Blog Ine Com 2008-08-02 DMVPN Explained

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02 DMVPN Explained
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Posted by Petr Lapukhov, 4xCCIE/CCDE in VPN 69 Comments Search
DMVPN stands for Dynamic Multipoint VPN and it is an effective solution for dynamic secure overlay Submit
networks. In short, DMVPN is combination of the following technologies:

Categories
1) Multipoint GRE (mGRE)
Select Category
2) Next-Hop Resolution Protocol (NHRP)
4) Dynamic Routing Protocol (EIGRP, RIP, OSPF, BGP)
3) Dynamic IPsec encryption CCIE Bloggers
5) Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF)
Brian Dennis, CCIEx5 #2210
Routing & Sw itching
Assuming that reader has a general understanding of what DMVPN is and a solid understanding of IPsec/CEF, we Voice
are going to describe the role and function of each component in details. In this post we are going to illustrate two Security
major phases of DMVPN evolution: Service Provider
ISP Dial
Brian McGahan, CCIEx4 #8593,
1) Phase 1 Hub and Spoke (mGRE hub, p2p GRE spokes) CCDE #2013::13
2) Phase 2 Hub and Spoke with Spoke-to-Spoke tunnels (mGRE everywhere) Design
Data Center
As for DMVPN Phase 3 Scalable Infrastructure, a separate post is required to cover the subject. This is due to
Security
the significant changes made to NHRP resolution logic (NHRP redirects and shortcuts), which are better being Service Provider
illustrated when a reader has good understanding of first two phases. However, some hints about Phase 3 will be
Mark Snow , CCIEx4 #14073
also provided in this post. Data Center
Collaboration
Note: Before we start, I would like to thank my friend Alexander Kitaev, for taking time to review the post and Security
Voice
providing me with useful feedback.
Petr Lapukhov, CCIEx4 #16379,
CCDE #2010::7
Multipoint GRE Design
Security
Let us start with the most basic building component of DMVPN multipoint GRE tunnel. Classic GRE tunnel is
Service Provider
point-to-point, but mGRE generalizes this idea by allowing a tunnel to have multiple destinations. Voice
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This may seem natural if the tunnel destination address is multicast (e.g. 239.1.1.1). The tunnel could be used to
effectively distribute the same information (e.g. video stream) to multiple destinations on top of a multicast-enabled
network. Actually, this is how mGRE is used for Multicast VPN implementation in Cisco IOS. However, if tunnel
endpoints need to exchange unicast packets, special glue is needed to map tunnel IP addresses to physical or
real IP addresses, used by endpoint routers. As well see later, this glue is called NHRP.
Note, that if you source multiple mGRE tunnels off the same interface (e.g. Loopback0) of a single router, then
GRE can use special multiplexor field the tunnel header to differentiate them. This field is known as tunnel key
and you can define it under tunnel configuration. As a matter of fact, up to IOS 12.3(14)T or 12.3(11)T3 the use of
tunnel key was mandatory mGRE tunnel would not come up, until the key is configured. Since the mentioned
versions, you may configure a tunnel without the key. There were two reasons to remove the requirement. First,
hardware ASICs of 6500 and 7600 platforms do not support mGRE tunnel-key processing, and thus the optimal
switching performance on those platforms is penalized when you configure the tunnel key. Second, as well see
later, DMVPN Phase 3 allows interoperation between different mGRE tunnels sharing the same NHRP network-id
only when they have the same tunnel-key or have no tunnel-key at all (since this allows sending packets
between tunnels).
Generic NHRP
Now lets move to the component that makes DMVPN truly dynamic NHRP. The protocol has been defined quite
some time ago in RFC 2332 (year 1998) to create a routing optimization scheme inside NBMA (non-broadcast
multiple-access) networks, such as ATM, Frame-Relay and SMDS (anybody remembers this one nowadays?
The general idea was to use SVC (switched virtual circuits) to create temporary shortcuts in non-fully meshed
NBMA cloud. Consider the following schematic illustration, where IP subnet 10.0.0.0/24 overlays partial-meshed
NBMA cloud. NHRP is similar in function to ARP, allowing resolving L3 to L2 addresses, but does that in more
efficient manner, suitable for partially meshed NBMA clouds supporting dynamic layer 2 connections.
The following is simplified and schematic illustration of NHRP process. In the above topology, in order for R1 to
reach R4, it must send packets over PVCs between R1-R2, R2-R3 and finally R3-R4. Suppose the NMBA cloud
allows using SVC (Switched virtual circuits, dynamic paths) then it would be more reasonable for R1 to establish
SVC directly with R4 and send packets over the optimal way. However, this requires R1 to know NMBA address
(e.g. ATM NSAP) associated with R4 to place a call. Preferably, it would be better to make R1 learn R4 IP
address to NSAP (NBMA address) mapping dynamically.
Now assume we enable NHRP on all NBMA interfaces in the network. Each router in topology acts as either NHC
(Next-Hop Client) or NHS (Next-Hop Server). One of the functions of NHC is to register with NHS its IP address
mapped to NBMA Layer 2 address (e.g. ATM NSAP address). To make registration possible, you configure each
NHC with the IP address of at least one NHS. In turn, NHS acts as a database agent, storing all registered
mappings, and replying to NHC queries. If NHS does not have a requested entry in its database, it can forward
packet to another NHS to see if it has the requested association. Note that a router may act as a Next-Hop server
and client at the same time. Back to the diagram, assume that R2 and R3 are NHSes, R1 and R4 are NHCs.
Further, assume R4 is NHC and registers its IP to NBMA address mapping with R4 and R1 thinks R2 is the NHS.
Both R2 and R3 treat each other as NHS. When R1 wants to send traffic to R4 (next-hop 10.0.0.4), it tries to
resolve 10.0.0.4 by sending NHRP resolution request to R2 the configured NHS. In turn, R2 will forward request
to R3, since it has no local information.
Obviously, modern networks tend not to use ATM/SMDS and Frame-Relay SVC too much, but one can adopt
NHRP to work with simulated NBMA networks, such as mGRE tunnels. The NBMA layer maps to physical
underlying network while mGRE VPN is the logical network (tunnel internal IP addressing). In this case, mGRE
uses NHRP for mapping logical or tunnel inside IP addresses to physical or real IP addresses. Effectively,
NHRP perform the glue function described above, allowing mGRE endpoints discovering each others real IP
address. Since NHRP defines a server role, its natural to have mGRE topology lay out in Hub-and-Spoke manner
(or combination of hubs and spokes, in more advanced cases). Lets see some particular scenarios to illustrate
NHRP functionality with mGRE.
NHRP Phase 1
With NHRP Phase 1 mGRE uses NHRP to inform the hub about dynamically appearing spokes. Initially, you
configure every spoke with the IP address of the hub as the NHS server. However, the spokes tunnel mode is
GRE (regular point-to-point) tunnel with a fixed destination IP that equals to the physical address of the hub. The
spokes can only reach the hub and only get to other spoke networks across the hub. The benefit of Phase 1 is
simplified hub router configuration, which does not require static NHRP mapping for every new spoke.
As all packets go across the hub, almost any dynamic routing protocol would help with attaining reachability. The
hub just needs to advertise a default route to spokes, while spokes should advertise their subnets dynamically to
the hub. Probably it makes sense to run EIGRP and summarize all subnets to 0.0.0.0/0 on the hub, effectively
sending a default route to all spokes (if the spokes do not use any other default route, e.g. from their ISPs).
Configure spokes as EIGRP stubs and advertise their respective connected networks. RIP could be set up in
similar manner, by simply configuring GRE tunnels on spokes as passive interfaces. Both EIGRP and RIP require
split-horizon disabled on the hub mGRE interface in order to exchange subnets spoke to spoke. As for OSPF, the
optimal choice would be using point-to-multipoint network type on all GRE and mGRE interfaces. In addition to
that, configure ip ospf database filter-all out on the hub and set up static default routes via tunnel interfaces on
the spokes (or static specific routes for corporate networks).
Here is a sample configuration. The detailed explanation of NHRP commands and show commands output follows
the example.
mGRE + NHRP Phase 1 + EIGRP
R1:
!
! Hub router
!
router eigrp 123
no auto-summary
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255
!
! Tunnel source
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
!
! VPN network
!
interface Loopback 1
ip address 10.0.1.1 255.255.255.0
!
! mGRE tunnel
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0
no ip redirects
ip nhrp authentication cisco
ip nhrp map multicast dynamic
ip nhrp network-id 123
no ip split-horizon eigrp 123
ip summary-address eigrp 123 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 5
tunnel source Loopback0
tunnel mode gre multipoint
tunnel key 123
R2:
!
! Spoke Router
!
router eigrp 123
no auto-summary
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255
eigrp stub connected
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.2.2 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.2.2 255.255.255.0
!
! GRE tunnel
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.2 255.255.255.0
ip nhrp map multicast 150.1.1.1
ip nhrp map 10.0.0.1 150.1.1.1
ip nhrp nhs 10.0.0.1
ip nhrp registration timeout 30
ip nhrp holdtime 60
tunnel destination 150.1.1.1
tunnel key 123
R3:
!
! Spoke Router
!
router eigrp 123
no auto-summary
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.3.3 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.3.3 255.255.255.0
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.3 255.255.255.0
ip nhrp map 10.0.0.1 150.1.1.1
ip nhrp holdtime 60
tunnel key 123
Note that only the hub tunnel uses mGRE encapsulation, and spokes use regular point-to-point GRE tunnels. Now,
lets look at the NHRP commands used in the example above. The most basic command ip nhrp map [Logical IP]
[NBMA IP] creates a static binding between a logical IP address and NBMA IP address. Since mGRE is treated
by NHRP as NMBA medium, logical IP corresponds to the IP address inside a tunnel (inner) and the NBMA IP
address corresponds to the outer IP address (the IP address used to source a tunnel). (From now on, we are
going to call inner IP address and simply IP address or logical IP address and the outer IP address as
NBMA address or physical IP address). The use of static NHRP mappings is to bootstrap information for the
spokes to reach the logical IP address of the hub. The next command is ip nhrp map multicast
dynamic|[StaticIP] and its purpose is the same as frame-relay map broadcast. The command specifies the
list of destination that will receive the multicast/broadcast traffic originated from this router. Spokes map multicasts
to the static NBMA IP address of the hub, but hub maps multicast packets to the dynamic mappings that is, the
hub replicates multicast packets to all spokes registered via NHRP. Mapping multicasts is important in order to
make dynamic routing protocol establish adjacencies and exchange update packets. The ip nhrp nhs [ServerIP]
command configures NHRP client with the IP address of its NHRP server. Note the ServerIP is the logical IP
address of the hub (inside the tunnel) and therefore spokes need the static NHRP mappings in order to reach it.
The spokes use the NHS to register their logical IP to NBMA IP associations and send NHRP resolution request.
(However, in this particular scenarios, the spokes will not send any NHRP Resolutions Requests, since they use
directed GRE tunnels only registration requests will be sent). The commands ip nhrp network-id and ip nhrp
authentication [Key] identify and authenticate the logical NHRP network. The [ID] and the [Key] must match on
all routers sharing the same GRE tunnel. It is possible to split an NBMA medium into multiple NHRP networks, but
this is for advanced scenarios. As for the authentication, its a simple plain-text key sent in all NHRP messages.
While the network-id is mandatory in order for NHRP to work, you may omit the authentication. Next command is
ip nhrp holdtime that specifies the hold-time value set in NHRP registration requests. The NHS will keep the
registration request cached for the duration of the hold-time, and then, if no registration update is receive, will time
it out. The NHS will also send the same hold-time in NHRP resolution responses, if queried for the respective NHRP
association. Note that you configure the ip nhrp holdtime command on spokes, and spoke will send registration
requests every 1/3 of the hold-time seconds. However, if you also configure the ip nhrp registration timeout
[Timeout] on a spoke, the NHRP registration requests will be sent every [Timeout] sends, not 1/3 of the
configured hold-time. The hold-time value sent in NHRP Registration Requests will remain the same, of course.
Now lets move to the show commands. Since its only the hub that uses the NHRP dynamic mappings to resolve
the spokes NBMA addresses, it is useful to observe R1 NHRP cache:
Rack1R1#show ip nhrp detail

