[Xorp-users] Fwd: Questions on OSPF

Kristian Larsson kristian at spritelink.net
Tue Sep 18 00:55:57 PDT 2007


Atanu,

could you perhaps add a note about this on the xorp.org site (under the 
Getting started section). Ie, that using a lo is recommended and how to 
configure it.

    Kristian.

Kristian Larsson wrote:
> Hansi wrote:
>> including the mailing list
> 
> Sorry for not replying earlier.
> 
>> hmm... seems like after changing my loopback address from 127.0.0.1 
>> <http://127.0.0.1> to any private address such as 172.16.0.1 
>> <http://172.16.0.1>, this error was encountered:
> 
> Yes, XORP uses the loopback interface for IPC communication, it 
> therefore by default, binds to 127.0.0.1. You should not replace 
> 127.0.0.1 with 172.16.0.1 but rather just add 172.16.0.1
> Can be accomplished with
> 
> ip address add 172.16.0.1/32 dev lo
> 
> on a Linux machine.
> 
>    Kristian.
> 
> 
>>
>> [ 2007/09/17 16:53:31  ERROR xorp_rtrmgr:6201 LIBCOMM +359 comm_sock.c 
>> comm_sock_bind4 ] Error binding socket (family = 2, my_addr = 
>> 127.0.0.1 <http://127.0.0.1>, my_port = 19999): Cannot assign 
>> requested address
>> [ 2007/09/17 16:53:31  ERROR xorp_rtrmgr:6201 RTRMGR +243 
>> main_rtrmgr.cc run ] Cannot assign requested address: a finder may 
>> already be running.
>>
>> seems like the rtrmgr binds to 127.0.0.1 <http://127.0.0.1> only. is 
>> there any way to change this? just in case i want my router-id to bind 
>> to a loopback interface with a private assigned IP instead of 
>> 127.0.0.1 <http://127.0.0.1>? :)
>>
>>
>> On 9/17/07, * Hansi* <hantongs at gmail.com <mailto:hantongs at gmail.com>> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>     Thank you Kristian. One more question though.. I noticed that before
>>     RIP can be configured, the policy parameter must be set first in
>>     order for RIP to either advertise static and/or connected routes.
>>     Although RIP already sends out udp packets once  you configure it,
>>     it does not send out its routing table entries not until after a
>>     policy is either imported/exported to it. Does this also apply to 
>> OSPF?
>>
>>     Thanks.
>>     Hansi.
>>
>>
>>     On 9/14/07, *Kristian Larsson* < kristian at spritelink.net
>>     <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net>> wrote:
>>
>>         Hansi wrote:
>>         >  Hello Kristian, Atanu,
>>         >
>>         >  Thank you answering for my queries. Let me see if I understood
>>         it clearly.
>>         >
>>         >  For link-types: p2p or p2m, it is necessary to explicitly 
>> set the
>>         >  neighbor parameter in order for the router running OSPF to
>>         establish
>>         >  adjacency with another router. Broadcast link-types on the
>>         other hand
>>         >  does not require the neighbor parameter to be explicitly 
>> set, am I
>>         >  correct? :)
>>         >
>>         >  I concur with Atanu that p2p link-types requires the neighbor
>>         statement
>>         >  to be explicitly stated. My initial configuration does not 
>> include
>>         >  setting the neighbor parameter, upon invoking "show ospf4
>>         neighbor",
>>         >  nothing comes up even though dumps from the network shows OSPF
>>         hello
>>         >  packets have been multicast already.. The neighbor router only
>>         displays
>>         >  [upon invoking show ospf4 neighbor] after setting the neighbor
>>         parameter
>>         >  on both routers.
>>
>>         Yepp, I was simply wrong. I expected XORP to work like Cisco or
>>         Juniper.
>>
>>
>>         >  Regarding setting router-ID parameters to loopback 127.0.0.1
>>         <http://127.0.0.1>
>>         >  < http://127.0.0.1>, would it be possible for two routers
>>         running OSPF to
>>         >  use the same router-ID? that is both of them are configured to
>>         127.0.0.1 <http://127.0.0.1>
>>         >  < http://127.0.0.1>? Since conventionally the router-ID is
>>         usually set to
>>         >  the loopback, would it be possible to configure all routers in
>>         an OSPF
>>         >  network to have the same router-ID of 127.0.0.1
>>         <http://127.0.0.1> <http://127.0.0.1>?
>>
>>         No, you cannot use 127.0.0.1 <http://127.0.0.1>, at least not on
>>         both routers.
>>         Router-id have to be unique within your OSPF domain, one common
>>         way of
>>         ensuring this is to use the loopback address that you assign to a
>>         router. Although you are correct that 127.0.0.1
>>         <http://127.0.0.1> is a loopback adress,
>>         routes normally get one assigned from your address pool. iBGP
>>         session
>>         for example are normally established between loopback addresses
