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CH A P T E R 38
Configuring IP Unicast Routing

This chapter describes how to configure IP Version 4 (IPv4) static IP unicast routing on the Catalyst
2960-S and 2960 switch. Static routing is supported only on switched virtual interfaces (SVIs) and not
on physical interfaces. The switch does not support routing protocols.
Unless otherwise noted, the term switch refers to a standalone switch and a switch stack. A switch stack
operates and appears as a single router to the rest of the routers in the network.

Note Stacking is supported only on Catalyst 2960-S switches.

For complete syntax and usage information for the commands used in this chapter, see the Cisco IOS IP
Command Reference, Volume 1 of 3: Addressing and Services, Release 12.2
This chapter consists of these sections:
• Understanding IP Routing, page 38-1
• Steps for Configuring Routing, page 38-3
• Enabling IP Unicast Routing, page 38-4
• Configuring Static Unicast Routes, page 38-5
• Monitoring and Maintaining the IP Network, page 38-5

Note When configuring routing parameters on the switch and to allocate system resources to maximize the
number of unicast routes allowed, use the sdm prefer lanbase-routing global configuration command
to set the Switch Database Management (sdm) feature to the routing template. For more information on
the SDM templates, see Chapter 10, “Configuring SDM Templates” or see the sdm prefer command in
the command reference for this release.

Understanding IP Routing
In some network environments, VLANs are associated with individual networks or subnetworks. In an
IP network, each subnetwork is mapped to an individual VLAN. Configuring VLANs helps control the
size of the broadcast domain and keeps local traffic local. However, network devices in different VLANs
cannot communicate with one another without a Layer 3 device to route traffic between the VLAN,
referred to as inter-VLAN routing. You configure one or more routers to route traffic to the appropriate
destination VLAN.

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Figure 38-1 shows a basic routing topology. Switch A is in VLAN 10, and Switch B is in VLAN 20. The
router has an interface in each VLAN.

Figure 38-1 Routing Topology Example

When Host A in VLAN 10 needs to communicate with Host B in VLAN 10, it sends a packet addressed
to that host. Switch A forwards the packet directly to Host B, without sending it to the router.
When Host A sends a packet to Host C in VLAN 20, Switch A forwards the packet to the router, which
receives the traffic on the VLAN 10 interface. The router checks the routing table, finds the correct
outgoing interface, and forwards the packet on the VLAN 20 interface to Switch B. Switch B receives
the packet and forwards it to Host C.

Types of Routing
Routers and Layer 3 switches can route packets in three different ways:
• By using default routing to send traffic with a destination unknown to the router to a default outlet
or destination.
• By using static routes to forward packets from predetermined ports through a single path into and
out of a network.
• By dynamically calculating routes by using a routing protocol.
The switch supports static routes; it does not support routing protocols.

IP Routing and Switch Stacks

Note Stacking is supported only on Catalyst 2960-S switches.

A switch stack appears to the network as a single switch, regardless of which switch in the stack is
connected to a peer. For additional information about switch stack operation, see Chapter 5, “Managing
Switch Stacks.”
The stack master performs these functions:
• The MAC address of the stack master is used as the router MAC address for the whole stack, and all
outside devices use this address to send IP packets to the stack.
• All IP packets that require software forwarding or processing go through the CPU of the stack
master.

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Stack members perform these functions:

• They act as routing standby switches, ready to take over in case they are elected as the new stack
master if the stack master fails.
• They program the routes into hardware.
If a stack master fails, the stack detects that the stack master is down and elects one of the stack members
to be the new stack master. During this period, except for a momentary interruption, the hardware
continues to forward packets.
At election, the new stack master performs these functions:
• It starts generating, receiving, and processing routing updates.
• It builds routing tables and distributes it to stack members.
• It uses its MAC address as the router MAC address. To notify its network peers of the new MAC
address, it periodically (every few seconds for 5 minutes) sends a gratuitous ARP reply with the new
router MAC address.

Note If you configure the persistent MAC address feature on the stack and the stack master
changes, the stack MAC address does not change for the configured time period. If the
previous stack master rejoins the stack as a member switch during that time period, the stack
MAC address remains the MAC address of the previous stack master. See the “Enabling
Persistent MAC Address” section on page 5-18.

Steps for Configuring Routing

By default, IP routing is disabled on the switch, and you must enable it before routing can take place.
For detailed IP routing configuration information, see the Cisco IOS IP Configuration Guide,
Release 12.2 from the Cisco.com page under Documentation > Cisco IOS Software > 12.2 Mainline
> Configuration Guides.
In the following procedures, the specified interface must be a switch virtual interface (SVI)—a VLAN
interface created by using the interface vlan vlan_id global configuration command and by default a
Layer 3 interface. All Layer 3 interfaces on which routing will occur must have IP addresses assigned to
them. See the “Assigning IP Addresses to SVIs” section on page 38-4.

Note The switch supports 16 user-configured static routes in addition to any directly connected routes and
default routes for the management interface. switch can have an IP address assigned to each SVI. The
number of routed ports and SVIs that you can configure is not limited by software. However, the
interrelationship between this number and the number and volume of features being implemented might
have an impact on CPU utilization because of hardware limitations. Before enabling routing, enter the
sdm prefer lanbase-routing global configuration command and reload the switch.

Configuring routing consists of several procedures:

• To support VLAN interfaces, create and configure VLANs on the switch, and assign VLAN
membership to Layer 2 interfaces. For more information, see Chapter 16, “Configuring VLANs.”
• Configure Layer 3 interfaces (SVIs).
• Enable IP routing on the switch.
• Assign IP addresses to the Layer 3 interfaces.

