PfR Simplification Phase 1

With CSCtr26978 a series of CLI and default value changes designed to make configuration of PfR simpler were introduced. Some commands and keywords were removed, and defaults changed to reflect customer environments.

Enforce Route Control by Default

In response to customer feedback, with CSCtr26978 the mode route control command is now the default behavior instead of the mode route observe command. In control mode, the master controller coordinates information from the border routers and makes policy decisions. The master controller monitors prefixes and exits based on default and user-defined policies, and implements changes to optimize prefixes and to select the best exit.

If you want to passively monitor and report without making any changes, you can still configure PfR to use the observe mode. In observe mode, the master controller monitors prefixes and exit links based on default and user-defined policies and then reports the status of the network and the decisions that should be made, but it does not implement any changes.

Default Change for Mode Verify Bidirectional CLI

In response to customer feedback, with CSCtr26978 the default behavior changed to disable the verification of bidirectional traffic. If you need to verify bidirectional traffic, configure the mode verify bidirectional command in master controller configuration mode.

CLI Default Value Changes to Simplify PfR

Removal of PfR API and Proxy CLI

All CLI commands and functionality involved with the PfR application programming interface (API) and proxy process were removed to simplify PfR. With CSCtr26978, the following CLI commands were removed:

• api provider (PfR)

• debug pfr api

• host-address (PfR)

• show api provider (PfR)

• show pfr proxy

Removal of OER CLI

Although the Optimized Edge Routing (OER) syntax was replaced in most images with the PfR syntax, the OER syntax is still recognized. When you enter OER syntax the software changes the syntax to the new PfR syntax in the running configuration. With CSCtr26978, the OER syntax was removed.

Removal of Mode Select-Exit CLI

For most customer deployments we do not recommend using the passive monitoring mode with the exit selection of select-exit best because the statistics may change by the time all the links have been examined and the decision may not be accurate. To simplify the PfR configuration, with CSCtr26978 the default behavior is now select-exit good where the first in-policy link is selected. The mode select-exit command and best and good keywords have been removed.

Enter the commands in this task to verify whether the automatic tunnel mode is on and, if so, display information about the tunnels. The show commands can be entered in any order but steps 1 through 5 are performed on a master controller, and the last three steps are performed on a border router.

Router> enable

Router# show pfr master

OER state: ENABLED and ACTIVE
  Conn Status: SUCCESS, PORT: 3949
  Version: 3.1
  Number of Border routers: 3
  Number of Exits: 3
  Number of monitored prefixes: 3 (max 2500)
  Max prefixes: total 2500 learn 2500
  Prefix count: total 3, learn 0, cfg 3
  PBR Requirements met
  Nbar Status: Inactive
  Auto Tunnel Mode: On

Router# show pfr master border topology

LocalBR        LocalEth       RemoteBR       RemoteEth     nbar_type
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.1.1.3       Tunnel0        10.1.1.2       Tunnel0       Tunnel Connected    
10.1.1.3       Tunnel0        10.11.1.4      Tunnel0       Tunnel Connected    
10.1.1.2       Tunnel0        10.1.1.3       Tunnel0       Tunnel Connected    
10.1.1.2       Tunnel0        10.11.1.4      Tunnel0       Tunnel Connected    
10.11.1.4      Tunnel0        10.1.1.3       Tunnel0       Tunnel Connected    
10.11.1.4      Tunnel0        10.1.1.2       Tunnel0       Tunnel Connected    
PBR Requirements met

Router# show pfr master statistics

**** MC/BR communication statistics ****

   Border: 10.11.1.3

   Messages sent:

    Route Start                         = 6
    Passive monitor status              = 2
    BR keep-alive                       = 6
    Version control                     = 1
    Rsvp data                           = 2
    One application signature           = 124
    TLV-based probe                     = 3
    Interface command                   = 3
    Monitor traffic-class               = 1
    Tunnel commands                     = 2
    Pbr mode command                    = 1
    Total messages sent                 = 151

   Messages received:

    Return status received              = 137
    MD5 authentication                  = 152
    Keep-alive received                 = 4
    Create active probe result          = 2
    TLV interface command               = 4
    TLV probe statistics result         = 1
    Version control                     = 1
    Tunnel commands                     = 3
    Total messages received             = 304

Router# debug pfr master tunnel

PfR Master Tunnel debugging is on

*Jun 16 21:40:33.335: PFR MC TUNNEL: Received tunnel create from BR (10.11.1.4) tunnel_id=0

