Overview

OSPF is a dynamic routing protocol that lets multiple routers automatically learn each other’s networks. If you have more than one routed segment or more than one Route10, OSPF can help reduce manual static routing.

The Route10 supports OSPF through the Dynamic Routing interface, which provides direct access to the FRRouting (FRR) shell. OSPF is optional for single-router environments but can be valuable in multi-router or multi-VLAN networks where automatic route sharing is needed.

This article explains how OSPF works on Route10, how to access the routing shell, and when OSPF makes sense in real deployments.
 

Accessing OSPF on Route10

Navigate to:

Settings → Networks → Routes → Dynamic Routing

Selecting Dynamic Routing launches a live FRRouting terminal inside the UI.

Typical initial output:

Available routing protocols in this interface:

• OSPF (OSPFv2 for IPv4)
• OSPFv3 (IPv6)
• BGP (see this article)

Other FRR daemons are intentionally disabled.
 

How OSPF Works

OSPF is a link-state routing protocol. Its purpose is to build a synchronized view of the network and keep route tables updated automatically.

OSPF will:

• Discover neighbors on OSPF-enabled interfaces
• Exchange LSAs (Link-State Advertisements)
• Compute shortest paths using SPF
• Update routes immediately when links change
   

When OSPF Makes Sense on Route10

OSPF is useful when:

• You have multiple Route10 units or mixed routing devices
• You use multiple VLANs or subnets
• You want automatic failover between routed paths
• You want to eliminate complex static route maintenance
• Your network may expand or change over time

If your deployment uses a single Route10 with a simple LAN, OSPF is not required.

Configuring OSPF on Route10

All configuration is performed using FRR syntax. The following example shows a single OSPF area (0.0.0.0) for network 10.4.0.0/20, a summarization of multiple /24 networks split across multiple routers. It sets the router ID to 10.4.1.1. The configuration includes log-adjacency-changes for more useful logging information. The OSPF routers in this example all reside on the default VLAN 1, which is br-lan on Route10. To prevent forming unwanted adjacencies on interfaces and VLANs where no OSPF routers are expected, the remaining VLANs 2-4, and the WAN interface (eth3 here) are set to passive.

configure
router ospf
 router-id 10.4.1.1
 log-adjacency-changes
 network 10.4.0.0/20 area 0.0.0.0
exit
interface eth3
 ip ospf passive
interface br-lan_2
 ip ospf passive
interface br-lan_3
 ip ospf passive
interface br-lan_4
 ip ospf passive
exit
exit
copy running-config startup-config

Checking OSPF Status

Once configured, there are show commands to display status and other details. The most commonly used are documented below. Beyond these, see the FRR documentation linked below.

Neighbor Status

The status of OSPF neighbors is displayed using show ip ospf neighbor. The following shows two OSPF neighbors, with router IPs of 10.4.1.253 and 10.4.1.254. They have formed an adjacency with the Route10 where this command was run on its VLAN 1 (br-lan) with IP 10.4.1.1. 

# show ip ospf neighbor 


Neighbor ID     Pri State           Up Time         Dead Time Address         Interface                        RXmtL RqstL DBsmL
10.4.1.253       10 Full/Backup     6h37m32s          34.198s 10.4.1.253      br-lan:10.4.1.1                      0     0     0
10.4.1.254        1 Full/DR         6h37m32s          34.198s 10.4.1.254      br-lan:10.4.1.1                      0     0     0

OSPF Routes

Routes involved in OSPF can be found by running show ip route ospf. There you will see which networks that router is advertising, as well as the routes received from neighbors. In the following example, VLANs 1-4 are advertised by this Route10, and it’s receiving routes for 10.4.7.0/24 and 10.4.8.0/24 from its neighbors. You can differentiate by noting whether the route specifies “is directly connected”, or “via” some other router’s IP. 

# show ip route ospf 
Codes: K - kernel route, C - connected, L - local, S - static,
       O - OSPF, B - BGP, T - Table, v - VNC, V - VNC-Direct,
       t - Table-Direct,
       > - selected route, * - FIB route, q - queued, r - rejected, b - backup
       t - trapped, o - offload failure


IPv4 unicast VRF default:
O   10.4.1.0/24 [110/10] is directly connected, br-lan, weight 1, 06:37:38
O   10.4.2.0/24 [110/10] is directly connected, br-lan_2, weight 1, 06:37:38
O   10.4.3.0/24 [110/10] is directly connected, br-lan_3, weight 1, 06:37:38
O   10.4.4.0/24 [110/10] is directly connected, br-lan_4, weight 1, 06:37:38
O>* 10.4.7.0/24 [110/60] via 10.4.1.254, br-lan, weight 1, 06:37:25
O>* 10.4.8.0/24 [110/60] via 10.4.1.254, br-lan, weight 1, 06:37:25

Configuring OSPFv3 on Route10

OSPFv3 is used for the same purpose as OSPF, except for IPv6 rather than IPv4. This configuration example puts VLANs 1-4 into area 0, enables adjacency logging, and sets every interface other than VLAN 1 to passive since OSPFv3 routers are only expected to exist on that VLAN. 

configure
router ospf6
 log-adjacency-changes
exit
interface br-lan
 ipv6 ospf6 area 0
interface br-lan_2
 ipv6 ospf6 area 0
 ipv6 ospf6 passive
interface br-lan_3
 ipv6 ospf6 area 0
 ipv6 ospf6 passive
interface br-lan_4
 ipv6 ospf6 area 0
 ipv6 ospf6 passive
interface eth3
 ipv6 ospf6 passive

Checking OSPFv3 Status

The show commands for OSPFv3 are similar to those for OSPF. 

Neighbor Status

The following shows one OSPFv3 neighbor in full connected state.

# show ipv6 ospf6 neighbor 
Neighbor ID     Pri    DeadTime    State/IfState         Duration I/F[State]
10.4.8.1          1    00:00:31     Full/DR              00:08:28 br-lan[BDR]

OSPFv3 Routes

When displaying OSPFv3 routes, the fourth column will show either :: for directly-connected networks participating in OSPFv3, or a next hop address for OSPFv3 routes received from a neighbor.

# show ipv6 ospf6 route 
*N IA 2001:db8:b95b:c101::/64        ::                        br-lan 00:10:18
*N IA 2001:db8:b95b:c102::/64        ::                        br-lan_2 00:11:22
*N IA 2001:db8:b95b:c103::/64        ::                        br-lan_3 00:11:22
*N IA 2001:db8:b95b:c104::/64        ::                        br-lan_4 00:11:22
*N IA 2001:db8:b95b:c180::/64        fe80::be24:11ff:fe74:bfa8 br-lan 00:10:13
*N IA 2001:db8:b95b:c181::/64        fe80::be24:11ff:fe74:bfa8 br-lan 00:10:13

Related FRRouting Documentation

General Setup
https://docs.frrouting.org/en/latest/setup.html

OSPF (OSPFv2 for IPv4)
https://docs.frrouting.org/en/latest/ospfd.html

OSPFv3 (IPv6)
https://docs.frrouting.org/en/latest/ospf6d.html

Support Scope

Support can assist with:

• Verifying that OSPF is running
• Checking neighbor relationships
• Viewing learned routes

Support cannot assist with:

• Multi-area OSPF design
• Redistribution between routing protocols
• Cost tuning or advanced SPF tuning
• Custom FRR scripts or automation