OSPF -INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Can communication between areas take place without using backbone

area?

Ans.

No, we cannot have communication between different areas without backbone area(or Area
0). If there is a single, any area number will work, as there is no requirement of
communicating between areas.

Conclusion:

In a single area, any area number will work

In multiple area, we must have one area, which is backbone area or Area 0

What is ABR and ASBR?

Ans.

ABR: is the router which has OSPF enabled interfaces belonging to more than one area.

Example: Router R1 has two interfaces F0/0 & F0/1. F0/0 belongs to Area 0 & F0/1 belongs
to Area 1.

Example: R1(Area 0)————–(Area 0) R2(Area 1)——-(Area 1)R3(Area 1)——–(Area 1)R4

ASBR: is the router which has interfaces running with more than one type of protocol.

Example: Router R1 has two interfaces F0/0 & F0/1. OSPF is running on F0/0 & BGP is
running on F0/1.

Example: OSPF————-R1—————BGP

Why NSSA is required, any practical scenario?

Ans.
” SCENARIO ”
My Company, A, Network includes ( AREA 0 —- AREA 1 )
New Company is B.

Company B is planning to access some servers present in My Company, A in Area 1.

Area 1 is stub area initially, there is no redistribution required in this area. So, by making it
stub, simply LSA-5 is blocked.

But now, as per new requirement, we need to redistribute new company’s subnets into
our network.So, we need to convert Area 1 (Stub area) into NSSA. This will allow LSA-7 into
this Area 1. By this, Area 1 will learn the routes from new company & my requirement is
fulfilled.

Further, By playing with LSA-7 conversion into LSA-5, I may or may not allow the new
company’s routes into the remaining part of my network, i.e, Area 0.

If in a Not So Stubby Area type, ABR=ASBR, & we don’t want to convert LSA-7 into LSA-5.
what is the solution?

If no. of routes received from same LSA type for a destination. Which one
is preferred?

Ans.

Learning network 192.168.10.0/24 through two different LSA-5, means learning from two
different ASBR.

The OSPF metric calculated as cost ( based on the bandwidth) is used for selecting the best
route. The route with the lowest value for cost is chosen as the best route. If cost is equal
here, all the routes get installed in the routing table, and the router does equal cost load
balancing across multiple paths.

How OSPF cost is calculated ? which algorithm is used for SPF calculation ?

Ans.

OSPF uses a reference bandwidth of 100 Mbps for cost calculation. The formula to calculate
the cost is reference bandwidth divided by interface bandwidth. For example, in the case of
Ethernet, it is 100 Mbps / 10 Mbps = 10.
Note: If ip ospf cost cost is used on the interface, it overrides this formulated cost. For more
information

How to configure authentication in OSPF ?

Ans.

Reference Link:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ip/open-shortest-path-first-ospf/13697-
25.html

Authentication Types:

Null Authentication—This is also called Type 0 and it means no authentication information is

included in the packet header. It is the default.

Plain Text Authentication—This is also called Type 1 and it uses simple clear-text
passwords.

MD5 Authentication—This is also called Type 2 and it uses MD5 cryptographic passwords.

Sample Config for Plain Text:

router ospf 10
area 0 authentication

interface Serial0

ip ospf authentication-key c1$c0

The Key value is set as “c1$c0 “. !— It is the password that is sent across the network

Sample Config for MD5 Authentication:

router ospf 10

area 0 authentication message-digest

interface Serial0
ip ospf message-digest-key 1 md5 c1$c0

Message digest key with ID “1” and Key value (password) is set as “c1$c0 “.

Note:

In Plain Text, simply passwords are matched to become neighbors

In MD5 authentication, This method uses the MD5 algorithm to compute a hash value from
the contents of the OSPF packet and a password .

This hash value is transmitted in the packet, along with a key ID and a non-decreasing
sequence number

The receiver, which knows the same password, calculates its own hash value. If nothing in
the message changes, the hash value of the receiver should match the hash value of the
sender which is transmitted with the message.

Benefit Of Key ID: The key ID allows the routers to reference multiple passwords. This makes
password migration easier and more secure. For example, to migrate from one password to
another, configure a password under a different key ID and remove the first key

Brief about Link state advertisement packet formats

Reference Link

http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/1583/109.htm

Why LSA-1 & 2 cannot be summarized?

Ans.

The reason for this is that Link State Database (LSDB) for all routers in a area must be the
same for that area to calculate Shortest path to the ABR’s in the area appropriately.

What is the benefit of LSA concept in OSPF?

LSA exchanges Link State Database (LSDB) while communicating with each other. When
some changes occur in topology, only then complete Routing Table is exchanged

Note: By default, even if there is no change in topology, LSA’s are exhanged after 30
minutes

Why OSPF is called Link State?

