EIGRP Stub Explained

In a previous lesson, I explained the EIGRP SIA (Stuck In Active) problem, if you are not sure what SIA is then please read that lesson first as it explains why the EIGRP stub feature is useful. Having said that, let’s look at the EIGRP stub…

let’s start with a nice topology!

Look at the following topology. We have a company with headquarters and 2 branch offices. The 2 HQ routers are connected on the LAN using a Gigabit link. The branch offices are connected to both HQ routers using slow 64kbps serial links. What do you think will happen once HQ 1 loses its route to the 1.1.1.0 /24 network on the left side? Take a look at the following picture:

Query packets (red arrows) will fly everywhere! It doesn’t sound like a good idea to use the serial links for backup so we are going to change this behavior by turning the branch routers into EIGRP stubs.

Once the branch routers are configured as stubs, this is the only query you will see:

If we configure the branch routers as stub routers, they will not receive queries from our HQ routers. This is a very good technique to stop query traffic!

Why do we call it a stub? You have probably seen one before! A tree that is cut off is called a stub…there’s nothing attached to it anymore.

If you look at our branch routers, they are like a tree. There are no other routers behind the branch routers, and we don’t want to use them as backup paths, so why bother querying them? EIGRP stubs are not an “all or nothing” solution. We have different flavors so you can choose which types of routes the stub router should receive queries or not.

Here are the flavors we have:

Receive-only: The stub router will not advertise any network.
Connected: allows the stub router to advertise directly connected networks.
Static: allows the stub router to advertise static routes (you have to redistribute them).
Summary: allows the stub router to advertise summary routes.
Redistribute: allows the stub router to advertise redistributed routes.

The default is connected + summary. If you like, you can mix some of the options with the exception of receive-only because it denies all advertisements. Redistribution is the importing and exporting of routing information from one routing protocol to another.

Let’s look at some configuration examples for the different stub types!

Stub Configuration

To demonstrate the different stub types, I will use the following topology:

Two routers are connected, and R2 has a loopback interface. We’ll use a basic EIGRP configuration:

R1(config)#router eigrp 12
R1(config-router)#network 192.168.12.0

R2(config-if)#router eigrp 12
R2(config-router)#network 192.168.12.0
R2(config-router)#network 2.2.2.0 0.0.0.255

Let me first demonstrate the EIGRP query behavior to you. We’ll have to enable a debug for that:

R1#debug eigrp packets query 
EIGRP Packets debugging is on
    (QUERY)

R2#debug eigrp packets query 
EIGRP Packets debugging is on
    (QUERY)

We’ll shut the loopback0 interface on R2 to see what will happen:

R2(config)#interface loopback 0
R2(config-if)#shutdown

This is what happens:

R2#
EIGRP: Enqueueing QUERY on FastEthernet0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/1 serno 33-33
EIGRP: Enqueueing QUERY on FastEthernet0/0 nbr 192.168.12.1 iidbQ un/rely 0/0 peerQ un/rely 0/0 serno 33-33
EIGRP: Sending QUERY on FastEthernet0/0
  AS 12, Flags 0x0, Seq 55/0 idbQ 0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/0 serno 33-33

You can see that R2 is sending a query to R1.

R1# EIGRP: Received QUERY on FastEthernet0/0 nbr 192.168.12.2
AS 12, Flags 0x0, Seq 55/0 idbQ 0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/0 peerQ un/rely 0/0

And we see that R1 has received the query. So far, so good. This is normal EIGRP behavior. You lose a network…you ask your neighbors if they know where it is. Let’s get that loopback back online:

R2(config)#interface loopback 0
R2(config-if)#no shutdown

And we’ll configure R1 as an EIGRP stub router.

