To create a virtual link between OSPF areas

Purpose

Perform this procedure to create a virtual link between a backbone OSPF area and a remote OSPF area that does not advertise the OSPF topology. When you create a virtual link, a virtual neighbor is automatically created.

Steps
 
1 

On the NFM-P navigation tree, choose OSPF from the view selector.

2 

Click on the backbone area icon in the navigation tree to display the area routers. The backbone area ID is 0.0.0.0.

3 

Right-click on a backbone-area router instance icon and choose Create Virtual Link. The Virtual Link (Create) form opens.

4 

Configure the general parameters.

5 

Click on the Protocol Properties tab and configure the required parameters.

6 

Perform one of the following steps to configure authentication for the virtual link. Otherwise, go to Step 9 .

  1. Click on the Authentication tab, and go to Step 7 .

  2. For OSPFv3 interfaces, go to Step 8 .

7 

Configure the Authentication Type parameter.

  1. Choose MD5-based Authentication.

    Perform the following steps:

    1. Click Create to create an MD5 authentication key. The Md 5 Key (Create) form opens.

    2. Configure the required parameters.

    3. Save your changes and go to Step 9 .

  2. Choose Simple Password.

    Perform the following steps:

    1. Click Change Password to enter a password. The Password (Create) form opens.

    2. Configure the required parameters.

    3. Save your changes and go to Step 9 .

8 

Click on the IPsec Static SA tab and configure the required parameters.

9 

Save your changes and close the form. The Virtual Link (Create) form closes, and the NFM-P displays two new icons: one for the virtual link and one for the virtual neighbor.

10 

As required, review the properties of the virtual link or virtual neighbor, by clicking on the appropriate icon and selecting Properties.

Note: You can delete a virtual link by selecting the virtual link icon and clicking Delete. To delete a virtual neighbor, you must select the virtual link icon and click Delete.

End of steps