10.0.0.2/32 via 10.0.0.2, Tunnel0 created 00:16:59, expire 00:00:30
Type: dynamic, Flags: authoritative unique registered used
NBMA address: 150.1.2.2
Type: dynamic, Flags: authoritative unique registered used
As we can see, the logical IP 10.0.0.2 maps to NBMA address 150.1.2.2 and the logical IP 10.0.0.3 maps to
NBMA address 150.1.3.3. The authoritative flag means that the NHS has learned about the NHRP mapping
directly from a registration request (the NHS serves the particular NHC). The unique flag means that the NHRP
registration request had the same unique flag set. The use of this flag is to prevent duplicate NHRP mappings in
cache. If unique mapping for a particular logical IP is already in the NHRP cache and another NHC tries to register
the same logical IP with the NHS, the server will reject the registration, until the unique entry expires. Note that by
default IOS routers set this flag in registration request, and this can be disabled by using ip nhrp registration
no-unique command on a spoke. Sometimes this may be needed when spoke change its NBMA IP address often
and needs to re-register a new mapping with the hub. The last flag, called used flag, means that the router uses
the NHRP entry to switch IP packets. We will discuss the meaning of this flag in NRHP process switching section
below. Also, note the expires field, which is a countdown timer, started from the holdtime specified in the
Registration Request packet.
Lets see the NHRP registration and reply process flows on the NHS.
Rack1R1#debug nhrp
NHRP protocol debugging is on
Rack1R1#debug nhrp packet

NHRP activity debugging is on
First, R3 tries to register its Logical IP to NBMA IP mapping with the hub. Note the specific NHRP packet format,
split in three parts.
1) (F) fixed part. Specifies the version, address family (afn) and protocol type (type) for resolution, as well as
subnetwork layer (NBMA) type and length (shtl and sstl). Note that shtl equals 4, which is the length of IPv4
address in bytes, and sstl is for subaddress field which is not used with IPv4.
2) (M) mandatory header part. Specifies some flags, like unique flag and the Request ID, which is used to
track request/responses. Also includes are the source NBMA address (tunnel source in GRE/mGRE) and the
source/destination protocol IP addresses. Destination IP address is the logical IP address of the hub and the
source IP address is the logical IP address of the spoke. Using this information hub may populate the spoke logical
IP address to NBMA IP address mapping.
3) (C-1) CIE 1, which stands for Client Information Element field. While its not used in the packets below, in
more advanced scenarios explored later, well see this filed containing the information about networks connected
to requesting/responding routers.
Also note the NAT-check output, which is Ciscos extension used to make NHRP work for routers that tunnel from
behind the NAT.
NHRP: Receive Registration Request via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 81

(F) afn: IPv4(1), type: IP(800), hop: 255, ver: 1
shtl: 4(NSAP), sstl: 0(NSAP)
(M) flags: "unique", reqid: 26
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
src protocol: 10.0.0.3, dst protocol: 10.0.0.1
(C-1) code: no error(0)
prefix: 255, mtu: 1514, hd_time: 60
addr_len: 0(NSAP), subaddr_len: 0(NSAP), proto_len: 0, pref: 0
NHRP: netid_in = 123, to_us = 1
NHRP: NAT-check: matched destination address 150.1.3.3
NHRP: Tu0: Found and skipping dynamic multicast mapping NBMA: 150.1.3.3
NHRP: Attempting to send packet via DEST 10.0.0.3
NHRP: Encapsulation succeeded. Tunnel IP addr 150.1.3.3
After processing the request, the router responds with NHRP Registration Reply. Note that the (M) header did not
change, just the source and destination logical IP address of the packet are reversed. (R1->R3)
NHRP: Send Registration Reply via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 101
src: 10.0.0.1, dst: 10.0.0.3
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
NHRP: 101 bytes out Tunnel0
Now the NHS receives the Registration Request from R2, and adds the corresponding entry in its NHRP cache
NHRP: Receive Registration Request via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 81

