06-10-2021 08:05 PM - edited 06-10-2021 08:06 PM
Good day board -
Can one use a loopback to activate area 0? I have a setup where I desire a star topology and would prefer a loopback over other options. The state and configuration are:
sh ospf ... Area BACKBONE(0) (Inactive) Number of interfaces in this area is 1 SPF algorithm executed 6 times Number of LSA 1. Checksum Sum 0x002843 Number of opaque link LSA 0. Checksum Sum 00000000 Number of DCbitless LSA 0 Number of indication LSA 0 Number of DoNotAge LSA 0 Flood list length 0 Number of LFA enabled interfaces 0, LFA revision 0 Number of Per Prefix LFA enabled interfaces 0 Number of neighbors forming in staggered mode 0, 0 full
sh int loop1 interface Loopback1 vrf VrfA ipv4 address 172.18.0.1 255.255.255.0 !
sh int loop1 br Intf Intf LineP Encap MTU BW Name State State Type (byte) (Kbps) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lo1 up up Loopback 1500 0
sh run router ospf 1 router ospf 1 vrf VrfA router-id 0.0.0.1 network point-to-point prefix-suppression area 0 interface Loopback1 network point-to-point ! ! area 10 nssa default-information-originate metric 100 metric-type 2 interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/1.10 ! ! area 12 nssa default-information-originate interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0/1.12 ! ! ! ! sh ospf vrf VrfA int Interfaces for OSPF 1, VRF VrfA Loopback1 is up, line protocol is up Internet Address 172.18.0.1/24, Area 0 Label stack Primary label 0 Backup label 0 SRTE label 0 Process ID 1, VRF VrfA, Router ID 0.0.0.1, Network Type LOOPBACK, Cost: 1 Loopback interface is treated as a stub Host
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06-11-2021 06:47 AM - edited 06-11-2021 06:50 AM
Hi,
I've the similar question before, and I did some testing before. According to the Cisco's interpretation about ABR, even the router only has a loopback interface attached to area 0, it will consider as ABR.
Area Border Router (ABR): Cisco Systems Interpretation: A router is considered to be an ABR if it has more than one area Actively Attached and one of them is the backbone area. IBM Interpretation: A router is considered to be an ABR if it has more than one Actively Attached area and the backbone area Configured.
I found this trick could be used to build a transit router between two non-backbone areas. If we don't cater the single point of failure, I think it's possible that @tomc.pnnl use the loopback interface to make the router become ABR.
https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3985396/Blog/Loop-Prevention-in-OSPF.pdf
06-10-2021 11:13 PM
Hello @tomc.pnnl ,
OSPF is enough smart to understand what loopback interfaces are and I think that to activate area 0 you need a L3 interface in area 0 that can be a VLAN based subinterface in state of up/up. In simple words you need a true interface where OSPF hellos can be sent out and eventually an OSPF adjacency can be built.
To be noted until area 0 is inactive your router will not act as an ABR between area NSSA 10 and NSSA 12.
This can have an impact or not in your network scenario. Actually not as you are sending a default route in each NSSA area.
Hope to help
Giuseppe
06-11-2021 06:47 AM - edited 06-11-2021 06:50 AM
Hi,
I've the similar question before, and I did some testing before. According to the Cisco's interpretation about ABR, even the router only has a loopback interface attached to area 0, it will consider as ABR.
Area Border Router (ABR): Cisco Systems Interpretation: A router is considered to be an ABR if it has more than one area Actively Attached and one of them is the backbone area. IBM Interpretation: A router is considered to be an ABR if it has more than one Actively Attached area and the backbone area Configured.
I found this trick could be used to build a transit router between two non-backbone areas. If we don't cater the single point of failure, I think it's possible that @tomc.pnnl use the loopback interface to make the router become ABR.
https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3985396/Blog/Loop-Prevention-in-OSPF.pdf
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