•BGP - A Layer 4 protocol that exchanges routing information between peers to determine the optimal paths for traffic flows. Through the SteelConnect Manager (SCM), you enable SteelConnect gateways to use BGP to advertise all of their associated LAN zones (IP subnets) to an upstream router in the MPLS provider’s BGP environment. For details on zones, see Zones within a site.

•OSPF - A Layer 3 link state protocol for routing traffic information within a single area. OSPF selects the most suitable and shortest data path for network traffic. A SteelConnect gateway in the branch learns routes dynamically from other routers in the OSPF routing domain and advertises the routes it learns. Routes specifically on the LAN-side of a SteelConnect gateway are published into the AutoVPN.

•The gateway learns local networks from the OSPF area that the zone interface is connected to.

•The gateway maps the learned networks to the zone.

•When the zone is member of a WAN, all of the networks learned from that OSFP area become routable over the WAN.

•While the peering session is up, the neighbors will send updates about a new route or the need to withdraw a previous announcement.

•Instead of sending static routes, the gateway sends dynamic zone advertisements through an uplink.

•A gateway can advertise all available IPv4 and IPv6 zones (subnets) to an MPLS provider’s eBGP environment. All of the eBGP-connected sites in the MPLS become aware of the zones offered by the gateway.

•The uplink advertises a site’s local network zones (LAN and virtual IP pools) and third-party routes. Guest zones are not advertised.

•The gateway learns about remote IPv4 and IPv6 zones through eBGP from the MPLS autonomous system (AS), including both gateway-based sites and CE router-based sites.

•While the peering session is up, the neighbors will send eBGP updates from one to the other each time one of the neighbors knows about a new BGP route or needs to withdraw a previous announcement.

•The uplink can also advertise additional network IPv4 segments (added using the ADDL Networks tab) as part of the zone on the same VLAN. For details, see Adding a secondary IPv4 network subnet to a zone.

•The uplink can also advertise third-party redistributed zones.

•The gateway sites communicate through the underlay or overlay.

•The CE router-based sites communicate with each other through the MPLS underlay only.

•The CE router-based sites communicate with the gateway sites through the MPLS underlay only.

•A CE router communicates with another CE router through the MPLS underlay only.

•Router ID - Specify the router IPv4 or IPv6 address to uniquely identify the router in the local autonomous system (AS). The gateway can peer with any remote router that supports eBGP. eBGP must be enabled on the router. If another uplink is configured with a router ID on the same appliance, SCM defaults to the same router ID used on the previously configured uplink and you can’t change the setting.

•Local AS - Specify the AS number the router belongs to: for example, 100. The range is from 1 to 4294967295. The default setting is 65000. If another uplink is configured with a local AS on the same appliance, SCM defaults to the same local AS setting used on the previously configured uplink and you can’t change the setting.

•Name - Specify the peer name for the provider. Each uplink can support one eBGP peer.

•IPv4 Address - Specify the peer IPv4 address.

•Remote AS - Specify the autonomous system number the peer belongs to: for example, 200. The range is from 1 to 4294967295. If another uplink is configured with a remote AS on the same appliance, SCM defaults to the same remote AS setting used on the previously configured uplink and you can’t change the setting.

•Password - Optionally, type a password to enable MD5 authentication. You must use the same password on both BGP neighbors. If you don’t require MD5 authentication you can leave this field blank.

•Keep Alive Time - Specify the amount of time, in seconds, that the eBGP neighbors exchange keepalive messages to determine whether a link has failed or is no longer available. The neighbors exchange keepalive messages often enough so that the hold time does not expire. The default setting is 60.

•Hold Time - Specify the amount of time, in seconds, that a gateway neighbor waits for an incoming keepalive, update, or notification message from a neighbor before it assumes its neighbor is down. If the gateway doesn’t receive a keepalive, update, or notification message from its neighbor within the period specified, it closes the connection and routing through that neighbor becomes unavailable.

•Select the Events tab or choose Visibility > Event Log.

•LAN-side learned subnets are advertised on the MPLS underlay on the WAN through uplinks attached to the OSPF area. Statically configured zones are not advertised.

•WAN-side subnet discovery and advertisements work like this:

•The gateway must be registered with SCM. For details, see Adding shadow appliances.

•The gateway must be running 2.6 or later. For details, see How can I tell if the appliance firmware is up to date?.

•The default gateway configuration of the zone must be set to manual mode. To set the default gateway configuration, select the gateway, select the zone, select the Gateways tab, and select Manual.

•The site where the OSPF network is located must already exist.

•OSPF must be enabled on any routing devices that will peer with the gateway.

•Create an OSPF network based on a site location that includes one area.

•Attach one or more zones and one or more uplinks to the OSPF area.

•Site - Select the site where the OSPF network is located. Optionally, leave the site selection blank to select the first site in the list shown on the Network Designs > Sites page. Use this method to save time by quickly creating OSPF networks based on the order in which the sites appear in the site list. Creating another network and leaving the site selection blank again selects the second site in the list, and so on.

•Name - Specify a network name.

•Default Area Name - Specify a name for the area.