src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
NHRP: Send Registration Reply via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 101
src: 10.0.0.1, dst: 10.0.0.2
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
We see how NRHP Phase 1 works now. The spokes register their associations with the hub via NHRP and the hub
learns their NBMA addresses dynamically. At the same time, spokes use point-to-point tunnels to speak to the hub
and reach each other. Note that EIGRP is not the only protocol suitable for use with NHRP Phase 1. OSPF is also
a viable solution, thank to point-to-multipoint network type and database filter-all out command. See the
example below for OSPF configuration with NHRP Phase 1:
mGRE + NHRP Phase 1 + OSPF
R1:
!
! Hub router
!
router ospf 123
router-id 10.0.0.1
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 area 0
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.1.1 255.255.255.0
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0
no ip redirects
tunnel key 123
ip ospf network point-to-multipoint
ip ospf database-filter all out
R2:
!
! Spoke Router
!
router ospf 123
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 area 0
router-id 10.0.0.2
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.2.2 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.2.2 255.255.255.0
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.2 255.255.255.0
ip nhrp map 10.0.0.1 150.1.1.1
ip nhrp holdtime 60
tunnel key 123
!
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 Tunnel0
R3:
!
! Spoke Router
!
router ospf 123
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 area 0
router-id 10.0.0.3
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.3.3 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.3.3 255.255.255.0
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.3 255.255.255.0
ip nhrp map 10.0.0.1 150.1.1.1
ip nhrp holdtime 60
tunnel key 123
!
As we said, the main benefit of using NHRP Phase 1 is simplified configuration on the hub router. Additionally,
spoke routers receive minimal routing information (its either summarized or filtered on the hub) and are configured
in uniform manner. In most simple case, spoke routers could be configured without any NHRP, by simply using
point-to-point GRE tunnels. This scenario requires the hub to create a static NHRP mapping for every spoke. For
example:
mGRE + NHRP Phase 1 + OSPF + Static NHRP mappings
R1:
!
! Hub router
!
router ospf 123
router-id 10.0.0.1
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 area 0
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.1.1 255.255.255.0
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0
no ip redirects
ip nhrp map 10.0.0.2 150.1.2.2
ip nhrp map 10.0.0.3 150.1.3.3
tunnel key 123
ip ospf database-filter all out
R2:
!
! Spoke Router
!
router ospf 123
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 area 0
router-id 10.0.0.2
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.2.2 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.2.2 255.255.255.0
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.2 255.255.255.0
tunnel key 123
!
R3:
!
! Spoke Router
!
router ospf 123
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 area 0
router-id 10.0.0.3
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.3.3 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.3.3 255.255.255.0
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.3 255.255.255.0
tunnel key 123
!
The disadvantage of NHRP Phase 1 is the inability to establish spoke-to-spoke shortcut tunnels. NHRP Phase 2
resolves this issue and allows for spoke-to-spoke tunnels. To better understand the second phase, we first need
to find out how NHRP interacts with CEF the now default IP switching method on most Cisco routers. Consider
the topology and example configuration that follows. See the detailed breakdown after the configuration.
mGRE + NHRP Phase 2 + EIGRP
R1:
!
! Hub router
!
router eigrp 123
no auto-summary
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.1.1 255.255.255.0
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0
no ip redirects
no ip split-horizon eigrp 123
no ip next-hop-self eigrp 123
tunnel key 123
R2:
!
! Spoke Router
!
router eigrp 123
no auto-summary
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.2.2 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.2.2 255.255.255.0
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.2 255.255.255.0
ip nhrp map 10.0.0.1 150.1.1.1
ip nhrp holdtime 60
tunnel key 123
R3:
!
! Spoke Router
!
router eigrp 123
no auto-summary
network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255
!
interface Loopback0
ip address 150.1.3.3 255.255.255.0
!
ip address 10.0.3.3 255.255.255.0
!
interface Tunnel0
ip address 10.0.0.3 255.255.255.0
ip nhrp map 10.0.0.1 150.1.1.1
ip nhrp holdtime 60
tunnel key 123
Note that both spokes use mGRE tunnel encapsulation mode, and the hub sets the originating router next-hop IP
address in reflected EIGRP updates (by default EIGRP sets the next-hop field to 0.0.0.0 that is, to self). By
the virtue of the EIGRP configuration, the subnet 10.0.2.0/24 (attached to R2) reaches to R3 with the next-hop IP
address of 10.0.0.2 (R2). It is important that R3 learns 10.0.2.0/24 with the next hop of R2 logical IP address.
As we see later, this is the key to trigger CEF next-hop resolution. The mGRE encapsulation used on spokes will
trigger NHRP resolutions since now this is NBMA medium. Now, assuming that traffic to 10.0.2.0/24 does not flow
yet, check the routing table entry for 10.0.2.2 and the CEF entries for the route and its next-hop:
Rack1R3#show ip route 10.0.2.2

Routing entry for 10.0.2.0/24
Known via "eigrp 123", distance 90, metric 310172416, type internal
Redistributing via eigrp 123
Last update from 10.0.0.2 on Tunnel0, 00:09:55 ago
Routing Descriptor Blocks:
* 10.0.0.2, from 10.0.0.1, 00:09:55 ago, via Tunnel0
Route metric is 310172416, traffic share count is 1
Total delay is 1005000 microseconds, minimum bandwidth is 9 Kbit
Reliability 255/255, minimum MTU 1472 bytes
Loading 1/255, Hops 2
Rack1R3#show ip cef 10.0.2.2

10.0.2.0/24, version 48, epoch 0
0 packets, 0 bytes
via 10.0.0.2, Tunnel0, 0 dependencies
next hop 10.0.0.2, Tunnel0
invalid adjacency
Rack1R3#show ip cef 10.0.0.2

10.0.0.0/24, version 50, epoch 0, attached, connected
0 packets, 0 bytes
via Tunnel0, 0 dependencies
valid glean adjacency
Note that CEF prefix for 10.0.2.0/24 is invalid (but not glean), since 10.0.0.2 has not yet been resolved. The
CEF prefix for 10.0.0.2 has glean adjacency, which means the router needs to send an NHRP resolution
request to map the logical IP to NBMA address. Therefore, with CEF switching, NHRP resolution requests are only
sent for next-hop IP addresses, and never for the networks (e.g. 10.0.2.0/24) themselves (the process-switching
does resolve any prefix as well see later). Go ahead and ping from R3 to 10.0.3.3 and observe the process:
Rack1R3#ping 10.0.2.2
Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 10.0.2.2, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 36/80/180 ms
Check the mappings on the hub router. The only two entries registered are the VPN IP addresses of R2 and R3,
together with the respective NBMA IP addresses. Note the expire field, which, as mentioned above, counts the
time for the entry to expire based on the holdtime settings of the registering routers interface. Later we will see
how CEF uses this countdown timer to refresh or delete CEF entries for the next-hop IP address
Rack1R1#show ip nhrp
Type: dynamic, Flags: authoritative unique registered
Requester: 10.0.0.3 Request ID: 798
Requester: 10.0.0.2 Request ID: 813
Check the mappings on R2 (note that R2 now has mapping for R3s
next-hop associated with its NBMA IP address)
10.0.0.1/32 via 10.0.0.1, Tunnel0 created 00:14:52, never expire
Type: static, Flags: authoritative used
Type: dynamic, Flags: router authoritative unique local
(no-socket)
Type: dynamic, Flags: router used
The same command output on R3 is symmetric to the output on R2:
Type: dynamic, Flags: router
(no-socket)
Now check the CEF entry for R2s next-hop IP address on R3:
Rack1R3#sh ip cef 10.0.0.2

