IP Event Dampening

The IP Event Dampening feature introduces a configurable exponential decay mechanism to suppress the effects of excessive interface flapping events on routing protocols and routing tables in the network. This feature allows the network operator to configure a router to automatically identify and selectively dampen a local interface that is flapping.

Restrictions for IP Event Dampening
Subinterface Restrictions
Only primary interfaces can be configured with this feature. IP Event Dampening does not track the flapping of individual subinterfaces on an interface.

Virtual Templates Not Supported
Copying a dampening configuration from virtual templates to virtual access interfaces is not supported because dampening has limited usefulness to existing applications that use virtual templates. Virtual access interfaces are released when an interface flaps, and new connections and virtual access interfaces are acquired when the interface comes up and is made available to the network. Since dampening states are attached to the interface, the dampening states would not survive an interface flap.

IPX Routing Protocols Not Supported
IPX protocols are not supported by the IP Event Dampening feature. However, IPX variants of these protocols will still receive up and down state event information when this feature is enabled. This should not create any problems or routing issues.

IP Event Dampening Overview
Interface state changes occur when interfaces are administratively brought up or down or if an interface changes state. When an interface changes state or flaps, routing protocols are notified of the status of the routes that are affected by the change in state. Every interface state change requires all affected devices in the network to recalculate best paths, install or remove routes from the routing tables, and then advertise valid routes to peer routers. An unstable interface that flaps excessively can cause other devices in the network to consume substantial amounts of system processing resources and cause routing protocols to lose synchronization with the state of the flapping interface.

The IP Event Dampening feature introduces a configurable exponential decay mechanism to suppress the effects of excessive interface flapping events on routing protocols and routing tables in the network. This feature allows the network operator to configure a router to automatically identify and selectively dampen a local interface that is flapping. Dampening an interface removes the interface from the network until the interface stops flapping and becomes stable. Configuring the IP Event Dampening feature improves convergence times and stability throughout the network by isolating failures so that disturbances are not propagated, which reduces the utilization of system processing resources by other devices in the network and improves overall network stability.

Interface State Change Events
This section describes the interface state change events of the IP Event Dampening features. This feature employs a configurable exponential decay mechanism that is used to suppress the effects of excessive interface flapping or state changes. When the IP Event Dampening feature is enabled, flapping interfaces are dampened from the perspective of the routing protocol by filtering excessive route updates. Flapping interfaces are identified, assigned penalties, suppressed if the necessary, and made available to the network when the interface stabilizes. Figure 1 is a chart that displays interface state events as they are perceived by routing protocols.

Suppress Threshold
The suppress threshold is the value of the accumulated penalty that triggers the router to dampen a flapping interface. The flapping interface is identified by the router and assigned a penalty for each up and down state change, but the interface is not automatically dampened. The router tracks the penalties that a flapping interface accumulates. When the accumulated penalty reaches the default or preconfigured suppress threshold, the interface is placed in a dampened state.

Half-Life Period
The half-life period determines how fast the accumulated penalty can decay exponentially. When an interface is placed in a dampened state, the router monitors the interface for additional up and down state changes. If the interface continues to accumulate penalties and the interface remains in the suppress threshold range, the interface will remain dampened. If the interface stabilizes and stops flapping, the penalty is reduced by half after each half-life period expires. The accumulated penalty will be reduced until the penalty drops to the reuse threshold. The configurable range of the half-life period timer is from 1 to 30 seconds. The default half-life period timer is 5 seconds.

Reuse Threshold
When the accumulated penalty decreases until the penalty drops to the reuse threshold, the route is unsuppressed and made available to the other devices on the network. The range of the reuse value is from 1 to 20000 penalties. The default value is 1000 penalties.

Maximum Suppress Time
The maximum suppress time represents the maximum amount of time an interface can remain dampened when a penalty is assigned to an interface. The maximum suppress time can be configured from 1 to 20000 seconds. The default of the maximum penalty timer is 20 seconds or four times the default half-life period (5 seconds). The maximum value of the accumulated penalty is calculated, based on the maximum suppress time, reuse threshold, and half-life period.

Figure 1 Interface State Change Events Perceived by the Routing Protocols



Affected Components
When an interface is not configured with dampening, or when an interface is configured with dampening but is not suppressed, the routing protocol behavior as a result of interface state transitions is not changed by the IP Event Dampening feature. However, if an interface is suppressed, the routing protocols and routing tables are immune to any further state transitions of the interface until it is unsuppressed.

Route Types
The following interfaces are affected by the configuration of this feature:

•Connected routes:

–The connected routes of dampened interfaces are not installed into the routing table.
–When a dampened interface is unsuppressed, the connected routes will be installed into the routing table if the interface is up.

•Static routes:

–Static routes assigned to a dampened interface are not installed into the routing table.
–When a dampened interface is unsuppressed, the static route will be installed to the routing table if the interface is up.

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