keepalives

[bsudol79p]

Can anyone explain to me what are the keepalives for? Do keepalives work on layer 2 or are they used on layer 3 routing protocols like EIGRP and OSPF. I am asking because OSFP for example uses dead intervals so what would be the point of having keepalives?

[Edison Ortiz]

The documentation explains the concept of keepalive quite well:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/interface/command/reference/ir_i1.html#wp1014303

HTH,

__

Edison.

[bsudol79p]

OK, so if I disable the keepalives on both interfaces on the routers that will still keep the connection alive correct? And I can just let the OSFP handle the connection with Hello packets?

[lamav]

Read the document. :-)

[lamav]

OSPF uses keepalives to track the health of its neighbor.

If it does not receive keepalives for a certain time interval (dead interval), it declares the neighbor dead.

A Hello of 10 seconds and a dead interval of 30 seconds means that an OSPF neighbor will expect to receive a Hello every 10 seconds. If it doesnt receive any hellos after 30 seconds, it declares the neighbor dead.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/vpn5000/manager/reference/guide/ospf.html#wp1019855