Backup plan for routing protocol failure

SJ K · ‎02-02-2019

Hi all,

Site A and Site B are connected with 2 links (1G and 100Mbps) and configured using OSPFv2.

Site A and Site B equipment are from different vendors (SiteA is Cisco, SiteB side is non-Cisco) and we are worried that in the event of firmware upgrade (or whatever reason) , if the OSPF isn't working properly anymore, we will lose routes to both side even though the physical connectivity is still available.

By then - configuring static routes to networks on each site will be too late (we could possibly miss out certain networks on each side)
I am thinking of as an SOP, whenever there is a new network on each site to be added into OSPF, also add a static route with a higher AD on the other side.

e.g.
Site B new network 192.168.3.0/24 to be added into OSPF
as SOP, Site A then add static route to 192.168.3.0/24 with a higher AD (e.g. 200) via 1G link
in event OSPF break, static route will still kicks in to send traffic to Site B

Would this be too much a hassle - I should just trust OSPF to work out fine ?

Is there any alternative way to make sure routing to networks on each site still works even if the routing protocol somehow fail to function properly

Jon Marshall · ‎02-02-2019

In my opinion the short answers are yes it is too much hassle and yes you should trust the routing protocol, after all the entire internet relies pretty much on one routing protocol to work correctly.

Obviously I cannot say that there won't be an issue but failure of the routing protocol is not something I would worry too much about compared to the more obvious issues.

That said if you could summarise and you were prepared to have the additional management overhead then there is nothing to stop you doing it.

Others may have different views :)

Jon

SJ K · ‎02-03-2019

Hey Jon,

Nice to hear from you

Obviously I cannot say that there won't be an issue but failure of the routing protocol is not something I would worry too much about compared to the more obvious issues.

Are you able to elaborate further on what would be the more obvious issues in the setup ?

Thank you.

Regards,
Noob

Jon Marshall · ‎02-04-2019

The more obvious things would be along the lines of hardware failure, circuit failures etc.

These are far more likely to have an impact than a bug in the routing protocol.

Jon