IS-IS Configuration Guide for Cisco 8000 Series Routers, Cisco IOS XR Release

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IS-IS overload bit avoidance

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Details techniques for avoiding IS-IS overload conditions, including configuration methods and operational strategies to ensure network stability and minimize routing disruptions.


IS-IS overload bit avoidance feature is a routing protocol enhancement that

  • allows continued use of label switched paths (LSPs) even if routers within the path are flagged with the IS-IS overload bit,

  • enables administrators to ignore overload bit status for head, mid, and tail nodes during path selection, and

  • provides command-line control for activation and deactivation, ensuring flexibility in traffic engineering.

Table 1. Feature History Table

Feature Name

Release Information

Feature Description

IS-IS Overload Bit Avoidance

Release 25.4.1

Introduced in this release on: Fixed Systems (8700 [ASIC: K100])(select variants only*)

*This feature is supported on Cisco 8711-48Z-M routers.

IS-IS Overload Bit Avoidance

Release 7.0.1

You can keep label switched paths (LSPs) available, even if some routers in the path have their IS-IS overload bit set. This feature prevents unnecessary LSP disablement.

When you activate this feature, routers with the overload bit set, whether they are head, mid, or tail nodes, are still considered for LSPs. To enable this feature, use the mpls traffic-eng path-selection ignore overload command. If you disable the feature, the system uses the default behavior and excludes these nodes from LSPs except as nodes of last resort.

  • When you activate overload bit avoidance, label switched paths remain available even if routers in the path have their overload bit set. This prevents unnecessary disablement of paths.

  • If you deactivate overload bit avoidance, routers with the overload bit set cannot be used as nodes of last resort, which may cause LSPs to be disabled.

Note

The IS-IS overload bit avoidance feature does not change the default behavior on nodes with their overload bit set if those nodes are not included in the path calculation.


Configure IS-IS overload bit avoidance

Enable the IS-IS overload bit avoidance feature so MPLS traffic engineering tunnels do not reroute traffic from routers marked as overloaded, reducing disruption during planned maintenance.

Use this task in networks running MPLS and IS-IS when you need tunnels to ignore routers marked with the overload bit, typically during maintenance or administrative events.

Before you begin

  • Confirm your devices support MPLS and IS-IS.

Procedure

1.

Enable IS-IS overload bit avoidance:

Example:

Router# configure
Router(config)# mpls traffic-eng path-selection ignore overload

This enables MPLS TE tunnels to ignore the IS-IS overload bit when selecting paths.

2.

(Optional) Use the no mpls traffic-eng path-selection ignore overload command to disable IS-IS overload bit avoidance.

Example:

Router(config)# no mpls traffic-eng path-selection ignore overload