Configuring IRDP· 1

Overview·· 1

IRDP operation· 1

Basic concepts 2

Protocols and standards 2

Configuration procedure· 2

IRDP configuration example· 3

Network requirements 3

Configuration procedure· 4

Verifying the configuration· 5

The term "router" in this chapter refers to a routing-capable device.

The term "host" in this chapter refers to the host that supports IRDP. For example, a host that runs the Linux operating system.

 

 

Overview

ICMP Router Discovery Protocol (IRDP), an extension of the ICMP, is an independent of any routing protocol. It allows hosts to discover the IP addresses of neighboring routers that can act as default gateways to reach devices on other IP networks.

IRDP enables hosts to track dynamic changes in router availability and requires a minimal amount of manual configuration.

IRDP operation

IRDP uses the following types of ICMP messages:

·     Router advertisement (RA)—Sent by a router to advertise IP addresses (including the primary and secondary IP addresses) and preference.

·     Router solicitation (RS)—Sent by a host to request the IP addresses of routers on the subnet.

An interface with IRDP enabled periodically broadcasts or multicasts an RA message to advertise its IP addresses. A receiving host adds the IP addresses to its routing table and selects the IP address with the highest preference as the default gateway.

When a host attached to the subnet starts up, the host multicasts an RS message to request immediate advertisements. If the host does not receive any advertisements, it retransmits the RS several times. If the host does not discover the IP addresses of neighboring routers because of network problems, the host can still discover them from periodic RAs.

IRDP allows hosts to discover neighboring routers, but it does not suggest the best route to a destination. If a host sends a packet to a router that is not the best next hop, the host will receive an ICMP redirect message from the router.

Basic concepts

Preference of an IP address

Every IP address advertised in RAs has a preference value. A larger preference value represents a higher preference. The IP address with the highest preference is selected as the default gateway address.

You can specify the preference for IP addresses advertised on a router interface.

An address with the minimum preference value (-2147483648) will not be used as a default gateway address.

Lifetime of an IP address

An RA contains a lifetime field that specifies the lifetime of advertised IP addresses. If the host does not receive a new RA for an IP address within the address lifetime, the host removes the route entry.

All the IP addresses advertised by an interface have the same lifetime.

Advertising interval

A router interface with IRDP enabled sends out RAs at a random interval between the minimum and the maximum advertising intervals. This mechanism prevents the local link from being overloaded by a large number of RAs sent simultaneously from routers.

H3C recommends that you shorten the advertising interval on a link that suffers high packet loss rates.

Destination address of RAs

An RA uses either of the following destination IP addresses:

·     Broadcast address 255.255.255.255.

·     Multicast address 224.0.0.1, which identifies all hosts on the local link.

By default, the destination IP address of an RA is the broadcast address. If all listening hosts support IP multicast, specify 224.0.0.1 as the destination IP address.

Proxy-advertised IP addresses

By default, an interface advertises its primary and secondary IP addresses. You can specify IP addresses of other gateways for an interface to proxy-advertise.

Protocols and standards

RFC 1256: ICMP Router Discovery Messages

Configuration procedure

To configure IRDP:

 

 

IRDP configuration example

Network requirements

As shown in Figure 1, Host A and Host B that run the Linux support IRDP, and they are in the internal network. Switch A and Switch B act as the egress devices and connect to external networks 192.168.1.0/24 and 192.168.2.0/24, respectively.

Configure Switch A as the default gateway for the hosts. Packets to the external networks can be correctly routed.

Figure 1 Network diagram

 

Configuration procedure

1.     Configure Switch A:

# Specify an IP address for FortyGigE 1/1/1.

<SwitchA> system-view

[SwitchA] interface FortyGigE 1/1/1

[SwitchA-FortyGigE1/1/1] port link-mode route

[SwitchA-FortyGigE1/1/1] ip address 10.154.5.1 24

# Enable IRDP on FortyGigE 1/1/1.

[SwitchA-FortyGigE1/1/1] ip irdp

# Specify preference 1000 for advertised IP addresses on FortyGigE 1/1/1.

[SwitchA-FortyGigE1/1/1] ip irdp preference 1000

# Specify the multicast address 224.0.0.1 as the destination IP address for RAs sent by FortyGigE 1/1/1.

[SwitchA-FortyGigE1/1/1] ip irdp multicast

# Specify the IP address 192.168.1.0 and preference 400 for FortyGigE 1/1/1 to proxy-advertise.

[SwitchA-FortyGigE1/1/1] ip irdp address 192.168.1.0 400

2.     Configure Switch B:

# Specify an IP address for FortyGigE 1/1/1.

<SwitchB> system-view

[SwitchB] interface FortyGigE 1/1/1

[SwitchB-FortyGigE1/1/1] ip address 10.154.5.2 24

# Enable IRDP on FortyGigE 1/1/1.

[SwitchB-FortyGigE1/1/1] ip irdp

# Specify preference 500 for advertised IP addresses on FortyGigE 1/1/1.

[SwitchB-FortyGigE1/1/1] ip irdp preference 500

# Specify the multicast address 224.0.0.1 as the destination IP address for RAs sent by FortyGigE 1/1/1.

[SwitchB-FortyGigE1/1/1] ip irdp multicast

# Specify the IP address 192.168.2.0 and preference 400 for FortyGigE 1/1/1 to proxy-advertise.

[SwitchB-FortyGigE1/1/1] ip irdp address 192.168.2.0 400

Verifying the configuration

# Display the routing table for Host A.

[HostA@localhost ~]$ netstat -rne

Kernel IP routing table

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface

10.154.5.0      0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1

192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1

192.168.2.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1

0.0.0.0          10.154.5.1      0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth1

The output shows that the default route on Host A points to IP address 10.154.5.1, and Host A has routes to 192.168.1.0/24 and 192.168.2.0/24.

# Display the routing table for Host B.

[HostB@localhost ~]$ netstat -rne

Kernel IP routing table

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface

10.154.5.0      0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1

192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1

192.168.2.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth1

0.0.0.0         10.154.5.1      0.0.0.0         UG    0      0         0 eth1

The output shows that the default route on Host B points to IP address 10.154.5.1, and Host B has routes to 192.168.1.0/24 and 192.168.2.0/24.