Configuring Traffic Storm Control

This chapter describes how to configure the traffic storm control feature on the Cisco 7600 series routers.


Note For complete syntax and usage information for the commands used in this chapter, refer to the Cisco 7600 Series Routers Command References at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps368/prod_command_reference_list.html


 

This chapter consists of these sections:

Understanding Traffic Storm Control

A traffic storm occurs when packets flood the LAN, creating excessive traffic and degrading network performance. The traffic storm control feature prevents LAN ports from being disrupted by a broadcast, multicast, or unicast traffic storm on physical interfaces.

Traffic storm control (also called traffic suppression) monitors incoming traffic levels over a 1-second traffic storm control interval and, during the interval, compares the traffic level with the traffic storm control level that you configure. The traffic storm control level is a percentage of the total available bandwidth of the port. Each port has a single traffic storm control level that is used for all types of traffic (broadcast, multicast, and unicast).

Traffic storm control monitors the level of each traffic type for which you enable traffic storm control in 1-second traffic storm control intervals. Within an interval, when the ingress traffic for which traffic storm control is enabled reaches the traffic storm control level that is configured on the port, traffic storm control drops the traffic until the traffic storm control interval ends.

Figure 46-1 shows the broadcast traffic patterns on a LAN interface over a given interval. In this example, traffic storm control occurs between times T1 and T2 and between T4 and T5. During those intervals, the amount of broadcast traffic exceeded the configured threshold.

Figure 46-1 Broadcast Suppression

 

The traffic storm control threshold numbers and the time interval combination make the traffic storm control algorithm work with different levels of granularity. A higher threshold allows more packets to pass through.

Traffic storm control on the Cisco 7600 series routers is implemented in hardware. The traffic storm control circuitry monitors packets passing from a LAN interface to the switching bus. Using the Individual/Group bit in the packet destination address, the traffic storm control circuitry determines if the packet is unicast or broadcast, keeps track of the current count of packets within the 1-second interval, and when a threshold is reached, filters out subsequent packets.

Because hardware traffic storm control uses a bandwidth-based method to measure traffic, the most significant implementation factor is setting the percentage of total available bandwidth that can be used by controlled traffic. Because packets do not arrive at uniform intervals, the 1-second interval during which controlled traffic activity is measured can affect the behavior of traffic storm control.

The following are examples of traffic storm control behavior:

  • If you enable broadcast traffic storm control, and broadcast traffic exceeds the level within a 1-second traffic storm control interval, traffic storm control drops all broadcast traffic until the end of the traffic storm control interval.
  • If you enable broadcast and multicast traffic storm control, and the combined broadcast and multicast traffic exceeds the level within a 1-second traffic storm control interval, traffic storm control drops all broadcast and multicast traffic until the end of the traffic storm control interval.
  • If you enable broadcast and multicast traffic storm control, and broadcast traffic exceeds the level within a 1-second traffic storm control interval, traffic storm control drops all broadcast and multicast traffic until the end of the traffic storm control interval.
  • If you enable broadcast and multicast traffic storm control, and multicast traffic exceeds the level within a 1-second traffic storm control interval, traffic storm control drops all broadcast and multicast traffic until the end of the traffic storm control interval.

Detecting and Controlling Traffic Storms

The mechanism to detect and control such storm event(s) is referred to as storm control or broadcast suppression.

A traffic storm is detected when the following occurs:

  • The port receives multicast and broadcast traffic more than the bandwidth value as configured in the storm-control command.
  • The value of the TotalSuppDiscards counter displayed in the show interface gig < slot/port > counters storm-control command increments.

In Cisco IOS Release 15.0(1)S the following storm control feature enhancements are covered on the 67xx, 6196, ES20 and ES+ line cards:

  • Port-channel interfaces: Support for port-channel interfaces.
  • Shutdown: When a storm is detected and the storm traffic exceeds the accepted threshold, the affected interface moves to error disable state. The traffic threshold is calculated as a percentage of the total bandwidth of the port (%BW). Use the error disable detection and the recovery feature, or the shut/no shut command to re-enable the port on the affected interface.
  • Trap: An SNMP trap can be sent when a storm is detected.

Default Traffic Storm Control Configuration

Traffic storm control is disabled by default.

Configuration Guidelines and Restrictions

When configuring traffic storm control, follow these guidelines and restrictions:

  • Storm control for multicast and unicast does not work on WS-X6148-RJ-45, WS-X6148-RJ21, WS-X6196-RJ21, 6196-21AF, WS-X6148X2-RJ-45, WS-X6548-RJ-45, WS-X6548-RJ21, these line cards (with Port-ASICs COIL/Pentamak) support broadcast storm control only.
  • The WS-X6548-GE-TX, WS-X6548V-GE-TX, WS-X6148-GE-TX, and WS-X6148V-GE-TX switching modules do not support traffic storm control.
  • ES+ line card does not support storm control for unicast packets
  • The router supports multicast and unicast traffic storm control only on Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports.
  • The router supports broadcast traffic storm control on all LAN ports.
  • Except for BPDUs, traffic storm control does not differentiate between control traffic and data traffic.
  • When multicast suppression is enabled, traffic storm control suppresses BPDUs when the multicast suppression threshold is exceeded on these modules:

WS-X6748-SFP

WS-X6724-SFP

WS-X6748-GE-TX

WS-X6748-GE-TX

WS-X6704-10GE

WS-SUP32-GE-3B

WS-SUP32-10GE-3B

When multicast suppression is enabled on the listed modules, do not configure traffic storm control on STP-protected ports that need to receive BPDUs. Except on the listed modules, traffic storm control does not suppress BPDUs.

