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Implementing EIGRP

Chapter Description

Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) is a Cisco routing protocol that is designed to address the shortcomings of both distance vector and link-state routing protocols. This chapter expands on the underlying technologies within EIGRP, including the path selection process, changes in topology, load balancing, authentication, and troubleshooting common problems.

Troubleshooting EIGRP

As an advanced distance vector routing protocol, EIGRP scales well with a growing network. However, this scalability introduces complexity in design, configuration, and maintenance. This section introduces some of the common issues surrounding an EIGRP network and a flowchart approach to troubleshooting these issues.

Components of Troubleshooting EIGRP

When troubleshooting any network protocol, it is important to follow a defined flow or methodology. The main aspect of troubleshooting routing protocols involves ensuring that communication exists between the routers. The following sections describe the basic components of troubleshooting a network that is running EIGRP. Figure 5-8 shows an example of the flow used for diagnosing EIGRP problems.

Figure 5-8

Figure 5-8 EIGRP Troubleshooting

The major components of EIGRP troubleshooting include the following items:

  • EIGRP neighbor relationships
  • EIGRP routes in the routing table
  • EIGRP authentication

Troubleshooting EIGRP Neighbor Relationships

The first step in the flow is to troubleshoot neighbor relationships. Figure 5-9 shows the steps for troubleshooting these issues.

Figure 5-9

Figure 5-9 Troubleshooting EIGRP Neighbor Issues

Example 5-9 shows output from the show ip eigrp neighbors command, which indicates that a successful neighbor relationship exists with two routers.

Example 5-9. Confirming EIGRP Neighbor Relationships

RouterX# show ip eigrp neighbors
IP-EIGRP neighbors for process 100
H   Address         Interface       Hold Uptime   SRTT  RTO  Q   Seq
                                    (sec)         (ms)       Cnt Num
1   10.23.23.2      Se0/0/1         13 00:02:26   29    2280 0   15
0   10.140.1.1      Se0/0/0         10 00:28:26   24    2280 0   25

For EIGRP routers to form a neighbor relationship, both routers must share a directly connected IP subnet. A log message that displays that EIGRP neighbors are "not on common subnet" indicates that an improper IP address exists on one of the two EIGRP neighbor interfaces. Use the show interface interface command to verify the IP addresses.

In the output in Example 5-10, the interface address is 10.2.2.3/24.

Example 5-10. Confirming EIGRP Neighbor IP Address

RouterX# show ip interface fa0/0
FastEthernet0/0 is up, line protocol is up
  Internet address is 10.2.2.3/24
  Broadcast address is 255.255.255.255
  Address determined by setup command
  MTU is 1500 bytes
  Helper address is not set
  Directed broadcast forwarding is disabled
  Outgoing access list is not set
  Inbound access list is not set

The network command that is configured under the EIGRP routing process indicates which router interfaces will participate in EIGRP. The "Routing for Networks" section of the show ip protocols command indicates that the networks have been configured; any interfaces in those networks participate in EIGRP. In the output of Example 5-11, EIGRP is running on any interfaces that have an IP address on the 10.0.0.0 and 192.168.1.0 networks.

Example 5-11. Confirming Router Interface Participation in EIGRP Routing

RouterX# show ip protocols
Routing Protocol is "eigrp 100"
  Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
  Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
  Default networks flagged in outgoing updates
  Default networks accepted from incoming updates
  EIGRP metric weight K1=1, K2=0, K3=1, K4=0, K5=0
  EIGRP maximum hopcount 100
  EIGRP maximum metric variance 1
  Redistributing: eigrp 100
--output omitted --
  Maximum path: 4
  Routing for Networks:
    10.0.0.0
    192.168.1.0
  Routing Information Sources:
    Gateway         Distance      Last Update
    (this router)         90      00:01:08
    10.140.1.1            90      00:01:08
  Distance: internal 90 external 170

The show ip eigrp interfaces command can quickly indicate on which interfaces EIGRP is enabled and show how many neighbors can be found on each interface. In the output in Example 5-12, no peers currently exist on the FastEthernet 0/0 interface, and one peer exists on the Serial 0/0/0 interface.