10.0.0.2/32, version 65, epoch 0, connected
0 packets, 0 bytes
via 10.0.0.2, Tunnel0, 0 dependencies
next hop 10.0.0.2, Tunnel0
valid adjacency
The CEF entry for 10.0.0.2 is now valid, since NHRP mapping entry is present. If the next-hop for the prefix
10.0.2.0/24 was pointing toward the hub (R1) (e.g. if the hub was using the default ip next-hop-self eigrp 123)
then the NHRP lookup will not be triggered, and cut-through NHRP entry will not be installed. Lets see the
debugging command output on R1, R2 and R3 to observe how the routers collectively resolve the next-hop IP
addresses when R3 pings R1:
Rack1R1#debug nhrp
Rack1R2#debug nhrp
Rack1R3#debug nhrp
It all starts when R3 tries to route a packet to 10.0.2.2 and finds out it has glean adjacency for its next-hop of
10.0.0.2. Then, R3 attempt to send NHRP resolution request directly to R2, but fails since R2 NMBA address is
unknown. At the same time, the original data packet (ICMP echo) follows to R2 across the hub (R1).
Rack1R3#
NHRP: MACADDR: if_in null netid-in 0 if_out Tunnel0 netid-out 123
NHRP: Checking for delayed event 0.0.0.0/10.0.0.2 on list (Tunnel0).
NHRP: No node found.
NHRP: Sending packet to NHS 10.0.0.1 on Tunnel0
NHRP: Send Resolution Request via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 81
src: 10.0.0.3, dst: 10.0.0.2
(M) flags: "router auth src-stable", reqid: 994
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
NHRP: Encapsulation failed for destination 10.0.0.2 out Tunnel0
Next, R3 tries to send resolution request to the NHS, which is R1. The resolution request contains information
about source NBMA address of R3, and source protocol (logical IP) addresses of R3 and R2.
Rack1R3#
NHRP: Attempting to send packet via NHS 10.0.0.1
src: 10.0.0.3, dst: 10.0.0.1
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
The Resolution Request from R3 arrives to NHS. In essence, R3 tries to resolve the glean CEF adjacency using
NHRP the same way it uses ARP on Ethernet. Note that request only mentions logical IP addresses of R3
(10.0.0.3) and R2 (10.0.0.2) and NBMA address of R3.
Rack1R1#
NHRP: Receive Resolution Request via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 81
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
NHRP: nhrp_rtlookup yielded Tunnel0
NHRP: netid_out 123, netid_in 123
NHRP: nhrp_cache_lookup_comp returned 0x855C7B90
The NHS has the NHRP mapping for 10.0.0.2 in its NHRP cache R2 registered this associating with R1. The
NHS may immediately reply to the client. Note the (C-1) CIE header in the NHRP reply packet. While the (M)
(mandatory) header contains the same information received in request packet from R3, the CIE header contains
the actual NHRP reply, with the mapping information for R2. This is because the NHS considers R2 to be the
client of it, and therefore it sends the actual information in CIE header. Note the prefix length of 32 this means
the reply is just for one host logical IP address.
Rack1R1#
NHRP: Send Resolution Reply via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 109
src: 10.0.0.1, dst: 10.0.0.3
(M) flags: "router auth dst-stable unique src-stable", reqid: 994
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
client NBMA: 150.1.2.2
client protocol: 10.0.0.2
At this point, R2 receives the original data packet from R3 (ICMP echo) and tries to send a response back. The
problem is that the destination IP address for the echo reply is 10.0.3.3 and the next-hop is 10.0.0.3, which has
glean CEF adjacency. Again, R2 replies back across the hub and send a Resolution Request packet: first,
directly R3 this attempt fails then it sends the resolution request to the NHS.
Rack1R2#
src: 10.0.0.2, dst: 10.0.0.3
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
NHRP: Encapsulation failed for destination 10.0.0.3 out Tunnel0
NHRP: Attempting to send packet via NHS 10.0.0.1
Rack1R2#
src: 10.0.0.2, dst: 10.0.0.1
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
R3 finally receive the Resolution Reply from the NHS, and now it may complete the CEF adjacency for 10.0.0.2.
Since that moment, it switches all packets to 10.0.2.2 directly via R2, not across R1.
Rack1R3#
NHRP: Receive Resolution Reply via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 109
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
NHRP: No need to delay processing of resolution event nbma src:150.1.3.3 nbma dst:150.1.2.2
The resolution request that R2 sent before in attempted to resolve the NBMA address for 10.0.0.3 arrives to R1.
Since the NHS has all the information in its local cache (R3 registered its IP to NBMA address mapping) it
immediately replies to R2. Note the CIE header in the NHRP reply packet, which contains the actual mapping
information.
Rack1R1#
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
NHRP: nhrp_cache_lookup_comp returned 0x848EF9E8
Rack1R1#
src: 10.0.0.1, dst: 10.0.0.2
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
bclient protocol: 10.0.0.3
At last, R2 receive the reply to its original request, and now it has all the information to complete the CEF entry for
10.0.0.3 and switch packets across the optimal path to R3. At this moment both spokes have symmetric
information to reach each other
Rack1R2#
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
Timing out NHRP entries
Now that we know that CEF resolves the next-hop information via NHRP, how does it time-out the unused cut-
through tunnel? As we remember, each NHRP entry has countdown expire timer, initialized from the registration
hold-time. Every 60 seconds global NHRP process runs on a router and checks the expire timer on all NHRP
entries. If the expire timer for an NHRP entry is greater than 120 seconds, nothing is done to the corresponding
CEF entry. If the timer is less than 120 seconds, the NHRP process marks the corresponding CEF entry as stale
but still usable. As soon as the router switches an IP packet using the stale entry, it triggers new NHRP resolution
request, and eventually refreshes the corresponding NHRP entry as well as CEF entry itself. If no packet hits the
stale CEF entry, the NHRP mapping will eventually time-out (since the router does not send any refreshing
requests) and the corresponding CEF entry will become invalid. This will effectively tear down the spoke-to-spoke
tunnel.
NHRP Phase 2 Conclusions
Let us quickly recap what we learned so far about NHRP Phase 2 and CEF. Firstly, this mode requires all the
spokes to have complete routing information with the next-hop preserved. This may limit scalability in large
networks, since not all spokes may accept full load of routing updates. Secondly, CEF only resolve the next-hop
information via NHRP, not the full routing prefixes. Actually, the second feature directly implies the first limitation.
As we noted, the no ip next-hop-self eigrp 123 command is required to make spoke-to-spoke tunnels work with
CEF. However, they added the command only in IOS version 12.3. Is there a way to make spoke-to-spoke tunnels
work when the next-hop is set to self (the default) in EIGRP updates? Actually, there are few ways. First and the
best one do not use old IOS images to implement DMVPN Actually, it is better to use the latest 12.4T train
images with DMVPN Phase 3 for the deployment but then again those images are from the T-train! OK, so the
other option is get rid of EIGRP and use OSPF, with the network type broadcast. OSPF is a link-state protocol
it does not hide topology information and does not mask the next-hop in any way (well, at least when the network-
type is broadcast). However, the limitation is that the corresponding OSPF topology may have just two redundant
hubs corresponding to OSPF DR and BDR for a segment. This is because every hub must form OSPF
adjacencies with all spokes. Such limitation is not acceptable in large installations, but still works fine in smaller
deployments. However, there is one final workaround, which is probably the one you may want to use in the
current CCIE lab exam disable CEF on spokes. This is a very interesting case per se, and we are going to see
now NHRP works with process switching.
NHRP Phase 2 + EIGRP next-hop-self + no CEF
In this scenario, EIGRP next-hop self is enabled on R1 (the hub). Now R3 sees 10.0.2.0/24 with the next hop of
R1. Disable CEF on R2 and R3, and try pinging 10.0.2.2 off R3 loopback1 interface.
R3 sees the route behind R2 as reachable via R1
Rack1R3#show ip route 10.0.2.2

