Exercise: OSPF

Summary of OSPF commands

router ospf 1

Enter OSPF configuration mode

network n.n.n.n w.w.w.w area 0

Enable OSPF on all interfaces which match the given IP address + "wildmask". A wildmask is used in access control lists to select a range of addresses. A "0" bit in the wildmask means the corresponding address bit must match, and a "1" means the corresponding address bit is "don't care". Examples:

network 213.172.133.17 0.0.0.0 area 0
network 213.172.133.98 0.0.0.0 area 0
   -- talk OSPF only on those two interfaces

network 213.172.133.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
   -- talk OSPF on every interface we have whose IP address is 213.172.133.X

network 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 area 0
   -- talk OSPF on every interface we have

Note that it is important that we only talk OSPF to our own networks, never to customers or other ISPs (they could break our network by injecting bad information), so usually it is best just to list the interfaces we want to talk on.

redistribute connected subnets

Advertise all networks to which we are connected, including those which are not being used to talk to other OSPF routers.

("redistributed connected" by itself only distributes classful routes, i.e. whole class A/B/C networks, so it's important to add "subnets")

redistribute static subnets

Advertise any static routes we have (except defaultroute).

default-information originate [always] metric n

Advertise a default route into OSPF, with a cost of "n". Typically this would go on your border router(s). Without 'always', the announcement will only be made if the router already has a valid defaultroute from somewhere else (e.g. a static route to a link which is up)

area 0 authentication message-digest

Use MD5 authentication on all OSPF packets

Per-interface configuration

ip ospf cost <n>                            Set outbound interface cost
ip ospf message-digest-key 1 md5 <string>   Set MD5 authentication key

Part 1: Learning routes via OSPF

The initial network topology is the same as for the static routing exercise

Check that you have no static routes. If you do have some, remove them.

t2-router1#reload
...
t2-router1#show ip route
The only routes you should see are (C)onnected routes for your own
interfaces. If you have any (S)tatic routes, delete them like this:
t2-router1#conf t
t2-router1(config)#no ip route 213.172.133.96 255.255.255.240 213.172.133.17
...
t2-router1#write mem

Check your router can still ping the PC on your desk, and other Ciscos on the backbone.
(Your PC won't be able to ping any other PCs though, because your router doesn't have the routes any more)

Enable OSPF on the backbone interface (only). We will use MD5 authentication, to ensure that we only listen to OSPF packets from machines which know the secret key; we will also set the link cost to 100.

t2-router1#conf t
t2-router1(config)#router ospf 1
t2-router1(config-router)#network 213.172.133.17 0.0.0.0 area 0
t2-router1(config-router)#redistribute connected subnets
t2-router1(config-router)#redistribute static subnets
t2-router1(config-router)#area 0 authentication message-digest
t2-router1(config-router)#int e0/0  (or int e0/1)
t2-router1(config-if)#ip ospf message-digest-key 1 md5 t2@afnog
t2-router1(config-if)#ip ospf cost 100
t2-router1(config-if)#  [Hit ctrl-Z]

In real life you should use an MD5 key which is different to your login, enable and SNMP strings

You can also try an IOS 12.x feature which explicitly disables OSPF on all interfaces except those you nominate:

t2-router1(config)#router ospf 1
t2-router1(config-router)#passive-interface default
t2-router1(config-router)#no passive-interface e0/0  (or e0/1)

Look at OSPF status

t2-router1#show ip ospf int
t2-router1#show ip ospf neighbor

To interpret the neighbor information:

2WAY    =  we are neighbors (we have established 2-way exchange of hellos),
           but neither of us is a designated router
FULL    =  we are neighbors and we exchange routes (one of us is DR or BDR)

DR      =  we are the Designated Router for this network
BDR     =  we are the Backup Designated Router for this network
DROTHER =  we are neither DR nor BDR

If you see other states, they are intermediate steps on the way to establishing the final relationship, and should change after a few seconds.

Question: who is the Designated Router (DR) and Backup Designated Router (BDR) on the backbone network?
```
DR =                         BDR =
```
Once you have established a neighbor relationship with another router, you should automatically have learned some new routes:
```
t2-router1#show ip route
```
Routes learned through OSPF are tagged with O. Check that the next hop IP address for each route is correct

Also, the far router should also have picked up your route. You can go over to the other desk and ask to see "show ip route"
Check that your PC can ping the PCs on other desks
```
$ ping 213.172.133.142
...
```

Once all desks are running, the instructors will add a class router into the OSPF cloud, and get it to announce a default route.

Don't type this - it goes on the class border router
t2-border-1(config)#router ospf 1
t2-border-1(config-router)#default-information originate metric 100

Check that you can see the new router as a neighbor, and that you have picked up a default route (0.0.0.0)
This should be sufficient to establish connectivity to the outside Internet! Use ping, traceroute etc. to test this
Save your config
```
t2-router1#write mem
```
If you want DNS, you'll have to create /etc/resolv.conf on your PC
```
domain t2.ws.afnog.org
nameserver 213.172.132.193
nameserver 213.172.132.60
```
You should then be able to ssh/telnet to the outside world.