>>         to not
>>         be dependant upon a specific interface being up.
>>         So assign 172.16.0.1-254 (if your are using private 
>> addressing) or
>>         something to your loopbacks as well and you can use those.
>>
>>            -K
>>
>>         >  On 9/14/07, * kristian at spritelink.net
>>         <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net> <mailto:
>>         kristian at spritelink.net <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net>>* <
>>         >  kristian at spritelink.net <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net>
>>         <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net
>>         <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net>>> wrote:
>>         >
>>         >     On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:58:01 -0700, Atanu Ghosh <
>>         >     atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu <mailto:atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu>
>>         <mailto:atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu 
>> <mailto:atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu>>>
>>         >     wrote:
>>         >      >>>>>> "kristian" == kristian  < kristian at spritelink.net
>>         <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net>
>>         >     <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net
>>         <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net>>> writes:
>>         >      >
>>         >      >     kristian> On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:18:42 -0700, Atanu
>>         Ghosh
>>         >      >     kristian> <atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu
>>         <mailto:atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu>
>>         >     <mailto: atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu
>>         <mailto:atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu>>> wrote:
>>         >      >     >>>>>>> "kristian" == kristian <
>>         kristian at spritelink.net <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net>
>>         >     <mailto: kristian at spritelink.net
>>         <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net>>> writes:
>>         >      >     >>
>>         >      >     kristian> On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:51:32 -0700, Atanu
>>         Ghosh
>>         >      >     kristian> < atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu
>>         <mailto:atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu>
>>         >     <mailto: atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu
>>         <mailto:atanu at icsi.berkeley.edu>>> wrote:
>>         >      >     >> >>>>>>> "Kristian" == Kristian Larsson
>>         >     <kristian at spritelink.net <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net>
>>         <mailto: kristian at spritelink.net 
>> <mailto:kristian at spritelink.net>>>
>>         >      >     >> >>>>>>> writes:
>>         >      >     >> >>
>>         >      >     Kristian> Hansi wrote:
>>         >      >     >> >> >> Hello All,
>>         >      >     >> >> >>
>>         >      >     >> >> >> I'm currently learning how to configure
>>         OSPFv2 on
>>         >     two XORP
>>         >      >     >> >> >> machines just to establish adjacency 
>> with one
>>         >     another. In a
>>         >      >     >> p2p >> >> link type, is it still necessary to
>>         explicitly
>>         >     set the
>>         >      >     >> >> 'neighbor' >> parameter of each machine before
>>         >     adjacency is >>
>>         >      >     >> established?  >> Furthermore, would it be
>>         possible to set
>>         >     the >>
>>         >      >     >> router-id to its >> loopback address? instead of
>>         say.. the
>>         >     ip >>
>>         >      >     >> address of the >> interface on which ospf will be
>>         used?
>>         >      >     >> >>
>>         >      >     Kristian> The neighbor command is only useful if you
>>         are using a
>>         >      >     Kristian> medium on which the routers cannot
>>         broadcast and thus
>>         >      >     Kristian> cannot discover each other.  If you're
>>         using ethernet
>>         >      >     Kristian> (which I presume from your NIC names) you
>>         do not
>>         >     have to
>>         >      >     Kristian> use the neighbor statements. I would
>>         advice configuring
>>         >      >     Kristian> the interfaces as link-type p2p as this
>>         avoids DR
>>         >     election
>>         >      >     Kristian> and unnecessary CPU load.
>>         >      >     >>  >> I am fairly sure that it is necessary to 
