nanog mailing list archives
Re: Provider standard ARP Timeout?
From: Randy <randy_94108 () yahoo com>
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 14:14:24 -0700 (PDT)
--- On Fri, 8/10/12, Blake Hudson <blake () ispn net> wrote:
From: Blake Hudson <blake () ispn net> Subject: Re: Provider standard ARP Timeout? To: nanog () nanog org Date: Friday, August 10, 2012, 1:03 PM Saku Ytti wrote the following on 8/10/2012 10:27 AM:On (2012-08-10 10:23 -0400), Jay Nakamura wrote:Cisco default ARP timeout is 4 hours. Doanyone change that tosomething shorter in a provider environment forcustomer with Ethernetconnectivity? What is a good value to set itto?Maximum value should be your L2 MAC timeout. Most othervendors use lowlimits these days (linux, junos come to mind). So 300s max really. If ARP timeout is higher than L2 MAC timeout you cancause loops inotherwise correctly configured network.I haven't seen loops, but have seen unicast floods when the MAC address times out for a host that receives data, but does not transmit it (hence the switch often forgets the MAC for the device). On Cisco gear I found it simpler to increase the mac address timeout to match the ARP timeout because the MAC timeout is a global command and the ARP timeout was a per interface command. IIRC, Cisco recommends the two match under certain setups - VRRP/HSRP comes to mind. I would think that a matched setup would always be ideal, with shorter timeouts for networks that encounter more instability or user movement. --Blake
IMO, it is a balancing-act(topology/traffic dependant) arp-broadcasts v/s unknown-unicast-floods. In some cases I have lowered arp-timeout to match mac-ageing (8mins with dfc, and default 5 for non-dfc - cisco speak) In other cases, increasing mac-ageing to match arp-ageing - 4 hrs. ./Randy
Current thread:
- Provider standard ARP Timeout? Jay Nakamura (Aug 10)
- Re: Provider standard ARP Timeout? Saxon Jones (Aug 10)
- Re: Provider standard ARP Timeout? Saku Ytti (Aug 10)
- Re: Provider standard ARP Timeout? Blake Hudson (Aug 10)
- Re: Provider standard ARP Timeout? Randy (Aug 10)
- Re: Provider standard ARP Timeout? Blake Hudson (Aug 10)
- Re: Provider standard ARP Timeout? Shahab Vahabzadeh (Aug 10)