Routing entry for 10.0.2.0/24
Known via "eigrp 123", distance 90, metric 310172416, type internal
Redistributing via eigrp 123
Last update from 10.0.0.1 on Tunnel0, 00:09:55 ago
Routing Descriptor Blocks:
* 10.0.0.1, from 10.0.0.1, 00:09:55 ago, via Tunnel0
Route metric is 310172416, traffic share count is 1
Total delay is 1005000 microseconds, minimum bandwidth is 9 Kbit
Reliability 255/255, minimum MTU 1472 bytes
Loading 1/255, Hops 2
R3 pings 10.0.2.2, sourcing packet off 10.0.3.3. Since CEF is disabled, the system performs NHRP lookup to
find the NBMA address for 10.0.2.2. This is opposed to CEF behavior that would only resolve the next-hop for
10.0.2.2 entry. Naturally, the router forwards NHRP request to R3s NHS, which is R1. At the same time, R3
forwards the data packet (ICMP echo) via its current next-hop 10.0.0.1, that is via the hub.
Rack1R3#
src: 10.0.0.3, dst: 10.0.2.2
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
Resolution Request arrives to R1 (the NHS). Since R1 has no mapping for 10.0.2.2 (R2 only registers the IP
address 10.0.0.2 its own next-hop IP address), the NHS looks up into routing table, to find the next-hop towards
10.0.2.2. Since it happens to be R2s IP 10.0.0.2, the NHS then tries to forward the resolution request towards
the next router on the path to the network requested in resolution message to R2. Thanks to R2s NHRP
registration with R1, the NHS now knows R2s NBMA address, and successfully encapsulates the packet. In
addition, R1 forwards the data packet from R1 to R2, using its routing table. Obviously, the data packet will arrive
to R2 a little bit faster, since NHRP requires more time to process and forward the request.
Rack1R1#
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
NHRP: nhrp_cache_lookup_comp returned 0x0
NHRP: Forwarding Resolution Request via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 101
src: 10.0.0.1, dst: 10.0.2.2
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
Now the data packet (ICMP echo) has arrived to R2. R2 generates the response (ICMP echo reply from
10.0.2.2 to 10.0.3.3) and now R2 needs the NMBA address of 10.0.3.3 (CEF is disabled on R2). As usual, R2
generates a resolutions request to its NHS (R1). At the same time, R2 sends the response packet to R3s request
across the hub, since it does not know the NBMA address of R3.
Rack1R2#
src: 10.0.0.2, dst: 10.0.3.3
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
Soon after the data packet arrived, R2 receives the Resolution Request from R3 forwarded by R1. Since R2 is the
egress router on NBMA segment for the network 10.0.2.2, it may reply to the request.
Rack1R2#
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
NHRP: nhrp_rtlookup yielded Loopback1
NHRP: We are egress router for target 10.0.2.2, recevied via Tunnel0
NHRP: Redist mask now 1
Note that R2 replies with the full prefix found in its routing table 10.0.2.0/24, not just single host 10.0.2.2/32
(this feature is critical for DMVPN Phase 3). This information is encapsulated inside (C-1) part of the NHRP reply
packet (Client Information Element 1) which describes a client network connected to the router (R2). The prefix
field is /24 which is exactly the value taken from the routing table.
Also note, that R2 learned R3s NBMA address from the Resolution Request, and now replies directly to R3,
bypassing R1. The stable flag means that the querying/replying router directly knows the source or destination IP
address in the resolution request/reply.
Rack1R2#
src: 10.0.0.2, dst: 10.0.0.3 <-- NBMA addresses of R2/R3
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
At this moment, Resolution Request from R2 for network 10.0.3.3 reaches R1 the NHS. Since the NHS has no
information on 10.0.3.3, it forwards the request to R3 the next-hop found via the routing table on path to
10.0.3.3.
Rack1R1#
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
NHRP: nhrp_cache_lookup_comp returned 0x0
NHRP: Forwarding Resolution Request via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 101
src: 10.0.0.1, dst: 10.0.3.3
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
Back to R3. At this point, it received the ICMP reply for the original ICMP echo packet. Now R3 receives the NHRP
Resolution Reply to its original Resolution Request directly from R2. This allows R3 to learn that 10.0.2.0/24 is
reachable via NMBA IP address 150.1.2.2. Note that CIE field (C-1) in the reply packet, which tells R3 about the
whole 10.0.2.0/24 network the prefix is set to 24.
Rack1R3#
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
Finally, the Resolution Request from R2, forwarded by R1 (the NHS) arrives to R3. The local router performs
lookup for 10.0.3.3 and finds this to be directly connected network, with the prefix of /24. Therefore, R3 generates
a Resolution Reply packet and sends it directly to R2, bypassing R1. This packet tells R2 to map logical IP
10.0.3.0/24 to NBMA address 150.1.3.3.
Rack1R3#
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
NHRP: nhrp_rtlookup yielded Loopback1
NHRP: We are egress router for target 10.0.3.3, recevied via Tunnel0
NHRP: Redist mask now 1
src: 10.0.0.3, dst: 10.0.0.2
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
At last, R2 receives the response to its Resolution Request, and everything is stable now. R2 and R3 know how to
reach 10.0.3.0/24 and 10.0.2.0/24 respectively.
Rack1R2#
src NBMA: 150.1.2.2
Now lets look at NHRP caches of all three routers:
Type: dynamic, Flags: router implicit
(no-socket)
Type: dynamic, Flags: router implicit used
Type: dynamic, Flags: router used
(no-socket)
The implicit flag means that the router learned mapping without explicit request, as a part of other routers reply
or request. The router flag means that the mapping is either for the remote router or for a network behind the
router. The (no-socket) flag means that the local router will not use this entry and trigger IPSec socket creation.
The local flag means the mapping is for the network directly connected to the local router. The router uses those
mappings when it loses connection to the local network, so that the NHC may send a purge request to all other
clients, telling that the network has gone and they must remove their mappings.
Here is an example. Ensure R3 has the above-mentioned mappings, and then shut down the Loopback1 interface,
observing the debugging command output on R3 and R2. R3 sends purge request directly to R2, since it knows
R2 requested that mapping.
Rack1R3#
NHRP: Redist callback: 10.0.3.0/24
NHRP: Invalidating map tables for prefix 10.0.3.0/24 via Tunnel0
NHRP: Send Purge Request via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 73
src: 10.0.0.3, dst: 10.0.0.2
(M) flags: "reply required", reqid: 36
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
R2 receives Purge Request from R3. Note that the reply required flag is set. Hence, R2 must confirm that it
deleted the mapping with a Purge Reply packet. R2 will erase the corresponding mapping learned via 10.0.0.3
and generate a response packet
Rack1R2#
NHRP: Receive Purge Request via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 73
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
R2 first tries to send the Purge Reply to R3 directly, using the NBMA address of R3. Note that CIE header
mentions the network erased from the local mappings list
Rack1R2#
NHRP: Send Purge Reply via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 73
src: 10.0.0.2, dst: 10.0.0.3
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
NHRP: Invalidating map tables for prefix 10.0.3.0/24 via Tunnel0
R3 receives the reply to its purge request and now it knows that R2 is consistent.
Rack1R3#
NHRP: Receive Purge Reply via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 73
src NBMA: 150.1.3.3
Timing out NHRP entries with Process-Switching
The last question is how NHRP times out unused entries in case of process-switching mode. Recall the used flag
set for NHRP mapping. Every time a packet is process-switched using the respective NHRP entry, it is marked as
used. The background NHRP process runs every 60 seconds, and check the expire timers for each NHRP entry.
If the used flag is set and expire timer for the entry is greater than 120 seconds then the process clears the flag
(and every new packet will refresh it). If the timer is less than 120 seconds and the flag is set, IOS generates a
refreshing NHRP request. However, if the flag is not set, the system allows the entry to expire, unless another
packet hits it and makes active.
The above-described behavior of NHRP with process switching allows for one interesting feature. The hub router
may now summarize all information sent down to spokes say into one default route. This will not affect the spokes,
for they will continue querying next-hop information for every destination prefix sent over the mGRE tunnel
interface, and learning the optimal next-hop. It would be great to combine this summarization feature with the
performance of CEF switching. This is exactly what they implemented with DMVPN Phase 3. However, Phase 3 is
subject to a separate discussion.
Integrating IPsec
Havent we forgotten something for DMVPN Phase 1/Phase 2? That was IPsec, the components that provides
confidentiality and integrity checking to mGRE/NHRP. Now, compared with the complexity of NHRP operations,
IPsec integration is straightforward.
First, the hub needs to know how to authentication all the spokes using IKE. The most scalable way is to use X.509
certificates and PKI, but for the simplicity, we will just use the same pre-shared key on all routers. Note that we
need to configure the routers with a wild-card pre-shared key, in order to accept IKE negotiation requests from any
other dynamic peer.
As for IPsec Phase 2, we need dynamic crypto maps there, since the hub has no idea of the connecting peer IP
addresses. Fortunately, Cisco IOS has a cute feature called IPsec profiles, designed for use with tunnel interfaces.
The profile attaches to a tunnel interface and automatically considers all traffic going out of the tunnel as
triggering the IPsec Phase 2. The IPsec phase proxy identities used by the IPsec profile are the source and
destination host IP addresses of the tunnel. It makes sense to use IPSec transport mode with mGRE as the latter
already provides tunnel encapsulation. Besides, IOS supports some features, like NAT traversal only with IPSec
transport mode.
Lets review an example below and explain how it works.
mGRE + NHRP Phase 2 + Spoke-to-spoke tunnels + IPsec
R1:
crypto isakmp policy 10
encryption 3des
authentication pre-share
hash md5
group 2
!
crypto isakmp key 0 CISCO address 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0
!
crypto ipsec transform-set 3DES_MD5 esp-3des esp-md5-hmac
mode transport
!
crypto ipsec profile DMVPN
set transform-set 3DES_MD5
!
interface Tunnel 0
tunnel protection ipsec profile DMVPN
R2 & R3:
crypto isakmp policy 10

encryption 3des
authentication pre-share
hash md5
group 2
!
crypto isakmp key 0 CISCO address 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0
!
crypto ipsec transform-set 3DES_MD5 esp-3des esp-md5-hmac
mode transport
!
crypto ipsec profile DMVPN
set transform-set 3DES_MD5
!
interface Tunnel 0
tunnel protection ipsec profile DMVPN
Start with any spoke, e.g. R3. Since the router uses EIGRP on Tunnel 0 interface, a multicast packet will eventually
be send out of the tunnel interface. Thanks to the static NHRP multicast mapping, mGRE will encapsulate the
EIGRP packet towards the hub router. The IPsec profile will see GRE traffic going from 150.1.3.3 to 150.1.1.1.
Automatically, ISAKMP negotiation will start with R1, and authentication will use pre-shared keys. Eventually both
R1 and R3 will create IPsec SAs for GRE traffic between 150.1.3.3 and 150.1.1.1. Now R3 may send NHRP
resolution request. As soon as R3 tries to send traffic to a network behind R2, it will resolve next-hop 10.0.0.2 to
the IP address of 150.1.2.2. This new NHRP entry will trigger ISAKMP negotiation with NBMA address 150.1.2.2 as
soon as router tries to use it for packet forwarding. IKE negotiation between R3 and R2 will start and result in
formation of new SAs corresponding to IP address pair 150.1.2.2 and 150.1.3.3 and GRE protocol. As soon as
the routers complete IPsec Phase 2, packets may flow between R2 and R3 across the shortcut path.
When an unused NHRP entry times out, it will signal the ISAKMP process to terminate the respective IPsec
connection. We described the process for timing out NHRP entries before, and as you remember, it depends on
the hold-time value set by the routers. Additionally, the systems may expire ISAKMP/IPsec connections due to
IPsec timeouts.
This is the crypto system status on the hub from the example with NHRP Phase 2 and process-switching:
IPsec Phase 1 has been established with both spokes
Rack1R1#show crypto isakmp sa

