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Modifying OSPF Areas for an OSPF Router

Owned by Alex Mandel
Jul 19, 2023
2 min read

  1. In the OSPF Areas tab, click Add Area and specify the following:

    1. Area ID: An area is a collection of subdomains, networks, or routers, and it is identified with a unique ID. In OSPF, Area 0 is created by default and is called the backbone area. In Service Edge, a router corresponds to a Service Edge instance and an area comprises multiple Service Edge instances. All network devices configured with the same OSPF area ID belong to the same OSPF area. You can enter the ID in a dotted decimal format similar to that of an IP address, such as 192.168. 17.33. You can also enter the ID as an integer in the range of 0 to 4294967295; for example, Area 261 is same as Area 0.0.

    2. Authentication Type: This method will be used to authenticate OSPF advertisements on the interface. The authentication type configured here must match the authentication type of the upstream router. Choose one of the following:

      • Simple: A simple, clear-text password will be used to authenticate OSPF advertisements.

      • Message digest: This authentication mechanism is used to verify the integrity of a message transmitted over an insecure channel. A hash code (message digest) of the original message is generated by using a hashing algorithm and then transmitted along with the message. To ensure that the message has not been tampered with in transit, the receiver generates its own hash code of the received message and compares it with the transmitted hash code. The use of SHA-256 and SHA-3 is recommended. Because the original message can still be intercepted and read by an attacker, message digest does not provide confidentiality.

  2. Click Next.