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Graceful Restart Concepts

With routing protocols, any service interruption requires that an affected router recalculate adjacencies with neighboring routers, restore routing table entries, and update other protocol-specific information. An unprotected restart of a router can result in forwarding delays, route flapping, wait times stemming from protocol reconvergence, and even dropped packets. Some benefits of graceful restart are uninterrupted packet forwarding and temporary suppression of all routing protocol updates. Graceful restart enables a router to pass through intermediate convergence states that are hidden from the rest of the network.

Three main types of graceful restart are available on Juniper Networks routing platforms:

  • Graceful restart for aggregate and static routes and for routing protocols—Provides protection for aggregate and static routes and for Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), End System-to-Intermediate System (ES-IS), Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Routing Information Protocol (RIP), next-generation RIP (RIPng), and Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) sparse mode routing protocols.

  • Graceful restart for MPLS-related protocols—Provides protection for Label Distribution Protocol (LDP), Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), circuit cross-connect (CCC), and translational cross-connect (TCC). (Not supported on OCX Series switches.)

  • Graceful restart for virtual private networks (VPNs)—Provides protection for Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs.

Graceful restart works similarly for routing protocols and MPLS protocols and combines components of these protocol types to enable graceful restart in VPNs. The main benefits of graceful restart are uninterrupted packet forwarding and temporary suppression of all routing protocol updates. Graceful restart thus enables a router to pass through intermediate convergence states that are hidden from the rest of the network.

Most graceful restart implementations define two types of routers—the restarting router and the helper router. The restarting router requires rapid restoration of forwarding state information so it can resume the forwarding of network traffic. The helper router assists the restarting router in this process. Graceful restart configuration statements typically affect either the restarting router or the helper router.

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