dst src state conn-id slot status
150.1.1.1 150.1.2.2 QM_IDLE 1 0 ACTIVE
150.1.1.1 150.1.3.3 QM_IDLE 3 0 ACTIVE
IPsec Phase 2 SA entries for both protected connections to R2 and R3 follows. Note that SAs are for GRE traffic
between the loopback.
Rack1R1#show crypto ipsec sa
interface: Tunnel0
Crypto map tag: Tunnel0-head-0, local addr 150.1.1.1
protected vrf: (none)

local ident (addr/mask/prot/port): (150.1.1.1/255.255.255.255/47/0)
remote ident (addr/mask/prot/port): (150.1.2.2/255.255.255.255/47/0)
current_peer 150.1.2.2 port 500
PERMIT, flags={origin_is_acl,}
#pkts encaps: 230, #pkts encrypt: 230, #pkts digest: 230
#pkts decaps: 227, #pkts decrypt: 227, #pkts verify: 227
#pkts compressed: 0, #pkts decompressed: 0
#pkts not compressed: 0, #pkts compr. failed: 0
#pkts not decompressed: 0, #pkts decompress failed: 0
#send errors 12, #recv errors 0
local crypto endpt.: 150.1.1.1, remote crypto endpt.: 150.1.2.2

path mtu 1514, ip mtu 1514, ip mtu idb Loopback0
current outbound spi: 0x88261BA3(2284198819)
inbound esp sas:

spi: 0xE279A1EE(3799622126)
transform: esp-3des esp-md5-hmac ,
in use settings ={Transport, }
conn id: 2001, flow_id: SW:1, crypto map: Tunnel0-head-0
sa timing: remaining key lifetime (k/sec): (4472116/2632)
IV size: 8 bytes
replay detection support: Y
Status: ACTIVE
spi: 0xB4F6A9E5(3036064229)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
spi: 0x1492E4D0(345171152)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
inbound ah sas:
inbound pcp sas:
outbound esp sas:

spi: 0x81949874(2173999220)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
spi: 0xAA5D21A7(2858230183)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
spi: 0x88261BA3(2284198819)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
outbound ah sas:
outbound pcp sas:


current outbound spi: 0xBEB1D9CE(3199326670)
inbound esp sas:

spi: 0x10B44B31(280251185)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
inbound ah sas:
inbound pcp sas:
outbound esp sas:

spi: 0xBEB1D9CE(3199326670)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
outbound ah sas:
outbound pcp sas:
Now lets see how a spoke router establishes a spoke-to-spoke IPsec tunnel:
No NHRP mapping for spokes network first
Rack1R3#sh ip nhrp
ISAKMP negotiated just with R1
Rack1R3#sh crypto isakmp sa

150.1.1.1 150.1.3.3 QM_IDLE 1 0 ACTIVE
Generate traffic to network behind R2. Note that the first ping passes through, since its routed across the hub, but
the second packet is sent directly to R2 and is missed, since IPsec Phase 2 has not yet been established
Rack1R3#ping 10.0.2.2
Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 10.0.2.2, timeout is 2 seconds:
!.!!!
Success rate is 80 percent (4/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 52/121/324 ms
Notice the new NHRP mappings. Note that the tunnel will expire in about 3
minutes, if no new traffic is going to be generated
Rack1R3#sh ip nhrp
IOS create IPsec Phase 2 SAs for tunnels between R2-R3 and R1-R3. The tunnel between 2 and R3 is dynamic
and is used to send only the data traffic.
Rack1R3#show crypto isakmp sa

150.1.1.1 150.1.3.3 QM_IDLE 1 0 ACTIVE
150.1.3.3 150.1.2.2 QM_IDLE 2 0 ACTIVE
Rack1R3#show crypto ipsec sa
interface: Tunnel0
Crypto map tag: Tunnel0-head-0, local addr 150.1.3.3


current outbound spi: 0x10B44B31(280251185)
inbound esp sas:

spi: 0xBEB1D9CE(3199326670)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
inbound ah sas:
inbound pcp sas:
outbound esp sas:

spi: 0x10B44B31(280251185)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
outbound ah sas:
outbound pcp sas:


current outbound spi: 0x847D8EEC(2222821100)
inbound esp sas:

spi: 0xA6851754(2793740116)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
inbound ah sas:
inbound pcp sas:
outbound esp sas:

spi: 0x847D8EEC(2222821100)
IV size: 8 bytes
Status: ACTIVE
outbound ah sas:
outbound pcp sas:
Now you see how all the component of DMVPN work together. We have not covered some other major topics like
NAT traversal with NHRP and DMVPN redundancy with multiple hubs. Those advanced topics probably require a
separate post, since this one has grown too big already
Tags: ccie, cef, dmvpn, dynamic, eigrp, ipsec, multipoint, NHRP, ospf
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About Petr Lapukhov, 4xCCIE/CCDE:

Petr Lapukhov's career in IT begain in 1988 w ith a focus on computer programming, and progressed into netw orking
w ith his first exposure to Novell NetWare in 1991. Initially involved w ith Kazan State University's campus netw ork
support and UNIX system administration, he w ent through the path of becoming a netw orking consultant, taking part in
many netw ork deployment projects. Petr currently has over 12 years of experience w orking in the Cisco netw orking
field, and is the only person in the w orld to have obtained four CCIEs in under tw o years, passing each on his first
attempt. Petr is an exceptional case in that he has been w orking w ith all of the technologies covered in his four CCIE
tracks (R&S, Security, SP, and Voice) on a daily basis for many years. When not actively teaching classes, developing
self-paced products, studying for the CCDE Practical & the CCIE Storage Lab Exam, and completing his PhD in Applied
Mathematics.
Find all posts by Petr Lapukhov, 4xCCIE/CCDE | Visit Website
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69 Responses to DMVPN Explained
August 2, 2008 at 5:49 am

DMVPN Explained
[...] News News News DMVPN Explained2008-08-02 08:49:46Have adjacencies with all spokes. Such limitation is that the
limitation is [...]
Reply

agalang
fantastic explanation..been waiting for this for a long time
Reply

annon
It was brilliant!!!
Reply

DMVPN Explained
[...] & RAS Servers News News News DMVPN Explained2008-08-02 12:21:49Endpoints endpoints need to exchange unicast
packets, special glue is used [...]
Reply
August 2, 2008 at 1:24 pm

zeus
Petr is freaking awesome!!!!! Brians how did u find this guy!!!
Reply

ccieat21
Great Post .. looking forward for advanced DMVPN posts
Reply

Vijay Tyagi
You Rocks!!! Petr.
I think IT industry will remember you forever for your great contributions.
Regards
Reply

joseph brunnerr
I take issue with part of the above Petr!
I quote:
Since all packets are routed across the hub, almost any dynamic routing protocol would help with attaining reachability. The hub
just needs to advertise a default route to spokes, while spokes should advertise their subnets dynamically to the hub. Probably the
best choice is to run EIGRP and summarize all subnets to 0.0.0.0/0 on the hub, effectively sending a default route to all spokes.
As dmvpn is commonly used in a hq/branch office scenario, typically the spokes have a default route towards their ISP; this is used
to reach websites locally, and one or more hub public ip addresses If the spokes learn a default route via a dynamic routing
protocol from the hub, they will not use it. They will most likely use the default static route towards the local isp next hop
address/outgoing serial interface. Also if then they are not using the default route they will not learn any of the hubs subnets, or the
other spokes subnets for DMVPN phase 1 (no spoke to spoke routing) via the DMVPN.
Could you please clarify this part in DMVPN Phase 1 regarding having the hub advertise a default route to the spokes i have never
done it or seen it done this way.
thanks,
Joe
#19366
Reply

Brandon Carroll
I Love it! Perfect timing too. I would however like the ability to grab a PDF of this
Reply

Petr Lapukhov, CCIE #16379
To: Joseph Brunner
Joe, naturally if you use a form of split-tunneling on spokes, you would not like to advertise default route fom the hub. Thanks for the
point, I will add a few words commentions on that in the post.
However, my idea is that with Phase 1, it does not matter whether you send detailed or summarized information from the hub
spoke to spoke tunnels are not used. Sending default route is just an extremal form of summarization, and you may resort to
sending say 2-3 routes describing the corporate subnets.
Its the same idea as with ezVPN split-tunneling you either tunnel everything or tunnel just specifics.
Reply

