Link state IGP similiar to OSPF, OSPF for IP and ISIS for CLNS.

then developed to support IPv4 and IPv6.

Used in SP Core, less feature compared to EIGRP and OSPF but most
suitable with SP due to :
simply flat network design
Carriers and ISPs run BGP-based networks, and their
IGP is used mainly for finding BGP session endpoints. So they want their
IGP to be as simple as possibleoften making their entire routing
domain a single IGP area. IS-IS is certainly simpler than OSPF in many
aspects, and many will argue that it is more scalable in this type of
single large area application. So when you encounter IS-IS in a service
provider network, what you will usually encounter is a single L2
area. Jeff Doyle (Routing TCP IP Volume 1)
highly scalable
Remaining lifetime, is an age of LSP. IS-IS Remaining Lifetime begins at
MaxAge and decrement to Zerowhereas OSPF LSAs Age increment from
zero to MaxAge.
default IS-IS Maxages is 1200s (20Mnutes), and IS-IS refresh interval is 15
minutes.because IS-IS remaining lifetimes begins with non zero number
and is decrement to zero.
the beginning number can be set from its default 1200s (20minutes) , to
maximum
65535 second (18.2Hours).
this is major contributing factor to IS-IS scalability in very large areas. If
the area links are reasonably stable, increasing the refresh time and the
Remaining Lifetime can sharply reduce the flooding load caused
by LSP refreshes. Jeff Doyle

support ipv4 and ipv6 routing

Enabling ISIS on IOS :

-enable process globally
{router isis [process id]}
-define NET address
{net [nsap]}
-enable in interface process
{ip router isis [process id]}
Enabling ISIS on IOS XR :
-enable process globally
{router isis [process id]}
 -define NET address
{net [nsap]}
-enable interfaces under IS-IS process
{interface gig0/1/0/4
address-family ipv4 unicast}

NET (Network Entity Title)

isis router id
use ISO NSAP addressing format, minimum 8 bytes maximum 20bytes
NET Format :
AA.AAAA.AAAA.AAAA.AAAA.AAAA.AAAA.SSSS.SSSS.SSSS.NN
Area not like ospf area
System ID Router ID Inside the Area
N-Selector always zero.
49.xxxx (49) in NSAP is like private address

IS-IS Adjacency Levels

-ISIS uses two levels of adjacency
Level 1 (L1)
Level 2 (L2)
-Process and Interface default to Level-1-2
Forms both L1 and L2
Separate LSP Database, Double the overhead
-Commonly in Service provider core, we only use single level of adjacency
or (ospf single area) because
mpls ldp and traffic engineering limitations
L2 Adjacency
-Inter or Inra area adjacency
-Like area 0 in OSPF
-Must be Contiguous
L1 Adjacecny
-Intra area adjacency only
-Like OSPF Not So Stubby Area
Intra area routes
Default route out
redistribution allowed
Router Roles

L1-L2 Routing
-Like ABR in OSPF
 used as exit point from L1 to L2
-Inject default route to level-1
Sets the attached bit (only if its connected to different area, will not
advertise default route even its L1L2 router if all of its interface are in
same area)
Level Manipulation
used to utilize isis database
global under isis process, affect all interfaces
is-type
under interface configuration, affect only that interfaces
isis circuit-type
ISIS Network type, path selection and Route leaking
ISIS have only 2 network type :
broadcast (ethernet)
default on multipoint interfaaces
uses DIS instead of DR/BDR
can be seen from show isis neighbor the circuit id indicated the DIS on
the segment
LSP are multicast
point to point
default on point to point interfaces
change network type
isis network point-to-point
point to point uses (serial IIH) and broadcast uses (L2/L1 LAN IIH),
incompatible with one another.
DIS election
like ospf dr/bdr
no backup DIS
election is dynamic, preemption can occur
separate elction for L1 and L2
occur by :
highest prioirity (default 64)
highest snpa (mac address)
best practice
any segment that only have 2 routers, we can just change the network to
only point to point
DIS only needed on segment with 3 or more router
ISIS path selection
isis doesnt use bandwidth metric as ospf does,
all link defualt to cost 10
 can be manually modified
neighbor must agree on metric style
control how the actual metric is encoded on the updates / TLV (type link
value)
isis support 2 different metric style :
narrow (default), metric 1-63
wide (support more numerical value of cost, and also needed for enhance
application like mpls te), metric 1-16777214
incompatible with one another, the adjacency is up but the routes will
not installed on routing table
level 1 paths are preffered over level 2 paths, like ospf intra area routes
that preffered over inter area routes
IS-IS route leaking
selectively take level-2 routes and pass the into level-1 or filter level-1
routes as they move into level-2
level 2 domain know all prefixes
level 1 domain only know L1 prefixes
route leaking used for traffic engineering based on longest match prefix (i
ia)
configuration
IOS :
redistribute isis ip level-2 into level-1 (distribute-list/route-map)
IOS XR :