Protocol Rank

Introduction

Rank is used by the routing system when there are routes from different protocols to the same destination.

For each route, the route from the protocol with lowest rank number is used.

The protocol rank is the value that the routing daemon uses to order routes from different protocols to the same destination.

It is an arbitrarily assigned value used to determine the order of routes to the same destination.

Each route has only one rank associated with it, even though rank can be set at many places in the configuration.

The route derives its rank from the most specific route match among all configurations.

The active route is the route installed into the kernel forwarding table by the routing daemon.

In the case where the same route is contributed by more than one protocol, the one with the lowest rank becomes the active route.

Rank cannot be used to control the selection of routes within a dynamic Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP). This is accomplished automatically by the protocol and is based on the protocol metric.

Instead, rank is used to select routes from the same Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) learned from different peers or autonomous systems.

Some protocols - BGP and aggregate - allow for routes with the same rank.

To choose the active route in these cases, a separate tie breaker is used. This tie breaker is called LocalPref for BGP and Weight for aggregates.

Default Protocol Ranks

A default rank is assigned to each protocol.

Description

Rank values range from 0 to 255.

The lower the number, the more preferred the route.

The default rank values are:

Routes	Default Rank
Interface routes	0
IPv4 OSPFv2 routes	10
IPv6 OSPFv3 Routes	10
Static routes	60
IPv4 RIP routes	100
IPv6 RIPng routes	100
Aggregate routes	130
IPv4 BGP routes	170
IPv6 BGP routes	170
IPv4 OSPF AS external routes	150
IPv6 OSPFv3 AS external routes	150
Kernel	200

Important - These numbers do not generally need to be changed from their defaults. Use caution when modifying the default route ranks. Rank affects the route selection process, so unexpected consequences may occur throughout the network. Such a change should be planned carefully and take into account both the protocols being used and the location of the router in the network.

Important - In a Cluster Two or more Security Gateways that work together in a redundant configuration - High Availability, or Load Sharing., you must configure all the Cluster Members in the same way.

Configuring Protocol Rank in Gaia Portal

Procedure

From the left navigation tree, click Advanced Routing > Routing Options.

In the Protocol Rank section, enter the rank for the applicable protocol.

Notes:

Leave the fields empty to use the default ranks.
To configure the rank of kernel routes, use Gaia Clish The name of the default command line shell in Check Point Gaia operating system. This is a restricted shell (role-based administration controls the number of commands available in the shell)..
To configure the rank of OSPF and OSPF 3, select the applicable OSPF Instance and click its current value.

In the Routing Options section (at the top), click Apply.

Configuring Protocol Rank in Gaia Clish

Syntax

set protocol-rank protocol

bgp ipv4-routes rank {<1-255> | default}

bgp ipv6-routes rank {<1-255> | default}

kernel rank {<1-255> | default}

ospf [instance {<1-65535> | default}] rank {<1-255> | default}

ospfase [instance {<1-65535> | default}] rank {<1-255> | default}

ospf3 [instance {<1-65535> | default}] rank {<1-255> | default}

ospf3ase [instance {<1-65535> | default}] rank {<1-255> | default}

rip rank {<1-255> | default}

ripng rank {<1-255> | default}

show protocol-rank

Parameters

Parameter	Description
`bgp ipv4-routes`	Configures the rank for IPv4 BGP routes.
`bgp ipv6-routes`	Configures the rank for IPv6 BGP routes.
`kernel`	Configures the rank for routes.
`ospf [instance {<1-65535> \| default}]`	Configures the rank for IPv4 OSPFv2 routes (for the specified OSPF Instance).
`ospfase [instance {<1-65535> \| default}]`	Configures the rank for IPv4 OSPFv2 External routes (for the specified OSPF Instance).
`ospf3 [instance {<1-65535> \| default}]`	Configures the rank for IPv6 OSPFv3 routes (for the specified OSPF Instance).
`ospf3ase [instance {<1-65535> \| default}]`	Configures the rank for IPv6 OSPFv3 External routes (for the specified OSPF Instance).
`rip`	Configures the rank for IPv4 RIP routes.
`ripng`	Configures the rank for IPv6 RIPng routes.
`rank <1-255>`	Configures the rank of the specified protocol to the specified number. The lower the number, the more preferred the route.
`rank default`	Configures the default rank of the specified protocol.