Configure Graceful Restart

Graceful restart allows a router undergoing a restart to inform its adjacent neighbors and peers of its condition. The restarting router requests a grace period from the neighbor or peer, which can then cooperate with the restarting router. With a graceful restart, the restarting router can still forward traffic during the restart period, and convergence in the network is not disrupted. The restart is not visible to the rest of the network, and the restarting router is not removed from the network topology.

The graceful restart request occurs only if the following conditions are met:

• The network topology is stable.
• The neighbor or peer cooperates.
• The restarting router is not already cooperating with another restart already in progress.
• The grace period does not expire.

Graceful restart is disabled by default. You must configure graceful restart at the [edit routing-options] hierarchy level to enable the feature for Layer 2 and Layer 3 virtual private networks (VPNs).

To enable graceful restart, include the graceful-restart statement:

[edit]

routing-options {

    graceful-restart;    {

        disable;

        path-selection-defer-time-limit time-limit;

    }

}

For a list of hierarchy levels at which you can configure this statement, see the statement summary section for this statement.