High Availability Support for OSPF

Gaia Embedded supports the OSPF protocol in a cluster of appliances.

In this configuration, the cluster becomes a Virtual Router, which is seen by neighboring routers as a single router that has an IP address that is the same as the virtual IP address of the cluster. Each member of the cluster runs the OSPF task, but only the member which is designated as primary or master actively participates in the network and exchanges routing information with neighbor routers. When a failover occurs, the standby member of the cluster becomes the master and its OSPF task becomes the active participant in protocol exchanges with neighbor routers.

Gaia Embedded also supports the OSPF protocol over VPN tunnels which terminate in the ClusterXL cluster.

ClusterXL

Gaia Embedded ClusterXL advertises the Virtual IP address of the ClusterXL Virtual Router. The OSPF routes database of the master is synchronized across all members of the cluster. The OSPF task of each standby member obtains routing state and information from the master and installs the routes in the kernel as the master does. On a failover, one of the standby members becomes the new master and then continues where the old master failed. During the time that the new master resynchronizes routes database with the neighbor routers, traffic forwarding continues using the old kernel routes until OSPF routes are fully synchronized and pushed into the kernel.