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Catalyst 4500 Series Switch, Cisco IOS Software Configuration Guide - Cisco IOS XE 3.9.xE and IOS 15.2(5)Ex
 
Chapter 13      Configuring Cisco NSF with SSO Supervisor Engine Redundancy
About NSF with SSO Supervisor Engine Redundancy
Note OSPF support in NSF requires that all neighbor networking devices be NSF-aware. If an NSF-capable 
router discovers that it has non-NSF -aware neighbors on a particular network segment, it disables NSF 
capabilities for that segment. Other network segments composed entirely of NSF-capable or NSF-aware 
routers continue to provide NSF capabilities.
IS-IS Operation
When an IS-IS NSF-capable router performs a supervisor engine switchover, it must perform the 
following tasks in order to resynchronize its link state database with its IS-IS neighbors:
• Relearn the available IS-IS neighbors on the network without causing a reset of the neighbor 
relationship
• Reacquire the contents of the link state database for the network
The IS-IS NSF feature offers two options when you configure NSF:
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) IS-IS
• Cisco IS-IS
If neighbor routers on a network segment are running a software version that supports the IETF Internet 
draft for router restartability, they assist an IETF NSF router that is restarting. With IETF, neighbor 
routers provide adjacency and link-state information to help rebuild the routing information following a 
switchover. A benefit of IETF IS-IS configuration is operation between peer devices based on a proposed 
standard.
Note If you configure IETF on the networking device, but neighbor routers are not IETF-compatible, NSF 
aborts following a switchover.
If the neighbor routers on a network segment are not NSF-aware, you must use the Cisco configuration 
option. The Cisco IS-IS configuration transfers both protocol adjacency and link-state information from 
the active to the redundant supervisor engine. An advantage of Cisco configuration is that it does not rely 
on NSF-aware neighbors.
IETF IS-IS Configuration
As quickly as possible after a supervisor engine switchover, the NSF-capable router sends IS-IS NSF 
restart requests to neighboring NSF-aware devices using the IETF IS-IS configuration. Neighbor 
networking devices recognize this restart request as an indicator that the neighbor relationship with this 
router should not be reset, but that they should initiate database resynchronization with the restarting 
router. As the restarting router receives restart request responses from routers on the network, it can 
begin to rebuild its neighbor list.
After this exchange is complete, the NSF-capable device uses the link-state information to remove stale 
routes, update the RIB, and update the FIB with the new forwarding information; IS-IS is then fully 
converged.
The switchover from one supervisor engine to the other happens within seconds. IS-IS reestablishes its 
routing table and resynchronizes with the network within a few additional seconds. At this point, IS-IS 
waits for a specified interval before it attempts a second NSF restart. During this time, the new redundant 
supervisor engine boots up and synchronizes its configuration with the active supervisor engine. The