This documentation is for the extended support release (ESR) version of Cumulus Linux. We will continue to keep this content up to date until 21 February, 2023, when ESR support ends. For more information about ESR, please read this knowledge base article.

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Open Shortest Path First v3 - OSPFv3

OSPFv3 is a revised version of OSPFv2 to support the IPv6 address family. Refer to Open Shortest Path First - OSPF for a discussion on the basic concepts, which remain the same between the two versions.

OSPFv3 defines a new LSA, called intra-area prefix LSA, to separate the advertisement of stub networks attached to a router from the router LSA. It is a clear separation of node topology from prefix reachability and lends itself well to an optimized SPF computation.

IETF has defined extensions to OSPFv3 to support multiple address families (both IPv6 and IPv4). FRR does not currently support multiple address families.

Configure OSPFv3

To configure OSPFv3, you need to specify the router ID and map interfaces to areas. The following commands provide examples.

When you commit a change that configures a new routing service such as OSPF, the FRR daemon restarts and might interrupt network operations for other configured routing services.

cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 router-id 0.0.0.1
cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 interface swp1 area 0.0.0.0
cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 interface swp2 area 0.0.0.1
cumulus@switch:~$ net pending
cumulus@switch:~$ net commit

The NCLU commands save the configuration in the /etc/frr/frr.conf file. For example:

...
router ospf6
 ospf6 router-id 0.0.0.1
 interface swp1 area 0.0.0.0
 interface swp2 area 0.0.0.1
...

Define Custom OSPFv3 Parameters

You can define additional custom parameters for OSPFv3, such as such as the network type (point-to-point or broadcast) and the interval between hello packets that OSPF sends.

The following command example sets the network type to point-to-point and the hello interval to 5 seconds. The hello interval can be any value between 1 and 65535 seconds.

cumulus@switch:~$ net add interface swp1 ospf6 network point-to-point
cumulus@switch:~$ net add interface swp1 ospf6 hello-interval 5
cumulus@switch:~$ net pending
cumulus@switch:~$ net commit

The NCLU commands save the configuration in the /etc/frr/frr.conf file. For example:

...
interface swp1
 ipv6 ospf6 hello-interval 5
 ipv6 ospf6 network point-to-point
...

Unlike OSPFv2, OSPFv3 intrinsically supports unnumbered interfaces. Forwarding to the next hop router is done entirely using IPv6 link local addresses. Therefore, you are not required to configure any global IPv6 address to interfaces between routers.

Configure the OSPFv3 Area

You can use different areas to control routing. You can:

  • Limit an OSPFv3 area from reaching another area.
  • Manage the size of the routing table by creating a summary route for all the routes in a particular address range.

The following example command removes the 3:3::/64 route from the routing table. Without a route in the table, any destinations in that network are not reachable.

cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 area 0.0.0.0 range 3:3::/64 not-advertise

The following example command creates a summary route for all the routes in the range 2001::/64:

cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 area 0.0.0.0 range 2001::/64 advertise

You can also configure the cost for a summary route, which is used to determine the shortest paths to the destination. For example:

cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 area 0.0.0.0 range 11.1.1.1/24 cost 160

The value for cost must be between 0 and 16777215.

The NCLU commands save the configuration in the /etc/frr/frr.conf file. For example:

...
router ospf6
 area 0.0.0.0 range 3:3::/64 not-advertise
 area 0.0.0.0 range 2001::/64 advertise
 area 0.0.0.0 range 2001::/64 cost 160
...

Configure the OSPFv3 Distance

Cumulus Linux provides several commands to change the administrative distance for OSPF routes.

This example command sets the distance for an entire group of routes, rather than a specific route.

cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 distance 254
cumulus@switch:~$ net pending
cumulus@switch:~$ net commit

This example command changes the OSPF administrative distance to 150 for internal routes and 220 for external routes:

cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 distance ospf6 intra-area 150 inter-area 150 external 220
cumulus@switch:~$ net pending
cumulus@switch:~$ net commit

This example command changes the OSPF administrative distance to 150 for internal routes:

cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 distance ospf6 intra-area 150 inter-area 150
cumulus@switch:~$ net pending
cumulus@switch:~$ net commit

This example command changes the OSPF administrative distance to 220 for external routes:

cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 distance ospf6 external 220
cumulus@switch:~$ net pending
cumulus@switch:~$ net commit

This example command changes the OSPF administrative distance to 150 for internal routes to a subnet or network inside the same area as the router:

cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 distance ospf6 intra-area 150
cumulus@switch:~$ net pending
cumulus@switch:~$ net commit

This example command changes the OSPF administrative distance to 150 for internal routes to a subnet in an area of which the router is not a part:

cumulus@switch:~$ net add ospf6 distance ospf6 inter-area 150
cumulus@switch:~$ net pending
cumulus@switch:~$ net commit

The NCLU commands save the configuration in the /etc/frr/frr.conf file. For example:

...
router ospf6
 distance ospf6 intra-area 150 inter-area 150 external 220
...

Configure OSPFv3 Interfaces

You can configure an interface, a bond interface, or a VLAN with an existing advertise prefix list. The prefix list defines the outbound route filter. The following example command configures interface swp3s1 with the IPv6 advertise prefix list named filter:

cumulus@switch:~$ net add interface swp3s1 ospf6 advertise prefix-list filter
cumulus@switch:~$ net pending
cumulus@switch:~$ net commit

You can also configure the cost for a particular interface, bond interface, or VLAN. The following example command configures the cost for the bond interface swp2.

cumulus@switch:~$ net add bond swp2 ospf6 cost 1
cumulus@switch:~$ net pending
cumulus@switch:~$ net commit

The NCLU commands save the configuration in the /etc/frr/frr.conf file. For example:

...
interface swp2
 ipv6 ospf6 cost 1
...

Troubleshooting

Cumulus Linux provides troubleshooting commands for OSPFv3:

  • To show neighbor states, run the NCLU net show ospf6 neighbor command or the vtysh show ip ospf6 neighbor command.
  • To verify that the LSDB is synchronized across all routers in the network, run the NCLU net show ospf6 database command or the vtysh show ip ospf6 database command.
  • To determine why an OSPF route is not being forwarded correctly, run the NCLU net show route ospf6 command or the vtysh show ip route ospf6 command. These commands show the outcome of the SPF computation downloaded to the forwarding table.
  • To help visualize the network view, run the NCLU net show ospf6 spf tree command or the show ip ospf6 spf tree command. These commands show the node topology as computed by SPF.

For example:

cumulus@switch:~$ net show ospf6 neighbor
Neighbor ID      Pri  DeadTime     State/IfState        Duration I/F[State]
10.0.0.21        1    00:00:37     Full/DROther         00:11:32 swp51[PointToPoint]
10.0.0.22        1    00:00:37     Full/DROther         00:11:32 swp52[PointToPoint]

Run the net show ospf6 help command to show available NCLU command options.

For a list of all the OSPF debug options, refer to Debugging OSPF.