OSPF TRICKY QUESTIONS

OSPF Key Characteristics

Type: Link State

Algorithm: Dijkstra’s (Shortest Path First) Algorithm

Standard: RFC 2328

Administrative Distance: 110

Metric: Cost

Protocol/Protocol Number: IP/89

Authentication: Yes (MD5 and Plain Text)

Supports VLSM and Route Summarization

Support for IPv6 (RFC 2740)

Fast Convergence

Metric Calculation

Cost = 100 Mbps / Link Speed

1.R1 ——- R2

On R1, we have process id of 100. On R2: we have process id of 200. Will R1 & R2
form neighbour ship or not ?

Ans.

OSPF process id is locally significant to router. It doesn’t matter if in a single area, there are
” n ” number of processes running. Process ID is just to create two instance on a single
router. OSPF has nothing to do with area or anything.

2.In OSPF, Give one example of neighbour ship & give one example of adjacency ?

Difference between Neighborship and Adjacency

Neighbors are routers who have exchanged Hello packets, but not LSA information and
don’t have same LSDB. Example : Two DROther routers.

Adjacent routers are routers who have exchanged Hello packet, LSA information and have
same LSDB. Example: DR & BDR
Illustrating the difference

As you know, in a LAN environment you have a DR election. After this election, the DR and
BDR are elected,

and all other routers( DROthers) form adjacencies with the DR/BDR.

Meaning, they pass the 2WAY state into ex-start and start exchanging LSA headers to begin
the route exchange.

However, between two DROther routers, you will never pass beyond 2WAY. That is to say,
they will exchange hello packets, but will never enter exstart, never exchange LSA headers,
never converge into adjaceny neighbors

3.In ” sh ip ospf database “, do we get topology of same area to which logged in device
belongs or, we get topology of complete OSPF network ?

Ans.

Complete topology can be seen

4.LSA-3 is generated by which type of router ? ABR or ASBR ?

Ans.

ABR

5.LSA-4 is generated by which type of router ? ABR or ASBR ?

Ans.

ABR

6.In case of area type, NSSA, default route is already present or it has to be configured
manually ?

Ans.

Default route has to manually configured

Command: Area 1 nssa default-information-originate

7.In ” sh ip ospf int br ” shows OSPF enabled interfaces, which are physical, virtual or both ?

Ans.

Both, Physical & Virtual interfaces

8.To configure any area as a STUB area, do we need to put stub area configuration on ABR,
ASBR or all the routers of area ?

Ans.

Every router has to be configured, as per STUB area configuration.

9.In OSPF states, 2-way state is normal or, a problem ?

Ans.

2-way state is normal. This state exists in case of BROADCAST network type.

All the DROTHER routers stays in 2-way state with each other. DROTHER routers maintains
full state with the DR.

10.In Broadcast network type, DR & BDR maintains which type of relationship ?

Ans.

Full state

11.In DR / BDR election, firstly which is elected DR or BDR ?

Ans.

BDR is selected first, then BDR becomes DR.

12.In ” sh ip ospf database ” output, what is the difference between fields, LINK id & ADV
router ?
Ans.

ADV router represents the RID of the router.

LINK id presents the prefix advertised.

Example

new#sh ip ospf database

OSPF Router with ID (204.79.34.216) (Process ID 1)

Type-5 AS External Link States

Link ID ADV Router Age Seq# Checksum Tag
0.0.0.0 204.79.34.216 1693 0x8000008B 0x00749C 1
1.1.1.0 204.79.34.216 1693 0x8000008B 0x0002DB 64513
2.3.4.4 204.79.34.216 1702 0x8000008B 0x009340 64513

13.On a single router, if we have connected two different networks with different process
id’s configured, will they communicate or not. If yes, what needs to be done, to
communicate with each other ?

Ans.

Two different processes on a single router do not communicate at all, until & unless we are
doing some redistribution.

14.Redistribution is done in case of different protocols only or it can be done in case of

same protocol also ?

Ans.

Redistribution is simply modification of parameters.

So, Redistribution can be done in different protocols or, within same protocol also, as per
requirement.

In OSPF, generally, we perform redistribution between different processes running on a

single router.

15.How to check if Hello packets are transferring or not, between OSPF neighbours without
using debug command ?
Ans.

Use command: show ip ospf traffic

Example

4507#sh ip ospf traffic

Interface statistics:Interface Loopback0

OSPF packets received/sent

Invalid Hellos DB-des LS-req LS-upd LS-ack Total

Rx: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Tx: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

OSPF header errors

Length 0, Auth Type 0, Checksum 0, Version 0,

Bad Source 0, No Virtual Link 0, Area Mismatch 0,

No Sham Link 0, Self Originated 0, Duplicate ID 0,

Hello 0, MTU Mismatch 0, Nbr Ignored 0,

LLS 0, Unknown Neighbor 0, Authentication 0,

TTL Check Fail 0,

OSPF LSA errors

Type 0, Length 0, Data 0, Checksum 0

16.Can we check errors in OSPF, without using debug command ?

Ans.

Use command: show ip ospf traffic

Example

4507#sh ip ospf traffic

Interface statistics:Interface Loopback0

OSPF packets received/sent

Invalid Hellos DB-des LS-req LS-upd LS-ack Total

Rx: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Tx: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

OSPF header errors

Length 0, Auth Type 0, Checksum 0, Version 0,

Bad Source 0, No Virtual Link 0, Area Mismatch 0,

No Sham Link 0, Self Originated 0, Duplicate ID 0,

Hello 0, MTU Mismatch 0, Nbr Ignored 0,

LLS 0, Unknown Neighbor 0, Authentication 0,

TTL Check Fail 0,

OSPF LSA errors

Type 0, Length 0, Data 0, Checksum 0

17.In NSSA, external routes enters as LSA-7. But, if LSA-7 is not required, what is the
command to stop LSA-7 ?

Ans.

Use command: router ospf 1 Area 1 nssa no-redistribution

18.In NSSA, we have one ASBR & two ABR’s. which ABR will do LSA-7 to LSA-5 conversion ?

Ans.

ABR, which is having lower cost to the ASBR, will convert LSA-7 into LSA-5

Secondly, Router ID is compared, if condition leads to tie.

19.In NSSA, while receiving routes through LSA-7, can we receive selected subnets or stop
few subnets from receiving ?
Ans.

For example, you have a RIP learned route 141.108.10.0/24 that is injected into the OSPF
NSSA Area 1. You do not want this route to be leaked into the rest of the OSPF areas

Command

router ospf 1 summary-address 141.108.10.0 255.255.255.0 not-advertise

Happy Learning…

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Rakesh