (poll-interval <sec>) (cost <number>)
- States the neighbor, its address, and its capability to become the DR. - This command also allows the configuration of cost and the timers on the interface.
Operation Verification Commands
Router#show ip ospf
- Shows the OSPF process and it's details.
Router#show ip ospf database
- Show the contents of the topological database.
Router#show ip ospf interface
- Gives information about how OSPF has been configured on each interface
Router#show ip ospf neighbor
- Displays all the information about the relationship that the router has with it's neighbors.
Router#show ip protocols
- Enables you to view the IP routing protocol configuration on the router.
Router#show ip route
- Shows detailed information about the networks the router is aware and the preferred paths to those networks. - Also gives the next logical hop as the next step in the path.
Troubleshooting Commands
With troubleshooting using debug, if you're connected via the console port, turn on console logging (Router(config)#logging console) or if connected by virtual terminal, turn on the logging monitor (Router#term mon)
Router#debug ip ospf events
- Displays information about OSPF-related events.
Router#debug ip packet
- Ip debugging information includes packets received, generated, and forwarded.
Perry says to stick everything in area 0, <shrug> so do it his way ok..
PerryLorier: Yeah, because dealing with area's is a bitch, and if you are just learning, stick everything in area 0, when your network gets large enough that convergance times are starting to become a worry, think about different areas then, but before that time, stick everything in area 0 and you'll save yourself a lot of hassle. Also, remember that Area 0 is "special" to OSPF, so if you decide to use area 42 or whatever, it will break.
LindsayDruett: Dealing with multiple areas is not really that bad, however, you must remember that all Areas must connect directly to Area 0, that is because Area 0 is the backbone Area.
If you really can't meet the requirements of directly connecting to Area 0 and have to go through another area instead, you can insert a Virtual Link - However, it is not a recommended strategy, I don't know if this feature is available on routers other than Cisco, but either way it is strongly advised to avoid using virtual links.
It is good practice to configure a Loopback Interface (other than 127.0.0.1) on your OSPF router and use that Loopback interface for the OSPF RouterID. Also it is a good idea to configure it as the OSPF Router ID rather than letting the router discover that address as the OSPF RouterID.
It is also good practice to limit each area to 50 routers, make sure that each router has no more than 60 neighbors, that neighbor is spelled the American way, each Area Border router doesn't have more than 3 areas, and that you set the OSPF priority so that it doesn't get elected as a DR or BDR for more than 1 network.
OSPF Neighbors
DR/BDR Election Process
Highest OSPF Priority Number
Highest IP Address (Router ID)
Timers
Hello Timers
Dead Timers
Complete OSPF Database purge and update
Five packets are used to build the routing table for the first time.
Broadcast Multiaccess Network.
Point-to-Point Network.
Point-to-Multipoint Network.
Nonbroadcast Multiaccess Network.
