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jrhue

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How to detect ethernet path failure and clear dynamic routes on that path on cisco router

I have routers that are interconnected via two independent fast-ethernet paths for redundancy and load sharing (Per-Destination).

I have used the ip sla and track features in the IOS to auto-fail a default route based on reachability of the far end ethernet interface IP address and it works very well.

However, I have dynamic routes advertised on both ends that need to see each other.  When one path goes down, the default route fails over within 3 to 5 seconds.  But the dynamic routes ( using RIPv2) don't fail -over for the full 180 seconds time-out that is the RIP route time-out timer.

Is there a way to signal / remove RIP on the failed path interface so the dynamic routes get pushed over to the redundant path quickly?  The RIB should have both routes and the fail-over should happen as quickly as it takes the RIB to update to the FIB.

I know if I could shutdown the interface on the failed path, this would force a routing update on the RIB and FIB.   But then I could no longer monitor the path to see when it comes back up.

Use VLANs on the path maybe?  One VLAN to carry traffic and another strictly for monitoring?
I could shutdown the traffic VLAN forcing the routing re-set while leaving the monitoring VLAN up to detect when the path comes back up

Any ideas?
I have no idea on how to or if an interface can be shut down via a track object
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ciscoml320
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Sounds like you need a 'fast converging' routing protocol, which clearly RIP is not.  If it is not too much trouble for your environment, you should implement either EIGRP (which I prefer) or OSPF
with these two, you will not only have the inherent fast convergence, but you can further fine-tune their behavior to suit your environment.  If you need further help wth these, yu know where to post.....
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jrhue

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What would the converging time be with EIGRP assuming the physical interface did not go down ( due to it being ethernet and it traveleing through a few switches before reaching the other end.)?

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ciscoml320
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OK.  I did not know you could configure the routing timers on a per interface basis.

So if I use default-route-originate on my router's connected to our Direct Internet Connections (statically routed -- not using BGP ) and set the hello-interval to say between 1 and 3 seconds, I should be able to see a fail-over occur in about 4 to 10 seconds.

My only other concern would be stability of using non-static default routes and the CPU surge on approx 2400 routes being re-converged to the redundant ethernet link.  ( I am currently using 7500 series routers with RSP4's, VIP2, VIP4 with dCEF running.

I have used OSPF and RIP2 but never EIGRP.  Are there any gotchas / caveats I should look out for with this protocol?  I am going to set it up on my lab network and experiment later today.