Configuring Integrated IS-IS

This chapter describes how to configure Integrated IS-IS. For a complete description of the
integrated IS-IS commands listed in this chapter, refer to the “Integrated IS-IS Commands” chapter
of the Network Protocols Command Reference, Part 1. To locate documentation of other commands
that appear in this chapter, use the command reference master index or search online.
Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) is an International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) dynamic routing specification. IS-IS is described in ISO 10589. Cisco’s
implementation of IS-IS allows you to configure IS-IS as an IP routing protocol.

IS-IS Configuration Task List

To configure IS-IS, complete the tasks in the following sections. Enabling IS-IS is required; the
remainder of the tasks are optional, although you might need to perform them, depending upon your
specific application.
• Enable IS-IS
• Configure IS-IS Interface Parameters
• Configure Miscellaneous IS-IS Parameters
• Monitor IS-IS
In addition, you can filter routing information and specify route redistribution. See the “Filter
Routing Information” and “Redistribute Routing Information” sections, respectively, in the
“Configuring IP Routing Protocol-Independent Features” chapter for information on how to do this.
See the end of this chapter for an IS-IS configuration example.

Enable IS-IS
Unlike other routing protocols, enabling IS-IS requires that you create an IS-IS routing process and
assign it to specific interfaces (rather than to networks). You can specify only one IS-IS process per
router. Only one IS-IS process is allowed whether you run it in integrated mode, ISO CLNS only, or
IP only.
Network entity titles (NETs) define the area addresses for the IS-IS area and the system ID of the
router. Refer to the “Configuring ISO CLNS” chapter in Network Protocols Configuration Guide,
Part 3 for a more detailed discussion of NETs.

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Configure IS-IS Interface Parameters

To enable IS-IS, perform the following tasks starting in global configuration mode:

Task Command
Step 1 Enable IS-IS routing and specify an router isis
IS-IS process for IP, which places you in
router configuration mode.
Step 2 Configure NETs for the routing process; net network-entity-title
you can specify a name for a NET as
well as an address.
Step 3 Enter interface configuration mode. interface type number
Step 4 Specify the interfaces that should be ip router isis [tag]
actively routing IS-IS.

See the “IS-IS as an IP Routing Protocol Example” section at the end of this chapter for an example
of configuring IS-IS as an IP routing protocol.

Configure IS-IS Interface Parameters

Cisco Systems’ IS-IS implementation allows you to alter certain interface-specific IS-IS parameters.
Most interface configuration commands can be configured independently from other attached
routers. The isis password command should configure the same password on all routers on a
network. The settings of other commands (isis hello-interval, isis hello-multiplier, isis
retransmit-interval, isis retransmit-throttle-interval, isis csnp-interval, and so on) can be
different on different routers or interfaces. However, if you decide to change certain values from the
defaults, it makes sense to configure them on multiple routers and interfaces.
You can perform these tasks, described in the following sections:
• Configure IS-IS Link-State Metrics
• Set the Advertised Hello Interval
• Set the Advertised CSNP Interval
• Set the Retransmission Interval
• Set the LSP Transmissions Interval
• Set the Retransmission Throttle Interval
• Set the Hello Multiplier
• Specify Designated Router Election
• Specify the Interface Circuit Type
• Assign a Password for an Interface

Configure IS-IS Link-State Metrics

You can configure a cost for a specified interface. You can configure the default-metric for Level 1
or Level 2 routing. To configure the metric for the specified interface, perform the following task in
interface configuration mode:

Task Command
Configure the metric (or cost) for the specified isis metric default-metric {level-1 | level-2}
interface.

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 Configure IS-IS Interface Parameters

Set the Advertised Hello Interval

You can specify the length of time (in seconds) between hello packets that the Cisco IOS software
sends on the interface.
To specify the length of time between hello packets for the specified interface, perform the following
task in interface configuration mode:

Task Command
Specify the length of time, in seconds, between isis hello-interval seconds {level-1 | level-2}
hello packets the Cisco IOS software sends on
the specified interface.