Example 5-12. Confirming EIGRP Status and Neighbors on an Interface

RouterX# show ip eigrp interfaces
IP-EIGRP interfaces for process 100

              Xmit Queue   Mean   Pacing Time   Multicast    Pending
Int    Peers  Un/Reliable  SRTT   Un/Reliable   Flow Timer   Routes
Fa0/0    0        0/0         0       0/1            0           0
Se0/0/0  1        0/0        38      10/380        552           0

EIGRP routers create a neighbor relationship by exchanging hello packets. Certain fields in the hello packets must match before an EIGRP neighbor relationship is established:

  • EIGRP autonomous system (AS) number
  • EIGRP K values

You can use the debug eigrp packets command to troubleshoot when hello packet information does not match. In Example 5-13, a K value mismatch exists.

Example 5-13. Verifying EIGRP Hello Packet Mismatches

RouterX# debug eigrp packets

Mismatched adjacency values
01:39:13: EIGRP: Received HELLO on Serial0/0 nbr 10.1.2.2
01:39:13:AS 100, Flags 0x0, Seq 0/0 idbQ 0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/0 peerQ un/rely 0/0
01:39:13:        K-value mismatch

Troubleshooting EIGRP Routing Tables

If the neighbor relationships are established, routes can be exchanged. If they are not being exchanged, the next step is to troubleshoot EIGRP routing table issues. Figure 5-10 shows the steps involved in troubleshooting these problems.

Figure 5-10

Figure 5-10 Troubleshooting EIGRP Routing Tables

EIGRP routes that appear with a "D" in the routing table indicate that they are intra-AS routes, and those with "D EX" indicate that they are external AS routes. No EIGRP routes in the routing table can indicate that a Layer 1 or 2 issue or an EIGRP neighbor problem exists.

In the output in Example 5-14, the 172.16.31.0/24 network is an intra-AS route, and 10.3.3.0/24 is a route that was redistributed into EIGRP.

Example 5-14. Confirming EIGRP Intra-AS and Redistributed Routes

RouterX# show ip route
Codes: C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, M - mobile, B - BGP
       D - EIGRP, EX - EIGRP external, O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
       N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2
       E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2

Gateway of last resort is not set

     172.16.0.0/16 is variably subnetted, 2 subnets, 2 masks
D       172.16.31.0/24 [90/40640000] via 10.140.1.1, 00:01:09, Serial0/0/0
O       172.16.31.100/32 [110/1563] via 10.140.1.1, 00:26:55, Serial0/0/0
     10.0.0.0/8 is variably subnetted, 7 subnets, 2 masks
C       10.23.23.0/24 is directly connected, Serial0/0/1
D EX      10.3.3.0/24 [170/40514560] via 10.23.23.2, 00:01:09, Serial0/0/1
C       10.2.2.0/24 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0

The show ip eigrp topology command displays the EIGRP router ID. The EIGRP router ID comes from the highest IP address assigned to a loopback interface. If no loopback interfaces are configured, the highest IP address assigned to any other active interface is chosen as the router ID. No two EIGRP routers can have the same EIGRP router ID. If they do, you will experience problems exchanging routes between the two routers with equal router IDs.

In the output in Example 5-15, the router ID is 192.168.1.65.