Part 2: Loopback interfaces

A loopback interface is a single (/32) IP address which belongs to a device, independent of its physical interface addresses. It's very convenient when managing routers, because you can use the loopback address as a fixed address to telnet to, or monitor using SNMP, which will continue to work even if one or more of the interfaces has failed.

You will need to subdivide your network space. You will need one subnet for your desk network, and a /32 for the loopback. (In real life you would have a number of routers, and say a /29 block would be enough for 8 loopbacks). Configure your loopback address into your router.
```
t2-router1#conf t
t2-router1(config)#int loopback0
t2-router1(config-if)#ip address 213.172.133.48 255.255.255.255
t2-router1(config-if)#  [Hit ctrl-Z]
```
Since your router has been configured to "redistribute connected" networks into OSPF, your loopback address will be learned by all the other routers in the class, and you will learn theirs. Look for them with "show ip route" and try pinging them.
NOW SAVE YOUR CONFIGURATION (write mem)

Part 3: Configuration storage via TFTP

For safety, at this point you will also store a copy of your router configuration on your Unix PC.

First, you need to set up your Unix PC as a TFTP server. TFTP is an insecure service, so you must restrict access to just your own router, to prevent other people overwriting your files.

# vi /etc/hosts.allow
Add the following lines at or near the top: use your router's IP address
tftpd : 213.172.133.6 : allow
tftpd : ALL : deny
Exit and save

# vi /etc/inetd.conf
Find the line for tftp. Uncomment it, by removing the # at the front
Exit and save
# killall -1 inetd

# mkdir /tftpboot
# touch /tftpboot/t2-config
# chmod 666 /tftpboot/t2-config

(Note that the tftp daemon requires a file to already exist, and be publicly writable, before it will allow writes)

Transfer your current configuration

t2-router1#copy running-config tftp
Address or name of remote host? 213.172.133.97
Destination filename [running-config]? t2-config
!!
774 bytes copied in 2.836 seconds (387 bytes/sec)
t2-router1#

On your Unix PC, check that the config file is there
```
$ less /tftpboot/t2-config
```
(To return to a saved configuration: do "copy tftp startup-config" to download it into flash, then "reload" to reboot the router).

Part 4: Dynamic changes in topology

Above you showed how OSPF can learn routes from the rest of your network, without having to manually insert static routes. Now you can show how OSPF can adapt to topology changes and choose better (lower cost) routes when they are available

Work in pairs with an adjacent desk
Connect a DTE/DCE cable pair between Serial 0 (or Serial 0/0) on one router and the other.
One of you will need to allocate a /30 subnet out of your address space for the link, and assign an IP address to each end. Then both of you need to configure your end of the link.
```
t2-router1#conf t
t2-router1(config)#int s0/0  (or int s0/1)
t2-router1(config-if)#description Serial link to desk B
t2-router1(config-if)#encap ppp
t2-router1(config-if)#ip address 213.172.133.193 255.255.255.252
t2-router1(config-if)#no shutdown
```
Once this is done on both routers, "show int s0" should show that the Interface is up (layer 1), but Line protocol is down (layer 2).
On the router which has the DCE cable, set it to generate clock. If you can't tell which end is the DCE, just try it on both routers; the DTE end will refuse the command
```
t2-router1(config-if)#clock rate 64000
```
This is only because this is a back-to-back cable; normally you would use synchronous modems which generate clock
Line protocol should be up. Check you can ping the remote IP address. Because we have set the link to be only 64K, you should see a longer round-trip time reported by ping.
```
t2-router1#ping 213.172.133.194
```

Enable OSPF on the serial line. We will use a larger cost of 500 to reflect the fact that this is a slower-speed link

t2-router1#conf t
t2-router1(config)#router ospf 1
t2-router1(config-router)#network 213.172.133.193 0.0.0.0 area 0
t2-router1(config-router)#no passive-interface s0/0   (or s0/1)
t2-router1(config-router)#int s0/0  (or s0/1)
t2-router1(config-if)#ip ospf message-digest-key 1 md5 t2@afnog
t2-router1(config-if)#ip ospf cost 500
t2-router1(config-if)#  [Hit ctrl-Z]

Both desks: look at your forwarding table
```
t2-router1#show ip route
```
Look carefully at the route to your neighbor's desk network, and your neighbor's router loopback interface, and make a note of it.
On one desk, unplug the ethernet connection into the backbone, wait a few seconds, and look at the forwarding table again.
Does the desk which had its ethernet unplugged still have connectivity to the Internet? When you traceroute, what route do the packets take?
Plug the ethernet back in. Set the cost of the serial link to 50.
Look at the routes again. What has happened to the route to your neighbor's desk network, and to their loopback interface?
Try setting the cost of the serial link to 100
Check the forwarding table ("show ip route"). Now what do you notice about the route to your neighboring desk's network?
There are cross ethernet cables available if you wish to try some more complex topologies linking to other desks.
Finally, remove the serial links and reboot your router to get back to the saved configuration.

Last updated 2001-05-07