To: Brandon Caroll
Yeah, a few other people also asked for PDF version Im thinking on uploading the PDF paper and providing a link in the post.
Reply
August 3, 2008 at 11:06 pm

no ip split-horizon.
[...] If youre new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!I had to take 2 minutes and blog this. Last
night I set up DMVPN. It all looked ok but I could not get the spoke to spoke connectivity. Then today I find Petr Lupakhovs DMVPN
Explained blog post on CCIE Blog at Internetwork expert. (You can find it here) [...]
Reply

JC
Outstanding and thorough explanation! I recently set up a fairly complex DMVPN solution and thought I understood the technology
pretty well. I am humbled. It would be great if you could expand this to include Phase III and multiple hub redundancy. That way this
could be the definitive guide to NHRP/DMVPN!
Reply
August 11, 2008 at 9:54 am

MBR
This is great, Petr. This morning I went searching for dmvpn info. Your paper is by far the best that I found, in a class by itself.
Reply
August 11, 2008 at 2:39 pm

11 August - CCIE Quickies CCIE Pursuit Blog
[...] appetite and you have a few free hours, you should surf over to Internetwork Expert Blog and read Petrs magnum opus on the
same topic. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Study StrategyIf I Knew You Were Comin [...]
Reply
August 17, 2008 at 12:29 am

Review Notes: Cisco Lifecycle Services ARSFE (Design Phase) CarlProject
[...] DMVPN design development (Here is a tutorial of DMVPN by Petr Lapukhov of Internetwork Expert) [...]
Reply
August 19, 2008 at 11:42 am

Baby, You Can Route My World! Blog Archive Back In the Swing
[...] trying to learn everything I can about DMVPNs, IPSECs, GREs, etc. Ive gone over an excellent DMVPN article by Petr Lapukhov of
InternetworkExpert as well as Jeremy Stretch of PacketLife.nets clear explanations. But [...]
Reply
September 12, 2008 at 12:34 am

Cisco Guy
DMVPN is great for transferring multicast traffic securely. I have used this solution in a stock exchange scenario where brokers get
real-time ticker updates for stocks, which is actually multicast traffic. GRE here with the added security of IPSEC is an excellent
combination.
Reply

To: Cisco Guy
Have you tried Ciscos GET VPN technology for Secure Multicast in production?
Reply
September 17, 2008 at 1:20 pm

DMVPN Study cciESolutions
[...] DMVPN Explained [...]
Reply

l0k1
hi my name is Daniel & Im from Mexico, theres an issue about my nhrp implementation, I revised the RFC to figured out whats
wrong whit this..
there are some things that tell me that my nhs is not responding my resolutions requests but this occurs only whit some spokes,,, is
there any limit on the server cache or something like that??
this flags are saw on one of the spokes.

12.12.13.254/32, Tunnel12 created 00:00:51, expire 00:02:13
Type: incomplete, Flags: negative
Cache hits: 2
Reply
November 20, 2008 at 9:55 pm

Cisco Guy
To: Petr
Sorry for the late replyno unfortunately I have not used GET VPN yet for secure multicast traffic.. It looks interesting technology
though
Reply
December 22, 2008 at 1:20 am

andri
first of all, this is a real great deal of explaination, i salute u .
the problem is , i cant get my icmp packet be encrypted from spoke to spoke. I know something must have gone wrong and i am still
trying to search the problem.
I will be very please if you described the hardware configuration for this topology since i believe my problem is in the hardware.
waiting for your sincere reply
Reply

DMVPN Phase 3 - CCIE Blog
[...] DMVPN Phase 3 By Petr Lapukhov, CCIE #16379 In this post we are going to speak mainly of NHRP. The other important part of
DMVPN IPsec is relatively the same, and did not change with introduction of NHRP Phase 3. To begin with, lets quickly recall the
core features of NHRP Phase 1 & 2. For detailed overview, you may refer to DMVPN Explained [...]
Reply

Dmvpn links Reload In 5
[...] dmvpn, ios Collection of interesting dmvpn articles and video links: Internetworkexpert.com phase 1 & 2 phase [...]
Reply

Hamood
Petr,
Can you give an example for NHRP with OSPF and why we have to use the database filter-all out command. Most of the sample
configurations I saw are using the EIGRP.
Reply
February 5, 2009 at 8:04 am

James
Great post.I get help from this post.I really appreciate to author.
Reply
April 5, 2009 at 8:58 pm

ttongfly
Thank you for post. I fixed problem on my LAB.
Reply
May 12, 2009 at 1:03 am

Security CCIE Study Notes
[...] explained here but im out of steam for security today Comments [...]
Reply

ob
Great article!
I have two questions though:
1) How do I get spoke-to-spoke multicasting to work. Even the simple ping 224.0.0.1 on spokeA will not get a reply from spokeB,
only the HUB.
2) How do I set up redundant NHS?
Reply

1) You need to use PIM-NBMA mode on the hub tunnel interface to allow for neighbor tracking and splitting the NBMA
interface into a group of P2P links. This of course only works with PIM sparse.
2) With Phase 2, you need to configure every spoke with two NHS addresses and configure both NHSes to point to each
other. This will ensure proper NHS cache syncrhonization.
2) With Phase 3, everythin should be working automatically, even if you have multiple spokes registering to different hubs, the
chain of redirects is based on the routing topology, not the NHS connections.
Reply

Naru
Very nice explanation, keep the good work up!
Reply

Sinisa
This is a grat explanation of DMVPN, the best one I could find on the Internet.
Question: I have DMVPN topology with two redundant NHSs (pointing each other) and several NHCs, and that topology works fine.
Problem is when I shut NHS#1 (or it crashes) and bring it back, and then the same with NHS#2, my NHCs cant see each other any
more. They even cant see NHSs, and NHSs can see only each other. I can only solve it by shut/no shut tunnel interfaces on NHCs.
Is there a rule or a behaviour of NHRP that NHSs have to be configured first in network, then NHCs?
I run multi area OSPF over multiple GRE tunnels, and its all protected with IPSec. I have removed IPSec protection and OSPF in
observed mGRE tunnel to have a clear situation.
Any help?
Reply
October 22, 2009 at 4:48 am

Naru
I am currently using Orion SolarWinds NPM to monitor my nodes, though I needed to monitor the tunnels when they go up & down
so I can send the report to my ISP, but I saw that even if the tunnel is not connected, it still shows as UP UP, is there a way to
change this behavior? For example, when you cant reach that tunnel, the tunnel should go like UP DOWN , or if theres any other
method to monitor those tunnels would be great.
Thanks
Reply

Sinisa
@Naru
You can use ip sla traps and snmp.
Reply

Zen
Hello,
I implemented DMVPN a while ago, and used to work great.

Recently I noticed memory & cpu usages going very high, and when I checked with show processes cpu , I saw that NHRP was
using 40-60% of the CPU constantly.
I ran show ip nhrp , and the results really frightened me, there are lots of unknown ip address in there , same is happening on my
Hub and on Spokes.
Heres one of the many entries:
97.100.x.x/32 via 192.168.x.1

Tunnel0 created 00:00:03, expire 00:05:58
There are many other different IP addresses that look like the one above, any idea whats going on?
Reply
January 20, 2010 at 2:44 am

Ali
Can I implement a Laptop installed with Cisco VPN client as a DMVPN Spoke Site, LIke for eg. I have an employee working from a
remote location and has internet connectivity and needs to access other spokes too , directly without the traffic being sent from the
laptop to the hub and then to the other remote site, instead a dynamic tunnel needs to be created from the Laptop to the other
spoke?
Is it possible to implement DMVPN/NHRP on a Cisco VPN client?
Reply
February 22, 2010 at 3:01 am

Zen
About my above post, i think it could help someone on the same foot.
After implementing the following command I havent noticed anymore weird nhrp registers, and also we changed the address which
crypto should allow to make a request for registers.
crypto isakmp aggressive-mode disable

crypto isakmp key 0 CISCO address [b]ActualIPAdress[/b]
Reply
April 3, 2010 at 8:05 pm

Periodic Failure Single Spoke Dynamic Multipoint VPN (DMVPN)
[...] getting a fully working configuration, I stumbled across an excellent blog post by Petr Lapukhov DMVPN Explained it goes through
the configuration stage by stage with great insight on how its all put together. I [...]
Reply
May 11, 2010 at 7:10 pm

Sleep-1 , Cisco-32423 TacAck My security journey!
[...] , i want to do DMVPN today. Theres an awesome article on DMVPN written by Petr Lapukhov on blog.ine.com . Im going to go
through that as soon as im [...]
Reply
June 5, 2010 at 2:36 pm

Jan
Good job Petr.

