OSPF Hub and Spoke / IP Base / IP Services Design

[mjensen323]

Hello,

I recently purchased a pair of 4500-x switches with enterprise licenses for our distribution.

We have 8 remote sites coming online with 2 - 10 gig fiber links. 

Each site will have a pair of 3750-x's stacked (and 2-4 switches in sub closets).  There will be 300-1200 clients at each site (mainly wireless) with WLC's in the distribution site. 

These switches came with IP Base licenses. 

We are currently using NSF for our networking and want to migrate to OSPF or EIGRP. 

Would using a single OSPF Area 0 and maintaining Area 0 be a viable option? or would purchasing IP Services upgrades and separating each site in Areas be a better option?  I was not sure how OSPF For Routed Access fit into this either.

The topology is hub and spoke, the sites do not connect to one another and do not share resources between each other. All data / resources reside in distribution. 

Thanks in advance. 

[Julio E. Moisa]

Hi

If you will not have a lot of routers or multilayer switches running OSPF you could use single-area 0 and select the DR and BDR on the HQ. But if the history is different you could evaluate to use OSPF Multi-area. 

Now IP base has routing limitations, If Im not wrong routed access term represents 1 instance and certain amount fo learned routes. And it will support OSPF v2 only.

Hope it is useful

:-)

[Spooster IT Services · Accepted solution]

Hi mjensen323,

Having flat Area 0, is not a feasible as you can not filter the routes within an Area. As your requirement is that the sites do not connect to one another and do not share resources between each other. You can use EIGRP instead of OSPF for HUB and SPOKE topology, thiswill give you the more granularity than OSPF. 

NOTE:- IP Base licenses has a support for EIGRP but only worked in stub mode

[mjensen323]

Is EIGRP Stub mode sufficient for the remote site 3750's? to connect to the distribution? 

[Spooster IT Services]

It depends upon the network design you have at remote site's. If you have only 3750's then "Yes" EIGRP Stub mode is sufficient.

[mjensen323]

3750's at the remote site edge with 3560 / 2960 for access layer. 

[Julio E. Moisa]

If Im not wrong, the 3750 can run EIGRP and OSPF with few limitations but you need to verify the IOS used. 

[Spooster IT Services]

Are these 3560/2960 will also be the part of EIGRP topology?

[mjensen323]

I think these switches would just be layer 2. They will have access points and voip. But perhaps I should extend layer 3 to the end point?

[Spooster IT Services]

I would be fine if you go with IP base and EIGRP stub.

[paul driver]

Hello

Ospf - is open standard and can be used with other vendors

Eigrp - is proprietary to Cisco

so if all you sites are Cisco then I would opt for Eigrp (biased opinion)

if you choose ospf then 8 sites isn't a lot regards neighbor ships within a single area and if they don't need meshed setup then a hub-spoke p2p or  point - multipoint option would applicable 

this will negate having multiple areas and lsdb in the hub - however if you do have multiple areas these can become subbed areas and thus reduce the size of the route table

Making the right choice i would say can also all depend on what you future requirement if any for your network will be

res

paul

[rm2017]

In the scenario with hub and spoke topology w/ 2 hubs - what is best method to prevent the spokes from becoming 'transit' networks/routers for other spokes?

Is it also feasible to have 2 Area 0s across the WAN - for process connected to ISP A going to hub A  and one connected to ISP B going to hub b?