•Default Area ID - Specify the area in which the zone resides. Either specify a 32-bit unsigned number from 0 to 4294967295 or a value in the IPv4 address format using dotted decimal notation (x.x.x.x). The default setting is the backbone area ID 0; however, you can change the value to your existing area ID. For small LANs, area 0 might be all you need, but as a network grows, you’ll need more than one area connecting to area 0.

•Inherit Org Defaults - Click On to allow the OSPF network and area to automatically inherit the general settings specified on the OSPF Network > General Settings tab.

•Password - Specify a password.

•MD5 Key ID - (Appears when you select MD5.) Specify a value to associate with the MD5 key. The ID is used by the receiver of the OSPF packet to determine which key to use for authentication.

•Hello Interval - Specify how often, in seconds, to send a hello packet. Initially the gateway sends a hello packet to all OSPF-enabled interfaces to form an adjacency as a neighbor. The routing devices become neighbors and exchange link-state advertisements. After the gateway learns the common network topology, it sends the hello to check if an OSPF neighbor is alive. The range is from 1 to 65535. The default is 10. The hello interval must be exactly the same between two OSPF neighbors.

•Dead Interval - Specify how many seconds to wait for a hello packet before declaring an OSPF neighbor out of service, triggering a refresh of the link-state database and routing information. The range is from 1 to 65535. The default is 40. The dead interval must be exactly the same between two OSPF neighbors.

•Priority - Specify the priority for becoming the network’s designated routing device. The designated router originates network link advertisements on behalf of the network, and establishes adjacencies with all routing devices on the network.

•Cost - Specify a routing metric used in the link-state calculation. OSPF selects ideal routes by locating destination routes with the least cost. Routes with lower total path metrics are preferred to those with higher path metrics. This setting controls the cost calculation of OSPF network segments. The default formula to calculate the cost for the OSPF metric is dividing the reference bandwidth (100 Mbps by default) by the interface bandwidth. For example, in the case of Ethernet, it is 100 Mbps / 10 Mbps = 10.

•Zone/Uplink - Select the interface on which to enable OSPF communication from the drop-down list. Select one or more zones per area for the LAN side. SCM 2.8 and later allows both management and nonmanagement zones as OSPF interfaces.

•OSPF Area - Select the OSPF area associated with the interface from the drop-down list. Select the area created in To create an OSPF network and area.

•Inherit Area Values - Click On to allow the interface to automatically inherit the area settings and any changes to an area. When enabled, making a change to the area also changes the OSPF parameters on the interface. Click Off to lock the interface configuration so any changes to the area don’t overwrite the interface parameters.

•Select the Events tab or choose Visibility > Event Log.

•Traffic rule - You can create a traffic rule for balancing traffic over multiple WANs by selecting a zone either as a source, a target, or both. The traffic rule assigns a specific order of path preference and QoS priority to the source and target combination. When you select a static zone as the source, target, or both, the traffic rule applies to a specific subnet associated with the static zone. However, with a dynamic OSPF zone, the traffic rule provides reachability to a range of subnets learned through that OSPF zone, because the zone is associated with more than one subnet. A traffic rule applies the specified path preference and QoS priority for the rule to all subnets learned from the OSPF zone. For details, see Directing traffic using traffic rules.

•Outbound or internal rule - You can create an outbound rule that works as a filter to allow or deny traffic between a specific source and target combination. When an OSPF zone is selected as source, a target, or both for an outbound rule, the rule applies to all subnets learned from the OSPF zone.

•Known destination - The SteelConnect gateway forwards the LAN traffic through an uplink into the MPLS WAN (indicated by uplink 2 in Distribution of underlay routing information between eBGP and OSPF). In this example, the destination prefix is known and has been learned through the BGP underlay.

•Unknown destination - The SteelConnect gateway transmits the LAN traffic through an uplink into the internet WAN breakout (indicated by uplink 1 in Distribution of underlay routing information between eBGP and OSPF).

•redistribution of OSPF routes into eBGP.

•the advertisement of a default route into OSPF-enabled zones. For details, see Injecting a default route.

•Make sure that there is at least one OSPF-enabled zone available.

•Make sure that there is at least one eBGP-enabled uplink. In SteelConnect 2.12, this is not required when injecting a default route.

•Enable at least one internet breakout for a WAN connection on the site or gateway. The internet breakout provides a safeguard to prevent blackholing of LAN traffic at the gateway when there are no internet break options upstream of the gateway. For details, see WAN settings.

•OSPF must be disabled on the uplink interfaces.

•Click the Info tab.

•Enable OSPF route redistribution into eBGP.

•Configure LAN prefixes to be summarized.

•AS path lists - Creating routing AS path lists.

•Community lists - Creating routing community lists.

•IPv4 prefix lists - Creating routing IPv4 prefix lists.

•Route maps - Configuring route maps.

•If the same route is configured as a static route as well as a transfer network at the WAN level, the static route overrides the transfer network configuration.

•When an existing transfer network is subsequently configured as static route as well, the static route overrides the transfer network configuration. If the static route is then removed, the transfer network configuration will be reinstated.

•When an existing static route is subsequently configured as transfer network as well, SCM warns that the transfer network configuration for the specific network will not be applied on the appliance. When the static route configuration for the network is deleted, SCM will apply the transfer network configuration for the specific network.