R1(config)#router eigrp 12
R1(config-router)#eigrp stub

By default, the stub feature uses connected + summary. You can confirm this by looking at the running configuration:

R1#show running-config | begin router eigrp
router eigrp 12
 network 192.168.12.0
 no auto-summary
 eigrp stub connected summary

My debugging is still enabled, so the neighbors will show you a message that the configuration has changed:

R1#
%DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 12: Neighbor 192.168.12.2 (FastEthernet0/0) is down: peer info changed
%DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 12: Neighbor 192.168.12.2 (FastEthernet0/0) is up: new adjacency
R2#
%DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 12: Neighbor 192.168.12.1 (FastEthernet0/0) is down: Interface Goodbye received
%DUAL-5-NBRCHANGE: IP-EIGRP(0) 12: Neighbor 192.168.12.1 (FastEthernet0/0) is up: new adjacency

Let’s see if there are any differences when I shut the loopback 0 interface…

R2(config)#interface loopback 0
R2(config-if)#shutdown

The interface goes down…let’s see what happens:

R1# 
EIGRP: Enqueueing QUERY on FastEthernet0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/1 serno 28-28
EIGRP: Enqueueing QUERY on FastEthernet0/0 nbr 192.168.12.2 iidbQ un/rely 0/0 peerQ un/rely 0/0 serno 28-28
EIGRP: Sending QUERY on FastEthernet0/0
  AS 12, Flags 0x0, Seq 44/0 idbQ 0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/0 serno 28-28

R2#
EIGRP: Received QUERY on FastEthernet0/0 nbr 192.168.12.1
  AS 12, Flags 0x0, Seq 44/0 idbQ 0/0 iidbQ un/rely 0/0 peerQ un/rely 0/0

You can see that R1 will send a query to R2 because it has lost the 2.2.2.0 /24 network. It’s not receiving a query anymore from R2 because it’s a stub router!

Depending on your IOS version, it’s also possible that R1 doesn’t send a query. The output above is from IOS 15.1(4)M10. On 15.6(3)M2, R1 didn’t send any query to R2.

Configurations

Want to take a look for yourself? Here, you will find the final configuration of each device.

hostname R1
!
ip cef
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
 ip address 192.168.12.1 255.255.255.0
!
router eigrp 123
 network 192.168.12.0
!
router eigrp 12
 eigrp stub connected summary
!
end

hostname R2
!
ip cef
!
interface Loopback0
 ip address 2.2.2.2 255.255.255.0
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
 ip address 192.168.12.2 255.255.255.0
!
router eigrp 123
 network 2.2.2.0 0.0.0.255
 network 192.168.12.0
!
end

Now you know how it deals with the queries, let’s look at the different stub options! I’ll be using another topology for this:

I’m using a basic EIGRP configuration. Here’s what it looks like on each router:

R1#show run | begin router eigrp
router eigrp 12
 network 192.168.12.0
 no auto-summary

R2#show run | begin router eigrp
router eigrp 12
 network 2.2.2.0 0.0.0.255
 network 192.168.12.0
 network 192.168.23.0
 no auto-summary

R3#show run | begin router eigrp
router eigrp 12
 network 3.3.3.0 0.0.0.255
 network 192.168.23.0
 no auto-summary

Nothing special, as you can see. Let me add a loopback 0 interface on R1 and advertise it into EIGRP.

R1(config)#interface loopback 0
R1(config-if)#ip address 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.0

R1(config)#router eigrp 12
R1(config-router)#network 1.1.1.0 0.0.0.255

Nothing special so far…

R2#show ip route eigrp 
     1.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets
D       1.1.1.0 [90/156160] via 192.168.12.1, 00:00:48, FastEthernet0/0

You can see that R2 has learned about network 1.1.1.0 /24. Now, let’s play with the stub feature:

Forum Replies

Hello,

thank you for this lesson, and It very helpfull.
on the start of config on router 1, I think there is one mistake.

R1(config)#router eigrp 123 (router ei 12).

Thanks Romaric, I just fixed it.

Let’s see if there are any differences when I shut the loopback 0 interface…

R2(config)#interface loopback 0
R2(config-if)#no shutdown

I think it should be shutdown and not “no shut”

Thanks for letting me know, just fixed it.

HI Rene,

Nice explanation.

what is the difference between stub static and stub redistribute.
for me , it seems both are same as in both the cases only redistributed routes will be advertised as per the example you have provided.

Thanks, Praveen

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