The hello interval can be configured independently for Level 1 and Level 2, except on serial
point-to-point interfaces. (Because there is only a single type of hello packet sent on serial links, it
is independent of Level 1 or Level 2.) Specify an optional level for X.25, SMDS, and Frame Relay
multiaccess networks. X25, SMDS, ATM, and Frame Relay networks should be configured with
point-to-point subinterfaces.

Set the Advertised CSNP Interval

Complete sequence number PDUs (CSNPs) are sent by the designated router to maintain database
synchronization. You can configure the IS-IS CSNP interval for the interface.
To configure the CSNP interval for the specified interface, perform the following task in interface
configuration mode:

Task Command
Configure the IS-IS CSNP interval for the isis csnp-interval seconds {level-1 | level-2}
specified interface.

This feature does not apply to serial point-to-point interfaces. It applies to WAN connections if the
WAN is viewed as a multiaccess meshed network.

Set the Retransmission Interval

You can configure the number of seconds between retransmission of IS-IS link state PDUs (LSPs)
for point-to-point links. To set the retransmission level, perform the following task in interface
configuration mode:

Task Command
Configure the number of seconds between isis retransmit-interval seconds
retransmission of IS-IS LSPs for point-to-point
links.

The value you specify should be an integer greater than the expected round-trip delay between any
two routers on the attached network. The setting of this parameter should be conservative, or
needless retransmission will result. The value should be larger for serial lines.

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Configure IS-IS Interface Parameters

Set the LSP Transmissions Interval

To configure the delay between successive IS-IS link state packet transmissions, perform the
following tasks in interface configuration mode:

Task Command
Configure the delay between successive isis lsp-interval milliseconds
IS-IS link state packet transmissions.

Set the Retransmission Throttle Interval

You can configure the maximum rate at which IS-IS link state PDUs (LSPs) will be retransmitted on
point-to-point links, in terms of the number of milliseconds between packets. This is different from
the retransmission interval, which is the amount of time between successive retransmissions of the
same LSP.
The retransmission throttle interval is typically not necessary, except in cases of very large networks
with high point-to-point neighbor counts. To set the retransmission throttle interval, perform the
following task in interface configuration mode:

Task Command
Configure the IS-IS LSP retransmission throttle isis retransmit-throttle-interval milliseconds
interval.

Set the Hello Multiplier

To specify the number of IS-IS hello packets a neighbor must miss before the router should declare
the adjacency as down, perform the following task in interface configuration command. The default
value is 3.

Task Command
Set the hello multiplier. isis hello-multiplier multiplier {level-1 | level-2}

Specify Designated Router Election

You can configure the priority to use for designated router election. Priorities can be configured for
Level 1 and Level 2 individually.
To specify the designated router election, perform the following task in interface configuration
mode:

Task Command
Configure the priority to use for designated router isis priority value {level-1 | level-2}
election.

Specify the Interface Circuit Type

You can specify adjacency levels on a specified interface. This parameter is also referred to as the
interface circuit type.

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 Configure Miscellaneous IS-IS Parameters

To specify the interface circuit type, perform the following task in interface configuration mode:

Task Command
Configure the type of adjacency desired for isis circuit-type {level-1 | level-1-2 | level-2-only}
neighbors on the specified interface (the
interface circuit type).

Assign a Password for an Interface

You can assign different passwords for different routing levels. Specifying Level 1 or Level 2
configures the password for only Level 1 or Level 2 routing, respectively. If you do not specify a
level, the default is Level 1. By default, authentication is disabled.
To configure a password for the specified level, perform the following task in interface configuration
mode:

Task Command
Configure the authentication password for a isis password password {level-1 | level-2}
specified interface.

Configure Miscellaneous IS-IS Parameters

These tasks differ from the preceding interface-specific IS-IS tasks because they configure IS-IS
itself, rather than the interface.
You can configure optional IS-IS parameters as described in the following sections:
• Generate a Default Route
• Specify the System Type
• Configure IS-IS Authentication Passwords
• Summarize Address Ranges
• Set the Overload Bit

Generate a Default Route

You can force a default route into an IS-IS routing domain. Whenever you specifically configure
redistribution of routes into an IS-IS routing domain, the Cisco IOS software does not, by default,
redistribute the default route into the IS-IS routing domain. The following feature allows you to force
the boundary router to redistribute the default route or generate a default route into its L2 LSP. You
can use a route-map to conditionally advertise the default route, depending on the existence of
another route in the router’s routing table.
To generate a default route, perform the following task in router configuration mode:

Task Command
Force a default route into the IS-IS routing default-information originate [route-map map-name]
domain.

