10-15-2011 11:55 AM - edited 03-04-2019 01:57 PM
Good Day Guys,
I need som assistance with EIGRP that has been kicking my butt for the past few days; Here's the scenario.
I have three sites, each site has Internet Connectivity as well as a dedicated local loop in full mesh running EIGRP.
All Sites can connect and talk to each other with no problem.
The Problem!!!!
I would like to set up each site so that if the Internet connection fails at one site, it will load balance over the other two sites. This seems tricky, because I would want to do this without causing a routing loop if connection fails at two sites.
eg
Site A Internet Connection goes Down ==> Internet traffic automatically load balances over Site B and Site C
Site B Internet Connection goes down ==> Internet traffic automatically load balances over Site C and Site A
Site C Internet Connection goes down ==> Internet traffic automatically load balances over Site A and Site B
I can get EIGRP to fail over to one site automatically with no problem.. but this doesn't meet my needs...
I NEED HELP PLEASE
10-15-2011 12:10 PM
Are the sites interconnected with EIGRP ?
What have you tried so far ?
Jon
10-15-2011 12:57 PM
Sites are connected with EIGRP.
I've tried Static Routing, but realized that this may cause a Routing Loop.
I've tried ip default-network... doesn't work
I've tried redistribute static... doesn't work
I've tried to add the network 0.0.0.0 command inside EIGRP... doesn't work
Your thoughts?
10-15-2011 01:58 PM
edited, until i get answer to last question posted.
Jon
10-15-2011 02:02 PM
Just a quick question i forgot to ask.
How do you cope currently if the internet connection in a site goes down. How do you remove the default-route in the site and then use another site ?
Jon
10-15-2011 02:51 PM
right now if it goes down its down. There's no mechanism in place to route traffic between sites. This is what i hope to accomplish, but only thing load balancing between the other two sites .
Regards,
DrA
10-15-2011 03:49 PM
Okay, reposting possible solution, but it does involve a fair bit of config -
To avoid any type of routing loop or blackholing traffic you need each site to check the availability of it's own internet connection and only have a default-route pointing to it's local internet connection if it is up. Note that this default-route is redistributed into EIGRP.
So my original thought was to check for internet availability using IP SLA. If the connection fails remove the default-route and then use the default-routes from the other sites.
The problem with this is that, for example, if the default-route from site A is lost and so site A uses site B the IP SLA will still work because it can go out via the site B connection so the IP SLA ping works and so it thinks the link is back up and reinstalls the route at site A.
The only thing i can think of at the moment is if you picked an IP on the internet for the IP SLA check that is specific to each site ie. the provider next-hop address at each site. So -
site A pings site A provider next-hop address, site A firewall blocks pings to provider B & C next-hop
site B pings site B provider next-hop address, site B firewall blocks pings to provider A & C next-hop
site C pings site C provider next-hop address, site C firewall blocks pings to provider A & B next-hop
that way if site A internet is down, IP SLA in site A keeps trying to ping the provider next-hop address. But it can't get a response through B or C because you have blocked it on their firewalls. So the only way the IP SLA will work at site A is when site A's provider next-hop responds.
So the default-route on each site is redistributed into EIGRP. Each sites actually sees 3 default-routes but should use it's own default-route for normal operations.
If the local internet connection goes down then the alternative default-route(s) are used.
Notes -
1) You would need to ensure within each site all L3 devices prefer the local default-route. You may need to tweak the metrics of the default-routes received from the other sites to ensure this.
2) You will only load-balance between the other 2 sites if the cost to each site is the same ie. the default-routes received from the 2 other sites must have the same metric.
3) it is unlikely that the default-routes received will be seen as feasible successors. What this means is that when the local defaul-route is lost EIGRP may well have to query for a new default-route. It's best to try and limit the scope of EIGRP queries but in this case you will have to use the WAN. If you have an unreliable WAN this could have an impact.
4) Using both sites if the local site fails may raise issues with the firewalls. Certainly you cannot do per-packet load-balancing as that would really mess them up. But even with per-destination load-balancing it something to be aware of.
The key to the whole setup is the checking of the local internet connection. That is why simply using floating statics in each site will not work because a floating static does not know whether the link is up or down. You could use IP SLA on the floating statics but that would involve even more config than you are looking at.
With the above, and with the Notes in mind, you should be able to lose 1 or 2 internet connections and there should be no routing loops. But you can probably see that it involves a fair bit of configuration per site. Not only do you need to configure IP SLA you need to modify your firewalls to limit the IP SLA to each site.
It's a bit messy but you have to have a way of checking whether the default-route in each site is actually available.
If anyone else has a better idea or am i missing something obvious then please jump in.
Thoughts ?
Edit - oh yes, and it would obviously need testing !!
Jon
10-15-2011 04:05 PM
I'm assuming in the previous post that you are not receiving a default-route from your internet provider and are just passing it on into EIGRP ?
If you are things would be a lot simpler
Jon
10-16-2011 09:09 AM
Thanks Jon... It does seem like a good deal of configs, but i have the concepts and understand what you're saying.... I'll start working on this and let you know how it goes... As for your last post we have static IP's and the default route goes to one of those statics. This is the same at each site.
DrA
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