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IPX Flooding WAN Links

rushabhns
Level 1
Level 1

Dear NetPros,

We have configured Novell Netware Servers running IPX/SPX on 10 sites which are connected to the Central Office by Leased Lines. Now each of these 10 networks has one Novell Netware Server and few clients. Now the Huawei 1700 Series routers between these sites are using OSPF. Before when IPX was not enabled on the Routers the WAN Link was not congested. But the moment the IPX is enabled on the Routers the WAN Link is getting flooded. The links between each of these sites and the central office is 128 Kbps. Could anyone suggest why the WAN Link is getting flooded with IPX?? Thanx

Rushabh

2 Replies 2

aacole
Level 5
Level 5

Are you using RIP/SAP on the IPX servers and routers? If so this could create an increased level of background traffic.

jamey
Level 4
Level 4

As the other poster stated, it is probably due to large amounts of SAP/IPX RIP traffic. There are a few things you can do. These solutions are based on Cisco routers. From what I've heard Huawei routers are VERY similiar to Cisco IOS routers.

Problem #1: SAP

SAP updates are blasted out by each IPX server every 60 seconds. These updates can consume a large amount of bandwidth.

Possible Solutions:

1. Increase the SAP interval on the WAN links:

int s0

novell sap-interval 10

The router (remember the IPX router maintains a SAP table) will only end SAP traffic every 10 minutes over the WAN link.

2. Use SAP filters - see your router documentation.

Problem #2: IPX RIP

IPX RIP routers broadcast their entire routing tables every 30 seconds. This adds a lot of traffic to the link. The Cisco solution to this is to use IPX RIP on the LAN interfaces and IPX EIGRP on the serial interfaces. IPX EIGRP will automatically redistribute with IPX RIP. IPX EIGRP will also allow you to have only incremental SAP updates sent across the WAN links. Something like this (sample from CCO config):

ipx routing 0000.0c5c.ec39

!

interface Ethernet0

ipx network AA

!

interface Serial0

ipx network 10

ipx sap-incremental eigrp 100

!

ipx router eigrp 100

network 10

Not sure what Huawei equalivent there is for IPX EIGRP.

Also, depending on what version of NetWare you are running, NetWare has been able to run pure IP for some time now. I think since NetWare 5.x NetWare 4.x had some IP-IPX tunnel stuff if memory serves. If you are running OSPF and already have IP on your network, maybe a conversion from IPX to pure IP would be in order.

HTH

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