  • The 6196 line card supports suppression for broadcast traffic and not multicast traffic.
  • Storm control on port-channel interfaces of the ES20 and ES+ line cards is supported in Cisco IOS Release 15.0(1)S.
  • Unicast traffic is supported on 67XX line cards, but not supported on ES20 and ES40 line cards.
  • Any addition or change made to the storm control configuration on port-channel interfaces is automatically updated on the port-channel member links.
  • Storm control configuration or deletion is not allowed on member links.
  • You can add an interface to a port-channel if the storm control configuration on the interface and the port-channel are alike.

You can either club member-links to form a port-channel and then configure the port-channel or change the storm control configuration on the interface to match with the port-channel, before adding it to the port-channel.

  • Using the default interface command twice, removes the storm control feature from a member-link interface.

Enabling Traffic Storm Control

To enable traffic storm control, perform this task:

 

Command
Purpose

Step 1

Router(config)# interface {{ type 1 slot/port } | { port-channel number }}

Selects an interface to configure.

Step 2

Router(config)# snmp-server enable traps storm-control trap-rate traps per minute

(Optional) Enables SNMP storm control trap parameters. The trap-rate range is 0 to 1000 traps per minute. However, the number of traps generated for storm control cannot exceed six per minute (by design).

Step 3

Router(config-if)# storm-control broadcast level level [. level ]

Enables broadcast traffic storm control on the interface, configures the traffic storm control level, and applies the traffic storm control level to all traffic storm control modes enabled on the interface.

Router(config-if)# no storm-control broadcast level

Disables broadcast traffic storm control on the interface.

Step 4

Router(config-if)# storm-control multicast level level [. level ]

Enables multicast traffic storm control on the interface, configures the traffic storm control level, and applies the traffic storm control level to all traffic storm control modes enabled on the interface.

Note The storm-control multicast command is supported only on Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.

Router(config-if)# no storm-control multicast level

Disables multicast traffic storm control on the interface.

Step 5

Router(config-if)# storm-control unicast level level [. level ]

Enables unicast traffic storm control on the interface, configures the traffic storm control level, and applies the traffic storm control level to all traffic storm control modes enabled on the interface.

Note The storm-control unicast command is supported only on Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.

Router(config-if)# no storm-control unicast level

Disables unicast traffic storm control on the interface.

Step 6

Router(config-if)# storm-control action { shutdown | trap }

 

Step 7

 

 

Step 8

Router(config-if)# end

Exits configuration mode.

Step 9

Router# show running-config interface

Verifies the configuration.

1.type = ethernet, fastethernet, gigabitethernet, or tengigabitethernet

When configuring the traffic storm control level, note the following information:

  • You can configure traffic storm control on an EtherChannel (a port channel interface).
  • Do not configure traffic storm control on ports that are members of an EtherChannel. Configuring traffic storm control on ports that are configured as members of an EtherChannel puts the ports into a suspended state.
  • Specify the level as a percentage of the total interface bandwidth:

The level can be from 0 to 100.

The optional fraction of a level can be from 0 to 99.

100 percent means no traffic storm control.

0.0 percent suppresses all traffic.


Note On these modules, following levels suppress all traffic:

—WS-X6704-10GE: less than 0.33 percent round to zero
—WS-X6748-SFP: less than 0.03 percent
—WS-X6748-GE-TX: depends on speed:
if 10 Mbps: less than 0.33 percent round to zero
if 100 Mbps: less than 0.03 percent round to zero
if 1Gbps: no restriction


Because of hardware limitations and the method by which packets of different sizes are counted, the level percentage is an approximation. Depending on the sizes of the frames making up the incoming traffic, the actual enforced level might differ from the configured level by several percentage points.

This example shows how to enable multicast traffic storm control on Gigabit Ethernet interface 3/16 and how to configure the traffic storm control level at 70.5 percent. This configuration applies the traffic storm control level to all traffic storm control modes enabled on Gigabit Ethernet interface 3/16:

Router# configure terminal
Router(config)# interface gigabitethernet 3/16
Router(config-if)# storm-control multicast level 70.5
Router(config-if)# end

Displaying Traffic Storm Control Settings

To display traffic storm control information, use the commands described in Table 46-1 .

 

Table 46-1 Commands for Displaying Traffic Storm Control Status and Configuration

Command
Purpose

Router# show interfaces [{ type 2 slot/port } | { port-channel number }] switchport

Displays the administrative and operational status of all Layer 2 LAN ports or the specified Layer 2 LAN port.

Router# show interfaces [{ type 1 slot/port } | { port-channel number }] counters storm-control

 

Router# show interfaces counters storm-control [ module slot_number ]

Displays the total number of packets discarded for all three traffic storm control modes, on all interfaces or on the specified interface.

2.type = ethernet, fastethernet, gigabitethernet, or tengigabitethernet


Note The show interfaces [{interface_type slot/port} | {port-channel number}] counters command does not display the discard count. You must the storm-control keyword to display the discard count.