Router# show pfr border

OER BR 10.101.1.2 ACTIVE, MC 10.101.1.1 UP/DOWN: UP 00:02:06,
  Auth Failures: 0
  Conn Status: SUCCESS
  OER Netflow Status: ENABLED, PORT: 3949
  Version: 3.3  MC Version: 3.3
  Exits
  Et0/0           INTERNAL             
  Et1/0           EXTERNAL             
  Tu1             INTERNAL AUTO-TUNNEL

Router# show route-map dynamic detail

route-map PFR_INTERNAL_RMAP, permit, sequence 0, identifier 2835349507
  Match clauses:
    ip address (access-lists): pfr#3 
      Extended IP access list pfr#3
          268435455 permit ip any 10.100.2.0 0.0.0.255 (5 matches)
          536870911 permit ip any 10.100.1.0 0.0.0.255 (95 matches)
          1073741823 permit ip any 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 (769 matches)
  Set clauses:
    interface Tunnel0  ip next-hop 10.101.1.4
 OCE used: 859BC70
  Policy routing matches: 744 packets, 510897 bytes
Current active dynamic routemaps = 1

Router# debug pfr border tunnel

PfR Master Tunnel debugging is on

*Jun 16 21:39:45.827: PFR BR TUNNEL: send the tunnel destroy status back to the MC

With CSCtr26978, the mode route control command behavior is the default. Perform this task at the master controller to configure PfR to use route observe mode instead of the default route control mode. In route observe mode, the master controller monitors prefixes and exit links based on default and user-defined policies and then reports the status of the network and the decisions that should be made, but it does not implement any changes. In route control mode, the master controller coordinates information from the borders routers in the same way as route observe mode, but commands are sent back to the border routers to alter routing in the PfR managed network to implement the policy decisions.

Perform this task at the master controller to disable the default route control behavior when a RIB mismatch is found and allow PfR to use a single protocol to control a traffic class.

Note	With CSCtr26978, the no mode route protocol pbr command behavior is enabled by default. Perform this task to override the default behavior.

The following example outputs, from privileged EXEC mode, display the new default values and behavior introduced to simplify PfR.

The following partial output shows that with CSCtq73034, the PfR BR Auto Neighbors feature, the autotunnel mode is introduced and enabled by default and an internal autotunnel has been created on a border router:

Router# show pfr master

OER state: ENABLED and ACTIVE
  Conn Status: SUCCESS, PORT: 3949
  Version: 3.3
  Number of Border routers: 4
  Number of Exits: 4
  Number of monitored prefixes: 4 (max 5000)
  Max prefixes: total 5000 learn 2500
  Prefix count: total 4, learn 4, cfg 4
  PBR Requirements met
  Nbar Status: Inactive
  Auto Tunnel Mode: On

Border        Status                UP/DOWN            AuthFail  Version  DOWN Reason
10.101.1.2    ACTIVE                UP       00:13:55         0  3.3
 Tu1          INTERNAL AUTO-TUNNEL  UP       00:13:55         0  3.3				   
 Et0/0        INTERNAL              UP       00:13:45         0  3.3
 Et1/0        EXTERNAL              UP       00:13:35         0  3.3

Global Settings:
  max-range-utilization percent 20 recv 0
  rsvp post-dial-delay 0 signaling-retries 1
  mode route metric bgp local-pref 5000
  mode route metric static tag 5000
  trace probe delay 1000
  no logging
  exit holddown time 60 secs, time remaining 0
.
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The following partial output shows the default behavior introduced with CSCtr26978; the backoff timer values are 90, 900, and 90 seconds, hold-down is set to 90 seconds, mode route control is enabled, and mode select-exit best is removed.

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Default Policy Settings:
  backoff 90 900 90
  delay relative 50
  holddown 90
  periodic 0
  probe frequency 56
  number of jitter probe packets 100
  mode route control
  mode monitor both
  loss relative 10
  jitter threshold 20
  mos threshold 3.60 percent 30
  unreachable relative 50
  resolve delay priority 11 variance 20
  resolve range priority 12 variance 0
  resolve utilization priority 13 variance 20
.
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The following partial output shows the new default behavior introduced with CSCtr26978; learn mode is enabled, the monitor period is set to 1 minute, and the periodic interval is set to 0 minutes:

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Learn Settings:
  current state : ENABLED
  time remaining in current state : 0 seconds
  throughput
  no delay
  no inside bgp
  monitor-period 1
  periodic-interval 0
  aggregation-type prefix-length 24
  prefixes 100 appls 100
  expire after time 720