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Date:      Fri, 24 Jan 1997 15:34:11 +0200 (EET)
From:      Andrew Stesin <stesin@gu.net>
To:        michael butler <imb@scgt.oz.au>
Cc:        jdp@polstra.com, hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Fault-tolerant network with 2 ethernets
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSI.3.95.970124151806.5513N-100000@creator.gu.kiev.ua>
In-Reply-To: <199701241245.XAA08098@asstdc.scgt.oz.au>

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On Fri, 24 Jan 1997, michael butler wrote:
> 
> > 	Yes. But make sure that a set of IP addresses
> > 	used for loopback-aliased router-IDs is _not_ covered
> > 	by any of the subnets (address ranges).
> 
> You need to exercise some degree of caution with this. The temptation is
> to use a subnet with a netmask so small as to only accomodate that of the
> loopback interface (255.255.255.252 is commonly used on Ciscos).

	255.255.255.255 will do (at least does for me both on
	cisco's and on Gated's loopbacks). This means that
	you get your loopback as a "stub host" in OSPF terms,
	not a "stub net" -- why loose addresses due to unneccesary
	"wide" netmask?

	I just take a /27 subnet (32 addresses) and assign
	them one-by-one to routers as their IDs, with 0xffffffff
	netmask, and with no regard to wherever the router
	topologically or physically belongs to (keeping
	only administrative issues in mind). And this just works.

> This is all well and good when everything else listening to your IGP
> understands what it means. If you have "legacy" hardware lying about (some
> terminal servers and Cisco 1003s come to mind), you need to be very careful
> about what you propagate into other, classful IGPs (such as RIPv1 or IGRP)
> so that they too can understand how to forward packets properly.

	I think that that wouldn't be a cool idea -- to use
	legacy crap in such a setup; especially with 100Mbit ether :)
	(Show me that old dumb device, which a) doesn't understand OSPF
	and b) has 100Mbit ether interface! :)

	And I think that a great majority of today's terminal/access
	servers and other "hardware" routers understand and implement
	OSPFv2, just any device smarter than an oak table should
	do. ;)

> I suggest trying to arrange things such that appropriate route summarisation
> can be achieved by judicious rules in gated.conf on suitable (and
> comprehensible) subnet boundaries. In my case, it was easy - such hardware
> only gets a default route and nothing else :-)

	Yes. Me thinks - this is the very best approach if you should
	deal with dumb, RIP-1-only devices: let "smart"
	devices (cisco 25xx and better, FreeBSD+gated) play
	all the routing game, and let them just decide where
	others should go; "smarties" redistribute only
	an appropriate default into RIP, redirecting all others
	to wherever is appropriate at the moment.

	But I'd better avoid that "way too dumb" devices at all.

> 
> 	michael
> 

--
		Best,
			Andrew Stesin

		nic-hdl: ST73-RIPE




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