>> use the
>>         >     neighbour >>
>>         >      >     >> statements.
>>         >      >     >>
>>         >      >     kristian> Are you serious?  I haven't used the XORP
>>         code in
>>         >     quite
>>         >      >     kristian> some time now.. but at least I thought
>>         XORP implemented
>>         >      >     kristian> the OSPF standard. AFAIK, that includes
>>         being able to
>>         >      >     kristian> discover neighbors and turn up adjacencies
>>         to them. Is
>>         >      >     kristian> this not the case?  Observe that he is
>>         running an
>>         >     Ethernet
>>         >      >     kristian> point-to-point link, ie, it is not a
>>         non-broadcast
>>         >     medium.
>>         >      >     kristian> Or are you saying that you can't do
>>         link-type p2p
>>         >     without
>>         >      >     kristian> configuring neighbours ?
>>         >      >
>>         >      >     >>  If the link-type is set to "broadcast" then the
>>         >     neighbours will
>>         >      >     >> be correctly discovered. If the link-type is set
>>         to "p2p"
>>         >      >     >> (Point-to-point) or "p2m" (Point-to-multipoint)
>>         then it is
>>         >      >     >> necessary to configure the neighbours. It has
>>         been argued
>>         >     that it
>>         >      >     >> should not be necessary to configure the
>>         neighbours if the
>>         >      >     >> routers are connected via a true Point-to-point
>>         link, but
>>         >      >     >> unfortunately even in this case it is 
>> necessary to
>>         >     configure the
>>         >      >     >> neighbour.
>>         >      >
>>         >      >     kristian> Okey, that "kinda" makes sense. I
>>         apparently forgot or
>>         >      >     kristian> missed the conversation on this.  What I
>>         want to
>>         >     configure
>>         >      >     kristian> with link-type p2p is not whether or not
>>         the router
>>         >     should
>>         >      >     kristian> try to broadcast but if it should setup
>>         one of those
>>         >      >     kristian> virtual router thingys, hehe. I'm not very
>>         familiar
>>         >     with
>>         >      >     kristian> the terminology but (as you know) on a
>>         broadcast medium
>>         >      >     kristian> you first have a DR selection and all that
>>         and then
>>         >     you're
>>         >      >     kristian> gonna run your SPF. Since SPF can't 
>> handle the
>>         >     concept of
>>         >      >     kristian> a broadcast medium it creates a "virtual
>>         router" to
>>         >      >     kristian> represent the broadcast medium and
>>         connects all
>>         >     routers in
>>         >      >     kristian> that broadcast domain as adjacencies to
>>         the virtual
>>         >      >     kristian> router.  When I configure 'isis network
>>         >     point-to-point' on
>>         >      >     kristian> a Cisco router I expect it to not setup
>>         one of these
>>         >      >     kristian> "virtual routers" in it's SPF topology.
>>         And this is
>>         >      >     kristian> different with XORP?
>>         >      >
>>         >      > Setting the link type to "broadcast" or "p2p" will both
>>         result in
>>         >     the
>>         >      > hello packets being broadcast, the distinction is that
>>         if the
>>         >     link-type
>>         >      > is set to "p2p" no DR election will be attempted.
>>         >
>>         >     Alright, just as I expected.
>>         >
>>         >      > The XORP OSPF behaves
>>         >      > as specified in the relevant RFCs and interoperates with
>>         other OSPF
>>         >      > implementations, the only difference is in configuration
>>         of a "p2p"
>>         >      > where we require the neighbour to be specified, which as
>>         I mentioned
>>         >      > before should not strictly be necessary.
>>         >
>>         >     Okey, not what I expected. Why is it so? Just lack of time
>>         to do the
>>         >     actual
>>         >     implementation (although I don't see how it would actually
>>         be more code
>>         >     than it is today) or has there been a policy decision
>>         against it?
>>         >
>>         >       -K
>>         >
>>         >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Xorp-users mailing list
>> Xorp-users at xorp.org
>> http://mailman.ICSI.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/xorp-users
> 
> 



More information about the Xorp-users mailing list