Enforce Route Control by Default

In response to customer feedback, with CSCtr26978 the mode route control command is now the default behavior instead of the mode route observe command. In control mode, the master controller coordinates information from the border routers and makes policy decisions. The master controller monitors prefixes and exits based on default and user-defined policies, and implements changes to optimize prefixes and to select the best exit.

If you want to passively monitor and report without making any changes, you can still configure PfR to use the observe mode. In observe mode, the master controller monitors prefixes and exit links based on default and user-defined policies and then reports the status of the network and the decisions that should be made, but it does not implement any changes.

Default Change for Mode Verify Bidirectional CLI

In response to customer feedback, with CSCtr26978 the default behavior changed to disable the verification of bidirectional traffic. If you need to verify bidirectional traffic, configure the mode verify bidirectional command in master controller configuration mode.

CLI Default Value Changes to Simplify PfR

Removal of PfR API and Proxy CLI

All CLI commands and functionality involved with the PfR application programming interface (API) and proxy process were removed to simplify PfR. With CSCtr26978, the following CLI commands were removed:

• api provider (PfR)
• debug pfr api
• host-address (PfR)
• show api provider (PfR)
• show pfr proxy

Removal of OER CLI

Although the Optimized Edge Routing (OER) syntax was replaced in most images with the PfR syntax, the OER syntax is still recognized. When you enter OER syntax the software changes the syntax to the new PfR syntax in the running configuration. With CSCtr26978, the OER syntax was removed.

Removal of Mode Select-Exit CLI

For most customer deployments we do not recommend using the passive monitoring mode with the exit selection of select-exit best because the statistics may change by the time all the links have been examined and the decision may not be accurate. To simplify the PfR configuration, with CSCtr26978 the default behavior is now select-exit good where the first in-policy link is selected. The mode select-exit command and best and good keywords have been removed.

Delay, Range, and Utilization Resolver Changes

Performance Resolver and Link Group Load Balancing

Load Balancing Within a Link Group

With CSCtr33991, the behavior of triggering range out-of-policy (OOP) for an exit by comparing the load of an exit to all other exits, is changed to comparing the load of an exit with all the exits in the same link group.

The maximum utilization (soft limit) of all the PfR-managed exit links is checked before PfR calls a resolver and, if none of the exits is below the soft limit, the exit selection is performed by ignoring the soft limit.

The existing behavior of moving any traffic class to balance the traffic load has been replaced by the ability to move any traffic class in the link group (whether primary or fallback) to balance the traffic load.

When any performance resolver is configured, the following rules apply in the specified order:

1. If only one qualified link is in the primary group, move traffic classes to this link.
2. If more than one qualified link is in the primary group, move traffic classes and perform load balancing across these links.
3. If more than one qualified link is in the fallback group, move traffic classes to one of the fallback group links.
4. If no qualified link is in both the primary and fallback groups, do not move the traffic class.
5. If no links are under the maximum utilization (soft limit) in the primary or fallback link groups, ignore the soft limit and move traffic classes to the best link.

When no performance resolver is configured, the following rules apply in the specified order:

1. If one or more qualified links are under the maximum utilization in the primary group, perform load balancing across these links in the primary group.
2. If more than one qualified link is in the fallback group, move traffic classes to one of the fallback group links.
3. If no links are under the maximum utilization (soft limit) in the primary or fallback link groups, perform load balancing across the primary group links.

With CSCtr26978, the mode route control command behavior is the default. Perform this task at the master controller to configure PfR to use route observe mode instead of the default route control mode. In route observe mode, the master controller monitors prefixes and exit links based on default and user-defined policies and then reports the status of the network and the decisions that should be made, but it does not implement any changes. In route control mode, the master controller coordinates information from the borders routers in the same way as route observe mode, but commands are sent back to the border routers to alter routing in the PfR managed network to implement the policy decisions.

Perform this task at the master controller to disable the default route control behavior when a RIB mismatch is found and allow PfR to use a single protocol to control a traffic class.

Note	With CSCtr26978, the no mode route protocol pbr command behavior is enabled by default. Perform this task to override the default behavior.

The following example outputs, from privileged EXEC mode, display the new default values and behavior introduced to simplify PfR.

The following partial output shows the default behavior introduced with CSCtr26978; the backoff timer values are 90, 900, and 90 seconds, hold-down is set to 90 seconds, mode route control is enabled, and mode select-exit best is removed.

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Default Policy Settings:
  backoff 90 900 90
  delay relative 50
  holddown 90
  periodic 0
  probe frequency 56
  number of jitter probe packets 100
  mode route control
  mode monitor both
  loss relative 10
  jitter threshold 20
  mos threshold 3.60 percent 30
  unreachable relative 50
  resolve delay priority 11 variance 20
  resolve range priority 12 variance 0
  resolve utilization priority 13 variance 20
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The following partial output shows the new default behavior introduced with CSCtr26978; learn mode is enabled, the monitor period is set to 1 minute, and the periodic interval is set to 0 minutes:

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Learn Settings:
  current state : ENABLED
  time remaining in current state : 0 seconds
  throughput
  no delay
  no inside bgp
  monitor-period 1
  periodic-interval 0
  aggregation-type prefix-length 24
  prefixes 100 appls 100
  expire after time 720