Concept Guide

Graceful Restart
Graceful restart for OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 are supported in Helper and Restart modes.
When a router goes down without a graceful restart, there is a possibility for loss of access to parts of the network due to ongoing network
topology changes. Additionally, LSA ooding and reconvergence can cause substantial delays. It is, therefore, desirable that the network
maintains a stable topology if it is possible for data ow to continue uninterrupted.
OSPF graceful restart understands that in a modern router, the control plane and data plane functionality are separate, restarting the
control plane functionality (such as the failover of the active RPM to the backup in a redundant conguration), does not necessarily have to
interrupt the forwarding of data packets. This behavior is supported because the forwarding tables previously computed by an active RPM
have been downloaded into the forwarding information base (FIB) on the line cards (the data plane) and are still resident. For packets that
have existing FIB/CAM entries, forwarding between ingress and egress ports/VLANs, and so on, can continue uninterrupted while the
control plane OSPF process comes back to full functionality and rebuilds its routing tables.
To notify its helper neighbors that the restart process is beginning, when a router is attempting to restart gracefully, it originates the
following link-local Grace LSAs:
• An OSPFv2 router sends Type 9 LSAs.
• An OSPFv3 router sends Type 11 LSAs.
Type 9 and 11 LSAs include a grace period, which is the time period an OSPF router advertises to adjacent neighbor routers as the time to
wait for it to return to full control plane functionality. During the grace period, neighbor OSPFv2 /v3 interfaces save the LSAs from the
restarting OSPF interface. Helper neighbor routers continue to announce the restarting router as fully adjacent, as long as the network
topology remains unchanged. When the restarting router completes its restart, it ushes the Type 9 and 11 LSAs, notifying its neighbors
that the restart is complete. This notication happens before the grace period expires.
Dell Networking routers support the following OSPF graceful restart functionality:
• Restarting role in which an enabled router performs its own graceful restart.
• Helper role in which the router's graceful restart function is to help a restarting neighbor router in its graceful restarts.
• Helper-reject role in which OSPF does not participate in the graceful restart of a neighbor.
• OSPFv2 supports helper-only and restarting-only roles. By default, both helper and restarting roles are enabled. OSPFv2 supports the
helper-reject role globally on a router.
• OSPFv3 supports helper-only and restarting-only roles. The helper-only role is enabled by default. To enable the restarting role in
addition to the helper-only role, congure a grace period. Recongure OSPFv3 graceful restart to a restarting-only role when you
enable the helper-reject role on an interface. OSPFv3 supports the helper-reject role on a per-interface basis.
• Conguring helper-reject role on an OSPFv2 router or OSPFv3 interface enables the restarting-only role globally on the router or locally
on the interface. In a helper-reject role, OSPF does not participate in the graceful restart of an adjacent OSPFv2/v3 router.
• If multiple OSPF interfaces provide communication between two routers, after you congure helper-reject on one interface, all other
interfaces between the two routers behave as if they are in the help-reject role.
• OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 support planned-only and/or unplanned-only restarts. The default is support for both planned and unplanned
restarts.
A planned restart occurs when you enter the redundancy force-failover rpm command to force the primary RPM to switch
to the backup RPM. During a planned restart, OSPF sends out a Grace LSA before the system switches over to the backup RPM.
An unplanned restart occurs when an unplanned event causes the active RPM to switch to the backup RPM, such as when an active
process crashes, the active RPM is removed, or a power failure happens. During an unplanned restart, OSPF sends out a Grace LSA
when the backup RPM comes online.
To display the conguration values for OSPF graceful restart, enter the show run ospf command for OSPFv2 and the show run
ospf
and show ipv6 ospf database database-summary commands for OSPFv3.
Open Shortest Path First (OSPFv2 and OSPFv3)
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