Example 5-15. Displaying EIGRP Router IDs

RouterX# show ip eigrp topology
IP-EIGRP Topology Table for AS(100)/ID(192.168.1.65)

Codes: P - Passive, A - Active, U - Update, Q - Query, R - Reply,
       r - reply Status, s - sia Status

P 10.1.1.0/24, 1 successors, FD is 40514560
        via 10.140.1.1 (40514560/28160), Serial0/0/0
P 10.2.2.0/24, 1 successors, FD is 28160
        via Connected, FastEthernet0/0
P 10.3.3.0/24, 1 successors, FD is 40514560
        via 10.23.23.2 (40514560/28160), Serial0/0/1
P 10.23.23.0/24, 1 successors, FD is 40512000
        via Connected, Serial0/0/1
P 192.168.1.64/28, 1 successors, FD is 128256
        via Connected, Loopback0
P 192.168.1.0/24, 1 successors, FD is 40640000
        via 10.23.23.2 (40640000/128256), Serial0/0/1
P 10.140.2.0/24, 2 successors, FD is 41024000
        via 10.23.23.2 (41024000/40512000), Serial0/0/1
        via 10.140.1.1 (41024000/40512000), Serial0/0/0
P 10.140.1.0/24, 1 successors, FD is 40512000
        via Connected, Serial0/0/0
P 172.16.31.0/24, 1 successors, FD is 40640000

EIGRP routes that are found in the topology table but not in the routing table can indicate an issue that requires help from Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) to diagnose the problem.

Route filtering enables routes to be filtered from an EIGRP routing advertisement as they come in from a neighbor or as they are sent out to a neighbor. These filters can cause routes to be missing from the routing table. The show ip protocols command shows whether any filter lists are applied to EIGRP.

By default, EIGRP is classful and performs automatic network summarization. Automatic network summarization causes connectivity issues in discontiguous networks. The show ip protocols command confirms whether automatic network summarization is in effect.

In the sample output in Example 5-16, no filter lists are applied to EIGRP AS 100, and automatic network summarization is in effect.

Example 5-16. Confirming EIGRP Automatic Network Summarization

RouterX# show ip protocols
Routing Protocol is "eigrp 100"
  Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
  Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
  Default networks flagged in outgoing updates
  Default networks accepted from incoming updates
  EIGRP metric weight K1=1, K2=0, K3=1, K4=0, K5=0
  EIGRP maximum hopcount 100
  EIGRP maximum metric variance 1
  Redistributing: eigrp 100
  EIGRP NSF-aware route hold timer is 240s
  Automatic network summarization is in effect
  Automatic address summarization:
    192.168.1.0/24 for FastEthernet0/0, Serial0/0/0, Serial0/0/1
      Summarizing with metric 128256
    10.0.0.0/8 for Loopback0
      Summarizing with metric 28160
  Maximum path: 4

Troubleshooting EIGRP Authentication

The last step in the flowchart in Figure 5-8 is to troubleshoot EIGRP authentication problems, if configured. This is accomplished by verifying that EIGRP authentication is successful.

Example: Successful MD5 Authentication

The output of the debug eigrp packets command on Router X, shown in Example 5-17, illustrates that Router X is receiving EIGRP packets with MD5 authentication and a key ID equal to 1 from Router Y.

Example 5-17. Confirming MD5 Authentication on Router X

RouterX# debug eigrp packets
EIGRP Packets debugging is on
    (UPDATE, REQUEST, QUERY, REPLY, HELLO, IPXSAP, PROBE, ACK, STUB, SIAQUERY, SIAREPLY)
*Jan 21 16:38:51.745: EIGRP: received packet with MD5 authentication, key id = 1
*Jan 21 16:38:51.745: EIGRP: Received HELLO on Serial0/0/1 nbr 192.168.1.102
*Jan 21 16:38:51.745:   AS 100, Flags 0x0, Seq 0/0 idbQ 0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/0 peerQ
  un/rely 0/0

Similarly, the output of the debug eigrp packets command on Router Y, shown in Example 5-18, illustrates that Router Y is receiving EIGRP packets with MD5 authentication and a key ID equal to 2 from Router X.