See also the discussion of redistribution of routes in the “Configuring IP Routing

Protocol-Independent Features” chapter.

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Configure Miscellaneous IS-IS Parameters

Specify the System Type

You can configure the router to act as a Level 1 (intra-area) router, as both a Level 1 router and a
Level 2 (interarea) router, or as an interarea router only.
To specify router level support, perform the following task in router configuration mode:

Task Command
Configure the system type (area or backbone router). is-type {level-1 | level-1-2 | level-2-only}

Configure IS-IS Authentication Passwords

You can assign passwords to areas and domains.
The area authentication password is inserted in Level 1 (station router level) LSPs, CSNPs, and
partial sequence number PDUs (PSNPs). The routing domain authentication password is inserted in
Level 2 (the area router level) LSP, CSNP, and PSNPs.
To configure either area or domain authentication passwords, perform the following tasks in router
configuration mode:

Task Command
Configure the area authentication password. area-password password
Configure the routing domain authentication password. domain-password password

Summarize Address Ranges

You can create aggregate addresses that are represented in the routing table by a summary address.
This process is called route summarization. One summary address can include multiple groups of
addresses for a given level. Routes learned from other routing protocols also can be summarized. The
metric used to advertise the summary is the smallest metric of all the more-specific routes.
To create a summary of addresses for a given level, perform the following task in router
configuration mode:

Task Command
Create a summary of addresses for a given level. summary-address address mask {level-1 |
level-1-2 | level-2}

Set the Overload Bit

You can configure the router to set the overload bit (also known as the hippity bit) in its
non-pseudonode LSPs. Normally the setting of the overload bit is allowed only when a router runs
into problems. For example, when a router is experiencing a memory shortage, it might be that the
Link State database is not complete, resulting in an incomplete or inaccurate routing table. By setting
the overload bit in its LSPs, other routers can ignore the unreliable router in their SPF calculations
until the router has recovered from its problems.
The result will be that no paths through this router are seen by other routers in the IS-IS area.
However, IP and CLNS prefixes directly connected to this router will be still be reachable.

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 Monitor IS-IS

This command can be useful when you want to connect a router to an ISIS network, but don’t want
real traffic flowing through it under any circumstances. Examples are:
• A test router in the lab, connected to a production network.
• A router configured as an LSP flooding server, e.g. on an NBMA network, in combination with
the mesh-group feature.
• A router that is aggregating VCs used only for network management. In this case, the network
management stations must be on a network directly connected to the router with the
set-overload-bit command configured.
To set the overload bit, perform the following task in router configuration mode:

Task Command
Set the overload bit. set-overload-bit

Monitor IS-IS
You can display the IS-IS link state database by performing the following in EXEC mode:

Task Command
Display the IS-IS link state database. show isis database [level-1] [level-2] [l1] [l2] [detail]
[lspid]
Display how often and why the router has run a show isis spf-log
full SPF calculation

IS-IS Configuration Example

This section contains an IS-IS configuration example.

IS-IS as an IP Routing Protocol Example

The following example shows how to configure three routers to run IS-IS as an IP routing protocol.
Figure 24 illustrates the example configuration.

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IS-IS Configuration Example

Figure 24 IS-IS Routing

E0 E0

Router A S0 Router B

E1

Router C

S2582
E2

Router A
router isis
net 49.0001.0000.0000.000a.00
interface ethernet 0
ip router isis
interface serial 0
ip router isis

Router B
router isis
net 49.0001.0000.0000.000b.00
interface ethernet 0
ip router isis
interface ethernet 1
ip router isis
interface serial 0
ip router isis

Configuration for Router C

router isis
net 49.0001.0000.0000.000c.00
interface ethernet 1
ip router isis
interface ethernet 2
ip router isis

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