Thanx for article.
Can u add sh ip route (all routes) prints of NHRP Phase 2 devices?
Reply
June 27, 2010 at 9:06 am

Roland
Should I expect DMVPN on R&S CCIE lab? Cant find it in the blueprint.
Reply
June 28, 2010 at 5:41 am

Anthony Sequeira, #15626
@Ronald
DMVPN is tested heavily on the Security CCIE Track, but is no longer part of the Written or Lab materials for R&S
Reply
July 16, 2010 at 9:17 pm

EP
to: Petr Lapukhov
What a great article!!! Very well define Sir, hope any new technologies would come from you. all hard to learn from cisco books
are well explained from you very well instructor Thank you so much
Damn!!! Im reading all your articles When I start reading it, I cant free my sight not finishing it
Reply

tjames
Guys
ive been bashing my head around this problem for a few days please help
ip nhrp network-id this is used to turn on nhrp on an interface and to provide the logical membership to a certain DMVPN cloud,
otherwise stated each DMVPN cloud should have its unique network id
What i did in my lab was to have each spoke and the hub in different DMVPN clouds meaning spoke one had network-id 1 , spoke 2
had network-id 2, hub had network-id 3 etc and it seemed to work just fine so i dont understand the use of ip nhrp network-id if with
different network-ids it works
Thanks
Reply

tjames
Hi Petr
Can you provide some insights into the above dilema ?
Thanks a lot
Reply
October 21, 2010 at 6:50 am

roger sambora
Petr:
Excellent doc !! Better than any Cisco doc
Would you be putting out something more including IPSec VTI too?
BTW: not able to download the Phase 2 doc as Adobe? but Phase 3 docs downloads just fine.
Thx !!
Roger
Reply
December 1, 2010 at 7:44 pm

Mohinder Singh Rawat
Hi Petr,
Thanks a lot for your wonderful post. I was just checking your learning curve..
4 CCIE in two years and pursuing Phd in Applied Mathematics..Awesome.
Mahi
Reply
January 24, 2011 at 9:22 am

Smail
Hi Petr,
How the DMVPN is implemented when we have 2 data centers for redundancy.
Both data centers are connected to remote locations via GRE tunnel. One data center is primary and other one is secondary and we
would like to do the failover in case primary goes down.
Reply
May 31, 2011 at 8:59 pm

Edgardo Scrimaglia
Hello Petr,
is DMVPN+multicast already suported over Cat6500 at the HUB?
best regards
Reply

sanjay
Great Thanks for the detail explanation with debugs..:)
Reply

Rooein
Hi All,
I have a question about DMVPN on transport mode in hub and spoke area, I wanna know, if i want to run DMVPN with transport
mode, if i configure transport mode on hub,i should configure transport mode on all spoke?
Thanks
Reply

emmak
great article! i tried this with the hub running bgp and it worked fine
Reply
November 6, 2011 at 3:02 am

Cisco DMVPN Tutorial | x443
[...] http://blog.ine.com/2008/08/02/dmvpn-explained/ [...]
Reply
November 21, 2011 at 2:04 pm

See See Eye E
I need to setup a VPN between 2 sites. One has live public address and other site is using just DSL connection with dynamic IP.
Both sides Cisco routers.
Pls advise, what type of VPN is required to establish connectivity assuming no security is required.
Reply
November 22, 2011 at 7:32 am

Mark Snow, CCIE #14073
Best place for this question is probably over on our forum/mailing list at IEOC.
That being said, GRE tunnels with NHRP (IPSec only being needed if security is of concern) will probably do you nicely.
Basically DMVPN without the IPSec. Allows for NAT. Allows for DHCP addressing (on all but the hub). Gives you everything
you asked for.
Reply
June 9, 2012 at 7:55 am

Cisco: DMVPN Resources | Joseph Drane Blog
[...] INE.com [...]
Reply
July 29, 2012 at 11:45 pm

Nikolay
Hi!
Is the DMVPN proprietry or open industry standard?
Reply
July 31, 2012 at 12:04 pm

Brian McGahan, CCIE #8593
Cisco proprietary.
Reply
March 30, 2013 at 1:25 am

Aleksandr
Hello.
Thanks a lot for the article!
Could you, please, clarify the situation regarding default routes?

Consider the following situation:
There are a central site (hub) and many branches (spokes).
Public IP addresses are used as source and destination for tunnels those are considered NBMA addresses.
Each spoke uses different ISP.
Spokes may access the Intenet only through the hub (lets say we dont use proxy).
So, each spoke router has to have two default routes:

- first, to reach ISP using NBMA addresses (used only by router)
- second, to reach Internet using private addresses (used by users)
Please, tell what is the best solution for this situation.
Thank you.
Reply
May 7, 2013 at 1:39 pm

swap
This article says (no-socket) flag will trigger IPSec, this is not true.
Instead the no-socket flag is used to specify not to trigger IPSec traffic, typically used for local & implicit NHRP mappings.
In case there is a need for using such a NHRP mapping for traffic, it is changed from no-socket to socket and IPSec tunnel creation
is triggered.
Swap
#19804
Reply
July 2, 2013 at 6:34 am

CCIExpert
Great topic
Reply

mrosemtsc
I have phase 2+eigrp running in a lab environment with two hubs, and three spokes. For some reason I cant get the traffic to go from
spoke to spoke, but instead the traceroutes go through the hub(s) even through NHRP is supposed to resolve the next hop for the
spoke. Have any of you run into this problem?
Reply

DMVPN, introduction with example configurations | David's networking blog
[...] we get to some configuration, if you dont know anything about DMVPN, check out these links:
http://blog.ine.com/2008/08/02/dmvpn-explained/ http://blog.ine.com/2008/12/23/dmvpn-phase-3/ really good explanations of [...]
Reply
May 5, 2014 at 12:29 am

Matt
Wow, this post is from 2008? Really nicely explained,lets see if my Rack supports this, I have to test it
Reply
July 2, 2014 at 1:56 pm

Dhanapal
great article!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply
July 10, 2014 at 9:13 am

itsjustrouting
Fantastic explanation of DMVPN! Thank you, Petr.
Reply
August 22, 2014 at 10:34 am

Riaz
Fantastic!!!! Thanks much.
Reply
May 9, 2015 at 6:20 am

luritie
Thanks you very much for this explanation
Reply
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networks. In short, DMVPN is combination of the following technologies:

mGRE + NHRP Phase 1 + EIGRP

Rack1R1#show ip nhrp detail

Rack1R1#debug nhrp packet

NHRP: Receive Registration Request via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 81

NHRP: Receive Registration Request via Tunnel0 vrf 0, packet size: 81

mGRE + NHRP Phase 1 + OSPF

mGRE + NHRP Phase 1 + OSPF + Static NHRP mappings

mGRE + NHRP Phase 2 + EIGRP

Rack1R3#show ip route 10.0.2.2

Rack1R3#show ip cef 10.0.2.2

Rack1R3#show ip cef 10.0.0.2

Type escape sequence to abort.

The same command output on R3 is symmetric to the output on R2:

Rack1R3#sh ip cef 10.0.0.2

Timing out NHRP entries

NHRP Phase 2 Conclusions

NHRP Phase 2 + EIGRP next-hop-self + no CEF

R3 sees the route behind R2 as reachable via R1

Rack1R3#show ip route 10.0.2.2

Now lets look at NHRP caches of all three routers:

Timing out NHRP entries with Process-Switching

Lets review an example below and explain how it works.

mGRE + NHRP Phase 2 + Spoke-to-spoke tunnels + IPsec

crypto isakmp policy 10

IPsec Phase 1 has been established with both spokes

Rack1R1#show crypto isakmp sa

Rack1R1#show crypto ipsec sa

protected vrf: (none)

local crypto endpt.: 150.1.1.1, remote crypto endpt.: 150.1.2.2

inbound esp sas:

inbound pcp sas:

outbound esp sas:

outbound pcp sas:

protected vrf: (none)

local crypto endpt.: 150.1.1.1, remote crypto endpt.: 150.1.3.3

inbound esp sas:

inbound pcp sas:

outbound esp sas:

outbound pcp sas:

No NHRP mapping for spokes network first

ISAKMP negotiated just with R1

Rack1R3#sh crypto isakmp sa

Type escape sequence to abort.

Rack1R3#show crypto isakmp sa

Rack1R3#show crypto ipsec sa

protected vrf: (none)

local crypto endpt.: 150.1.3.3, remote crypto endpt.: 150.1.1.1

inbound esp sas:

inbound pcp sas:

outbound esp sas:

outbound pcp sas:

protected vrf: (none)

local crypto endpt.: 150.1.3.3, remote crypto endpt.: 150.1.2.2

inbound esp sas:

inbound pcp sas:

outbound esp sas:

outbound pcp sas:

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About Petr Lapukhov, 4xCCIE/CCDE:

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