Example 5-18. Confirming MD5 Authentication on Router Y

RouterY# debug eigrp packets
EIGRP Packets debugging is on
    (UPDATE, REQUEST, QUERY, REPLY, HELLO, IPXSAP, PROBE, ACK, STUB, SIAQUERY,
SIAREPLY)
RouterY#
*Jan 21 16:38:38.321: EIGRP: received packet with MD5 authentication, key id = 2
*Jan 21 16:38:38.321: EIGRP: Received HELLO on Serial0/0/1 nbr 192.168.1.101
*Jan 21 16:38:38.321:   AS 100, Flags 0x0, Seq 0/0 idbQ 0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/0 peerQ
  un/rely 0/0

Example: Troubleshooting MD5 Authentication Problems

In the example, the key string for key 2 of Router X, the one that is used when EIGRP packets are sent, is changed to be different from the key string that Router Y is expecting.

The output of the debug eigrp packets command on Router Y, shown in Example 5-19, illustrates that Router Y is receiving EIGRP packets with MD5 authentication and a key ID equal to 2 from Router X, but that an authentication mismatch exists. The EIGRP packets from Router X are ignored, and the neighbor relationship is declared to be down. The output of the show ip eigrp neighbors command should confirm that Router Y has no EIGRP neighbors.

Example 5-19. MD5 Authentication Mismatch

RouterY# debug eigrp packets
EIGRP Packets debugging is on
    (UPDATE, REQUEST, QUERY, REPLY, HELLO, IPXSAP, PROBE, ACK, STUB, SIAQUERY, SIAREPLY)
RouterY#
*Jan 21 16:50:18.749: EIGRP: pkt key id = 2, authentication mismatch
*Jan 21 16:50:18.749: EIGRP: Serial0/0/1: ignored packet from 192.168.1.101, opc
ode = 5 (invalid authentication)
*Jan 21 16:50:18.749: EIGRP: Dropping peer, invalid authentication
*Jan 21 16:50:18.749: EIGRP: Sending HELLO on Serial0/0/1
*Jan 21 16:50:18.749:   AS 100, Flags 0x0, Seq 0/0 idbQ 0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/0
*Jan 21 16:50:18.753: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 100: Neighbor 192.168.1.101
 (Serial0/0/1) is down: Auth failure

RouterY# show ip eigrp neighbors
IP-EIGRP neighbors for process 100
RouterY#

The two routers keep trying to reestablish their neighbor relationship. Because of the different keys that are used by each router in this scenario, Router X authenticates the hello messages that are sent by Router Y using key 1. However, when Router X sends a hello message back to Router Y using key 2, an authentication mismatch will occur. From the perspective of Router X, the relationship appears to be up for a while, but then it times out, as illustrated by the messages that were received on Router X, shown in Example 5-20. The output of the show ip eigrp neighbors command on Router X also illustrates that Router X does have Router Y in its neighbor table for a short time.

Example 5-20. Confirming MD5 Authentication

RouterX# debug eigrp packets
*Jan 21 16:54:09.821: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 100: Neighbor 192.168.1.102 (Serial0/
  0/1) is down: retry limit exceeded
*Jan 21 16:54:11.745: %DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 100: Neighbor 192.168.1.102 (Serial0/
  0/1) is up: new adjacency
RouterX# show ip eigrp neighbors
H Address   Interface Hold Uptime SRTT RTO Q Seq
                                (sec)          (ms)       Cnt Num
0   192.168.1.102  Se0/0/1        13 00:00:38    1   5000  1  0

Summary of Troubleshooting EIGRP

The following summarizes the key points that were discussed in this section:

  • Troubleshooting EIGRP includes several aspects, such as resolving neighbor relationships, routing table issues, and authentication problems.
  • Issues that can cause EIGRP neighbor problems include incorrect network commands and hello packet information mismatches. Use the show ip eigrp neighbors command to help troubleshoot these issues.
  • Missing EIGRP routes from the routing table can be because of route filtering or automatic summarization in discontiguous networks. Use the show ip route command to help troubleshoot these issues.
  • The debug eigrp packets command can help you troubleshoot MD5 authentication problems.
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