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• Configure static routes

Enabling IP Unicast Routing

By default, the switch is in Layer 2 switching mode and IP routing is disabled. To use the Layer 3
capabilities of the switch, you must enable IP routing.
Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to enable IP routing:

Command Purpose
Step 1 configure terminal Enter global configuration mode.
Step 2 ip routing Enable IP routing.
Step 3 end Return to privileged EXEC mode.
Step 4 show running-config Verify your entries.
Step 5 copy running-config startup-config (Optional) Save your entries in the configuration file.

Use the no ip routing global configuration command to disable routing.

This example shows how to enable IP routing on a switch:
Switch# configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Switch(config)# ip routing
Switch(config-router)# network 10.0.0.0
Switch(config-router)# end

Assigning IP Addresses to SVIs

A required task for configuring IP routing is to assign IP addresses to Layer 3 network interfaces to
enable the interfaces and allow communication with the hosts on those interfaces that use IP. IP routing
is disabled by default and no IP addresses are assigned to SVIs.
An IP address identifies a location to which IP packets can be sent. Some IP addresses are reserved for
special uses and cannot be used for host, subnet, or network addresses. RFC 1166, “Internet Numbers,”
contains the official description of IP addresses.
An interface can have one primary IP address. A mask identifies the bits that denote the network number
in an IP address. When you use the mask to subnet a network, the mask is referred to as a subnet mask.
To receive an assigned network number, contact your Internet service provider.
Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to assign an IP address and a network mask to
an SVI

Command Purpose
Step 1 configure terminal Enter global configuration mode.
Step 2 interface vlan vlan_id Enter interface configuration mode, and specify the Layer 3
VLAN to configure.
Step 3 ip address ip-address subnet-mask Configure the IP address and IP subnet mask.

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Command Purpose
Step 4 end Return to privileged EXEC mode.
Step 5 show interfaces [interface-id] Verify your entries.
show ip interface [interface-id]
show running-config interface [interface-id]
Step 6 copy running-config startup-config (Optional) Save your entries in the configuration file.

Configuring Static Unicast Routes

Static unicast routes are user-defined routes that cause packets moving between a source and a
destination to take a specified path. Static routes can be important if the router cannot build a route to a
particular destination and are useful for specifying a gateway of last resort to which all unroutable
packets are sent.
Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to configure a static route:

Command Purpose
Step 1 configure terminal Enter global configuration mode.
Step 2 ip route prefix mask {address | interface} [distance] Establish a static route.
Step 3 end Return to privileged EXEC mode.
Step 4 show ip route Display the current state of the routing table to verify
the configuration.
Step 5 copy running-config startup-config (Optional) Save your entries in the configuration file.

Use the no ip route prefix mask {address | interface} global configuration command to remove a static
route. The switch retains static routes until you remove them.
When an interface goes down, all static routes through that interface are removed from the IP routing
table. When the software can no longer find a valid next hop for the address specified as the forwarding
router's address in a static route, the static route is also removed from the IP routing table.

Monitoring and Maintaining the IP Network

You can specific statistics for the routing table or database. Use the privileged EXEC commands in
Table 38-1 to clear display status:

Table 38-1 Commands to Clear IP Routes or Display Route Status

Command Purpose
show ip route [address [mask] [longer-prefixes]] | Display the current state of the routing table.
show ip route summary Display the current state of the routing table in summary form.
show platform ip unicast Display platform-dependent IP unicast information.

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show platform ip unicast

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show platform ip unicast

Use the show platform ip unicast privileged EXEC command to display platform-dependent IP unicast
routing information.

show platform ip unicast {adjacency | cef-idb | counts | dhcp | failed {adjacency | arp [A.B.C.D]
| route} | loadbalance | mpaths | proxy | route | standby | statistics | table | trace} [ | {begin
| exclude | include} expression]

Syntax Description adjacency Display the platform adjacency database.

cef-idb Display platform information corresponding to Cisco Express Forwarding
(CEF) interface descriptor block.
counts Display the current counts for the Layer 3 unicast databases.
dhcp Display the DHCP system dynamic addresses.
failed {adjacency | Display the hardware resource failures. The keywords have these meanings:
arp [A.B.C.D] | route}
• adjacency—Display the adjacency entries that failed to be programmed
in hardware.
• arp—Display the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) deletions because
of failure and because of retries.
• A.B.C.D—(Optional) Prefix of the ARP entries to display.
• route—Display the route entries that failed to be programmed in
hardware.
loadbalance Display the platform loadbalance database.
mpaths Display the Layer 3 unicast routing multipath adjacency database.
proxy Display the platform proxy ARP database.
route Display the platform route database.
standby Display the platform standby information.
statistics Display the Layer 3 unicast routing accumulated statistics.
table Display the platform IP version 4 (IPv4) information.
trace Display the platform event trace logs.
| begin (Optional) Display begins with the line that matches the expression.
| exclude (Optional) Display excludes lines that match the expression.
| include (Optional) Display includes lines that match the specified expression.
expression Expression in the output to use as a reference point.

Note Though visible in the command-line help strings, the proxy and table keywords are not supported.

Command Modes Privileged EXEC

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show platform ip unicast

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Command History Release Modification

12.2(55)SE This command was introduced.

Usage Guidelines You should use this command only when you are working directly with a technical support representative
while troubleshooting a problem. Do not use this command unless a technical support representative asks
you to do so.
Expressions are case sensitive. For example, if you enter | exclude output, the lines that contain output
do not appear, but the lines that contain Output appear.

Note: other enabled commands are IOS PI and we do not include in our docs.

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show platform ip unicast

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