Ans.

OSPF is a link-state protocol. We could think of a link as being an interface on the router.
The state of the link is a description of that interface and of its relationship to its
neighboring routers. A description of the interface would include, for example, the IP
address of the interface, the mask, the type of network it is connected to, the routers
connected to that network and so on. The collection of all these link-states would form a
link-state database.

OSPF is a Cisco proprietary or open standard?

Ans.

Open Standard

Explain DR and BDR concept

Ans.

PURPOSE OF DR/BDR ELECTION

In a Multi-access network, if we have 4 routers, they all will form adjacencies with each
other

To avoid that much no. of adjacencies, we make one as DR(Designated router) & one as
BDR(Backup Designated Router), remaining will stay in DROTHER state

So, every router will go through all the OSPF states to become fully adjacent with DR only

Note: DROTHERS routers stay in 2-way state with each other. 2-way state is normal, this is
not a problem

So, ultimately number of adjacencies got reduced

HOW TO ELECT DR/BDR

Tie Breaker

1. Highest Priority(configured over interface)

2. Highest RID

Example: R1 (int f0/0)———-(int f0/1)R2

Here, priority of int f0/0 at R1 and int f0/1 at R2 are compared. Higher priority wins. Default
priority is 1

Till now, this is the Theory

Practically, the first device that starts the OSPF process wins regardless of priorities/RIDs.

Reason: the device starts the wait timer (equal to dead timer) and it waits to see another
OSPF enabled device and finally declaring itself as DR after wait timer value

Case Of DR/BDR election ?

we have five routers to be enabled with OSPF

When first router is enabled with OSPF what will happen how DR/BDR is elected?

Is to going to wait for another routers to compare Priority or simply after sometime itself
becomes DR?

What is the best practice to avoid any unpredicted selection of DR/BDR?

How route summarization is done at ABR?

Ans.

OSPF Does not support auto summarization, only manual can be done.

OSPF summarization is of two types :

1. Internal summarization: Between different areas, using LSA-3 route summarization

2. External summarizaion: Between OSPF & any other protocol, using LSA-4 or LSA-5
Here, we will discuss First one, Internal summarization

By default summary LSA (type 3 LSA), which runs between areas, does not contain summary
routes, it contains information from type 1 LSA (Router LSA) and type 2 LSA (Network LSA).
So, they carry summarization information after you configure summarization.

EXAMPLE

Command to be applied at ABR,

area area-id range address mask [advertise | not-advertise][cost cost]

Configuration

ABR(config-router)#area 15 range 192.168.0.0 255.255.254.0

Verify

HQ#show ip route
10.0.0.0/30 is subnetted, 1 subnets
C 10.0.0.0 is directly connected, Serial0/0
O IA 192.168.0.0/23 [110/74] via 10.0.0.1, 00:04:32, Serial0/0

HQ#show ip ospf database

Summary Net Link States (Area 0)

Link ID ADV Router Age Seq# Checksum

192.168.0.0 192.168.1.1 310 0x80000003 0x001A43

Why the OSPF state got stuck in Exstart and Exchange state ?

Ans.

When there is MTU mismatch of packet occurs. Then, Out of Two communicating routers,
one gets stuck in Exstart state & another in Exchange state.
If OSPF has to be enabled on a router with multiple vrf running, how to
configure ?

Ans.

router ospf 100 vrf abc_vrf

router-id 141.122.172.135

log-adjacency-changes

no capability lls

area 0.0.0.0 authentication message-digest

redistribute connected subnets route-map customer_internal

redistribute static subnets route-map pglae_temp_ip

redistribute bgp 64891 subnets route-map customer_internal

network 141.122.172.128 0.0.0.15 area 0.0.0.0

default-metric 800

What is discard route in OSPF ?

During Route Summarization, loop might occur.

Example: If traffic comes for a network which lies in the summarized range, but actually
network do not exist or not configured anhwhere.
To avoid this, by defaut, Discard route is installed.

Example:

172.16.0.0/24 is variably subnetted, 3 subnets, 2 masks

C 172.16.0.128/25 is directly connected, Loopback1
O 172.16.0.0/24 is a summary, 00:00:14, Null0
C 172.16.0.0/25 is directly connected, Loopback0

Comments:
In above example,
==> 172.16.0.0/24 is the summarized address
==> If traffic comes for 172.16.0.128/25, exact route is present
==> If traffic comes for 172.16.0.126/25, which is not present.
So, Discard route pointing to Null0 will be prefered
==> By this, Traffic will go back to the sender, that is ABR. On ABR, there is no Null0
interface, so traffic will be dropped.

Happy Learning…

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Thanks

Rakesh