OSPF Interview QA

preparation series
(with Practical Lab) Waqas Karim (CCIE)
INSTRUCTOR (TRAINER) PROFILE

MAJOR INDUSTRY PROJECTS COMPLETED

Enterprise
√ VODAFONE SA IP Core network Design & Planning, Trainer (2017- Present) – SOUTH AFRICA R&S

Cisco CCIE# 56***32

√ Huawei-du IP/MPLS Network Design & Rollout (2010-12, 2015-2017) – DUBAI (U.A.E) Cisco Networking
Academy instructor ID:
√ Vodafone/Nokia Australia IP/MPLS/Tx & Osram Project (2014/15) – AUSTRALIA 445**4*5

√ Huawei /Ericsson-du MS project (2011-13) – DUBAI (U.A.E)

√ Huawei-STC Bahrain MS Project (2009) – BAHRAIN

√ China Mobile Wateen Project (2008) – CHINA

√ Huawei-Warid/Wateen IP/SDH/DWDM Projects (2007/8) – PAKISTAN

Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) - CCIE#56***32

Huawei Certified Engineer HW#706632
Cisco Certified Network Professional R&S (CCNP/CCNA)
Cisco Certified Network Professional Security (CCNP-Sec)
CompTIA Security+
Nokia Network Routing Specialist (NRS) - 4A0100
Juniper JNCIA-Junos - JN0102
Cisco Certified Network Professional Service Provider (CCNP-SP)
Cisco Certified Network Associate - Data Center (CCNA-DC)
Microsoft® Certified Solutions Expert/Associate - MCSE#109***26
ITIL Foundation (ITIL#9980***06373)
………
Lab Setup

xxx

Area3
Area4
OSPF Wireshark Setup
Q. Tell us something about OSPF?

A. OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) is an open standard link state routing protocol which works
by using Dijkastra’s SPF algorithm to find the shortest paths.

• It is an IGP type Routing Protocol

• Admin Distance is 110

• Metric of OSPF: Cost (Bandwidth)

• No. of packet types: 5

• Standard: RFC2328 (OSPFv2), RFC2740 (OSPFv3/IPv6)

• Multicast Address: 224.0.0.5, 224.0.0.6

Q. What is OSPF Router ID?

A. OSPF Router ID is an identifier which is used to identify

the Router. It is a 32-bit number.
Q. How does a Router select its OSPF Router ID?

A. Most of Routers (including Cisco) derive the Router ID in

the following precedence order:
i. Manually configured Router ID
ii. Highest Loopback Address
iii.Highest Physical IP Address on the Router
Q. How to configure OSPF Router ID on Cisco Routers?

A. Below commands are used to manually configure the

Router ID on a Cisco Router:

R1(config)# router ospf 5

R1(config-router)# router-id 5.5.5.5
Q. What are the OSPF Router types?

Area3 Area4
Q. What is OSPF Metric?
OSPF uses cost as metric to judge a path’s feasibility (when multiple paths exist to for same destination).

OSPF Cost Formula:

Reference BW 100 Mb 108
OSPF Cost = = =
Interface BW/Speed Link Speed Link Speed

OSPF Cost Commands:

R# ip ospf cost 1
R# show ip ospf interface fa0/0 | include Cost
Process ID 100, Router ID 10.1.1.2, Network Type BROADCAST, Cost: 10 OSPF Default Cost
Interface Level /
Interface Type Ref BW (10^8) Cost
R# show ip ospf interface brief BW

Interface PID Area IP Address/Mask Cost State Nbrs F/C FE (100M) 100,000 10^8 1 (=10^8 /100,000 /1000)

Fa0/0 100 0 10.1.1.2/24 10 BDR 1/1 Eth (10M) 10,000 10^8 10 (=10^8 /10,000 /1000)

E1 (2M) 2048 10^8 48 (=10^8 /2048 /1000)

#ospf auto-cost reference-bandwidth (*OSPF Cost is modifiable with this command) T1 (1.54M) 1544 10^8 64 (=10^8 /1544 /1000)

64 kbps Serial 64 10^8 1562 (=10^8 /64 /1000)

OSPF Cost (metric) - Example

OSPF

OSPF Cost = 100

Which path will be chosen by R1 for R2 to reach 10.0.0.0?
(i.e. which route will have highest preference?)

OSPF
R1 R2
10.0.0.0 /24
OSPF Cost = 200

OSPF

OSPF Cost = 300

Q. Can two Routers in OSPF domain have same Router ID?

A. No, OSPF does not allow neighborship between Routers

with duplicate RIDs. All OSPF RIDs in a domain should be
unique.
Q. Can we change the Router ID in OSPF domain?

A. Yes, it can be changed.

But it is not recommended to change OSPF Router ID after the OSPF

process has started and the OSPF neighborships are established.
Because changing RID will reset the whole OSPF process. You
should plan all RID’s properly before enabling OSPF in live network.

Use "#clear ip ospf process" command (restart the OSPF process)

for changed RID to take effect.
Q. What is the difference b/w O & OIA routes?
OSPF Route Types
O OSPF Normal/Intra-area Routes (routes within same area)
O IA OSPF Inter-area Routes (routes from other areas)
E1/E2 OSPF External Routes (E1 adds the internal Costs while E2 doesn’t)
N1/N2 OSPF NSSA External Routes (N1 adds the internal Costs while N2 doesn’t)

Area3 Area4
Q. Is it possible to configure an OSPF Area without direct connection
to Backbone area?

A. Yes, it is possible through Virtual-Links.

Q. Is it possible to configure OSPF without backbone area?

A. Yes, but then only intra-area communication is possible.

Inter-area communication is not possible without backbone
area.
Q. What is an LSA in OSPF?

A. LSA’s (Link State Advertisements) are the communication

messages that OSPF routers use to communicate with each
other. There are 5 types of OSPF LSA’s.

OSPF Packet Types

HELLO DBD LSR LSU LSAck

Database Descriptor Link State Request Link State Update Link State Acknow.

WAQASKARIMCCIE
Q. What is the difference between OSPF neighborship & OSPF Adjacency?

A. Neighbor & Adjacency are two different terms in OSPF.

i. Two Routers in OSPF are called NEIGHBORS if they are exchanging Hello Packets.

ii. Two Routers in OSPF are called an ADJACENT if they are exchanging Hello Packets as well as Database
Thank You