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overall network performance. NSF helps to suppress routing flaps in NSF-aware devices, thus reducing
network instability.
NSF allows for the forwarding of data packets to continue along known routes while the routing protocol
information is being restored following an RP failover. When the NSF feature is configured, peer networking
devices do not experience routing flaps. Data traffic is forwarded through intelligent line cards while the
standby RP assumes control from the failed active RP during a failover. The ability of line cards to remain
up through a failover and to be kept current with the Forwarding Information Base (FIB) on the active RP is
key to NSF operation.
When the Cisco IOS XR router running IS-IS routing performs an RP failover, the router must perform two
tasks to resynchronize its link-state database with its IS-IS neighbors. First, it must relearn the available IS-IS
neighbors on the network without causing a reset of the neighbor relationship. Second, it must reacquire the
contents of the link-state database for the network.
The IS-IS NSF feature offers two options when configuring NSF:
• IETF NSF
• Cisco NSF
If neighbor routers on a network segment are NSF aware, meaning that neighbor routers are running a software
version that supports the IETF Internet draft for router restartability, they assist an IETF NSF router that is
restarting. With IETF NSF, neighbor routers provide adjacency and link-state information to help rebuild the
routing information following a failover.
In Cisco IOS XR software, Cisco NSF checkpoints (stores persistently) all the state necessary to recover from
a restart without requiring any special cooperation from neighboring routers. The state is recovered from the
neighboring routers, but only using the standard features of the IS-IS routing protocol. This capability makes
Cisco NSF suitable for use in networks in which other routers have not used the IETF standard implementation
of NSF.
If you configure IETF NSF on the Cisco IOS XR router and a neighbor router does not support IETF NSF,
the affected adjacencies flap, but nonstop forwarding is maintained to all neighbors that do support IETF NSF.
A restart reverts to a cold start if no neighbors support IETF NSF.
Note
ISIS, as a routing protocol, supports shorter hello intervals for neighbor adjacency management. However,
the nonstop forwarding or routing feature on Cisco routers only work for default hello interval. When a failover
occurs, there is a delay before the hello messages are sent and before the system is ready to send or receive
the packets. The nonstop forwarding or routing feature is supported with a default hello interval or multiplier
to overcome this delay. BFD, which runs on line cards, is responsible to fast-detect the loss of connectivity
so there is no need to shorten hello interval.
Note
Multi-Instance IS-IS
You can configure up to eight IS-IS instances. MPLS can run on multiple IS-IS processes as long as the
processes run on different sets of interfaces. Each interface may be associated with only a single IS-IS instance.
Cisco IOS XR software prevents the double-booking of an interface by two instances at configuration time—two
instances of MPLS configuration causes an error.
Routing Configuration Guide for Cisco NCS 6000 Series Routers, IOS XR Release 6.4.x
207
Implementing IS-IS
Multi-Instance IS-IS