ROUTE Notes – EIGRP Neighbor Relationships

June 16, 2010
By Aaron Conaway

Or neighborships, as they call it in the book.  What a terrible word.

Study Questions

  • What settings must match between two routers in order to become EIGRP neighbors?

Both routers must be in the same primary subnet
Both routers must be configured to use the same k-values
Both routers must in the same AS
Both routers must have the same authentication configuration (within reason)
The interfaces facing each other must not be passive

  • What are the default hello and hold times in EIGRP?

On links with bandwidth > 1.544Mbps:
Hello:  5 sec
Hold:  15 sec

On links with bandwidth <= 1.544
Hello:  60 sec
Hold:  180 sec

  • How do you change the hello and hold times?

You set these values at the interface.

R1(config-if)#ip hello-interval eigrp 1 X
R1(config-if)#ip hold-tim eigrp 1 X

  • How do you keep an interface from being used for EIGRP discovery?

Don’t configure a network statement that includes that interface
Make the interface passive
Configure static neighbors for that interface

  • Why might NTP be a good thing to use in regards to EIGRP?

EIGRP uses key chains for authentication.  Key chains can be configured with a range of valid dates and times.  If the time on two routers was off by even a few seconds, some keys would expire, causing neighbor relationships to drop.

  • How do you configure EIGRP authentication?

In each interface participating in EIGRP, you configure the authentication mode and the key chain to use.

R1(config-if)#ip authentication mode eigrp 1 md5
R1(config-if)#ip authentication key-chain eigrp 1 KEYCHAIN1

  • What are the k-values that EIGRP uses?

k1 = bandwidth
k2 = load
k3 = delay
k4 = reliability
k5 = MTU

  • How does a router choose its router ID in EIGRP?

First, it looks for a configured router-id in the EIGRP configuration.  If none exists, it uses the highest (largest) IP address configured on a loopback interface.  If no loopbacks exist, it uses the highest IP configured on the other interfaces.

What Command Was That?

What command tells you…

  • …whether a neighbor was discovered or statically configured?

show ip eigrp neighbor detail

  • …what interfaces are involved in EIGRP?

show ip eigrp interfaces

  • …what k-values your router is using?

show ip protocols

  • …how long your router has been neighbored with another router?

show ip eigrp neighbors

  • …what your router ID is?

show ip eigrp topology
show ip eigrp accounting

  • …a summary of the configured network statements?

show ip protocols

  • …the configured hello interval?

show ip eigrp interface detail

  • …the configured hold time?

There’s isn’t a way to do it directly.  You have to check your neighbors several times over the course of a few seconds to see where the hold timers drop to before resetting.

Aaron Conaway

I like to lean my head to the left, hit it with the palm of my right hand, and document what knowledge falls out.

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4 Responses to ROUTE Notes – EIGRP Neighbor Relationships

  1. [...] also the issue of the router ID.  In IPv4, EIGRP has an method to figure out its router ID, and EIGRP for IPv6 uses that same method.  The problem is that the router ID is still a [...]

  2. Curious Yellow on February 17, 2011 at 17:38

    I am guessing the NTP authentication is for when you have the accept-lifetime command configured?

  3. Aaron Conaway on February 17, 2011 at 19:44

    NTP authentication isn't really directly related with the EIGRP keys; it's just a method to protect NTP from being used by unauthorized devices.  NTP itself is related to EIGRP in that it keep each device's time in sync to make sure they all start and expire keys at the same time.

  4. rahman on January 24, 2012 at 23:47

    thanks for this EIGRP article

    your style of writing, which is neatly “configured” suit a reader like me…

    thanks for summed up this EIGRP thing (sory bad english)

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