Key Chain Lifetime question

[hufa97]

I have a router with the following key chain configuration:

key chain <KEYCHAIN1>

key 1

key-string <EIGRP_KEY1>

accept-lifetime 00:00:00 Oct 1 2010 infinite

send-lifetime 00:00:00 Oct 1 2010 infinite

It is connected to a switch with the following key chain configuration:

key chain <KEYCHAIN1>

key 1

key-string <EIGRP_KEY1>

accept-lifetime 00:00:00 Oct 1 2005 infinite

send-lifetime 00:00:00 Oct 1 2005 infinite

I am concerned about the accept-lifetime and send-lifetime start dates. Will the network devices properly send eigrp information to each other with the above key chain setup?

Thank you.

[cadet alain · Accepted solution]

Hi,

if your devices clocks are greater than Oct 1 2010 midnight then there will be no problem but you should set NTP when doing this thing.

Regards.

Alain

[hufa97]

Thanks for the response. Our NTP server is providing the current time and date. So if I understand your response correctly, we should be alright since the date is past Oct1 2010.

On a side note, is there a reason why the key chain start dates would be different?

[Gautam Renjen]

The keychain start dates could be different depending on when the configs were originally made. Usually it's safe to say that if i configure a router today then any packet arriving with a timestamp before today shouldn't be accepted as it could be junk. Chances are that the router was configured, or inherited a config that was deployed in 2005.