| OSPF over NBMA | Point-to-Multipoint Nonbroadcast | Point-to-point | Broadcast | NBMA | Point-to-Multipoint |
| Addressing | Unicast | Multicast | Multicast | Unicast | Multicast |
| DR/BDR | No | No | Yes | Yes (Manual) | No |
| Manual Configuration of Neighbors | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Hello Timer | 30 Sec | 10 Sec | 10 Sec | 30 Sec | 30 Sec |
| Dead Timer | 120 Sec | 40 Sec | 40 Sec | 120 Sec | 120 Sec |
| Compliance | Cisco | Cisco | Cisco | RFC 2328 | RFC 2328 |
| Network Supported | Star, Partial Mesh | Star, Sub-Interfaces | Full Mesh | Full Mesh | Star, Partial Mesh |
| Replicates Packets | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Number of Subnets | 1 | Many (1 Per circuit) | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Router Types
Common Link-state Advertisemnets (LSA) Types
| Type 1 | Router Link LSA | Intra-area LSA |
| Type 2 | Network Link LSA | Intra-area LSA |
| Type 3 | Network Summary Link LSA | Inter-area LSA |
| Type 4 | AS external ASBR Summary Link LSA | Inter-area LSA |
| Type 5 | External Link LSA | Originated by AS boundary routers |
| Type 7 | Not So Stubby Area external LSA | Summary LSA |
| Adjacency | Formed when two neighboring routers have exchanged information and have the same topology table. The databases are synchronized, and they both see the same networks. |
| Area | A group of routers that share the same area ID. Each router in the area has the same topology table. The area is defined on an interface basis in the configuration of OSPF. |
| Autonomous System | Routers that share the same routing protocol with the organization. |
| Backup Designated Router (BDR) | The backup to the Designated Router (DR), in case the DR fails. The BDR performs none of the DR functions while the DR is operating correctly. |
| Cost | The metric for OSPF. It is not defined in the standard with a value. Cisco use the default of the inverse of bandwitdh so that the higher the speed of the link, the lower the cost, and, therefore, the more attractive the path. This default can be overridden by by a manual configuration. This should be done only if you have full knowlege of the network. |
| Database descriptor | Referred to as DBDs or Database Descriptor Packets (DDPs). These are packets exchanged between neighbors during the exchange state. The DDPs contain a summary of the LSA, which describe the links of every router in the neighbor's topology table. |
| Designated Router (DR) | Router responsible for making adjacencies with all neighbors on a multiaccess network, such as Ethernet or FDDI. The DR represents the multiaccess network, in that it ensures that every router on the link has the same topology database. |
| Dijkstra Algorithm | A complex algorithm used by routers running link-state routing protocols to find the shortest path to the destination. |
| Exchange State | Method by which two neighboring routers discover the map of the network. When these routers become adjacent, they must first exchange DDPs to ensure that they have the same topology table. |
| Exstart State | State in which the neighboring routers determine the sequence number of the DDPs and establish the master/slave relationship. |
| Flood | A term that refers to network information. When network information is flooded, it is sent to every network device in the domain. |
| Fully Adjacent | When the routing tables of the two neighbors are fully synchronized, with exactly the same view of the network. |
| Init State | State in which a hello packet has been sent from the router, which is waiting for a reply to establish two-way communication. |
| Internal Router | A router that has all it's interfaces in the same area. |
| Link-state Advertisement (LSA) | A packet describing a router's links and the state of those links. There are different types of LSAa to describe the different types of links. |
| Link-state database | Otherwise known as the topology map, the link-state database has a map of every router, its links, and the state of the links. It also has a map of every network and every path to each network. |
| Link-state Request (LSR) | When the router recieves a DDP complete with summary of the LSA information, it compares the LSA against the topological database. If either the LSA entry is not present bor the entry is older than the DDP, it will request further information. |
| Link-state update (LSU) | Update sent in response to the LSR. It is the LSA that was requested. |
| Loading State | State in which, if the receiving router requires more information during the process in which two routers are creating an adjacency, it will request that particular link in more detail using the LSR packet. The LSR will prompt the master router to send the LSU packet. This is the same as an LSA used to flood the network with routing information. While the recieving router is awaiting the LSUs from its neighbor, it is in the loading state. |
| Neighbor | A router on the same link with whom routing information is exchanged. |
| Neighbor Table | A table built from hello messages received from the neighbors. The hello message also carries a list of the neighbors. |
| Priority | The means by which the DR can be manually elected - or, conversely, prevented from taking part in the DR/BDR election. |
| Shortest Path First (SPF) | The same as Dijkstra algorithm, which is the algorithm used to find the shortest path. |
| SPF Tree | A tree of the topological network. It can be drawn after the SPF algorithm has been run. The algorithm prunes the database of alternate paths and creates a loop-free shortest path to all networks. The router is at the root of the network, which is percieved from its perspective. |
| Topology Table | The same as a link-state database. the table contains every link in the wider network. |
| Two-way state | State during the process in which two routers are creating an adjacency. The new router see it's own router ID in the list of neighbors, and a neighbor relationship is established. This is the stage before routing information is exchanged. |
2 pages link to OSPF:
