[c-nsp] 12.2(25)S - EoMPLS portmode (xconnect) over RSVP-TE LSP?

[Lars Erik Gullerud]

Hi guys,

We have a 7200 NPE-G1 PE-router from which we would like to set up a
port-mode EoMPLS circuit. This router has an established RSVP-TE LSP (on
interface Tunnel1) and targeted LDP session to the remote PE for this
circuit.

However, how is it possible to make the router actually choose the
RSVP-TE LSP as valid for the default path for this EoMPLS circuit? The
router in question does not use flooded LDP, only RSVP-TE LSPs and
targeted LDP sessions.

If we configure as follows, the circuit does NOT come up (here the
remote PE is 1.1.1.2 and VCID is 1001:

interface GigabitEthernet0/2
 xconnect 1.1.1.2 1001 encapsulation mpls

However, by manually configuring a preferred path through the use of a
pseudowire-class, the circuit works fine:

pseudowire-class portmode
 encapsulation mpls
 preferred-path interface Tunnel1 disable-fallback
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/2
 xconnect 1.1.1.2 1001 pw-class portmode

Now, you might ask, "why not just use this method then"? Answer -
because the config above, while perfectly OK on routers running
12.0(28|29)S, is not available on 12.2(25)S. According to the 12.2(25)S
release notes, the EoMPLS portmode features were integrated into
12.2(25)S - and indeed, the xconnect syntax and all the other
pseudowire-class stuff is available, but the option to specify a
preferred-path in the pw-class is not there:

12-2-25S-router(config-pw-class)#preferred-path ?
% Unrecognized command

So, while we can indeed use the pw-class syntax on the xconnect config
for the interface, it makes zero difference on the outcome, as we still
can not choose a path in the pw-class. The router does however seem to
be aware of the notion of having a preferred-path:

12-2-25S-router#show mpls l2transport vc detail 
Local interface: Gi0/2 up, line protocol up, Ethernet up
  Destination address: 1.1.1.2, VC ID: 1001, VC status: down
    Output interface: none, imposed label stack {}
    Preferred path: not configured  
    Default path: active
    Tunnel label: 0, no adjacency
  Create time: 23:52:32, last status change time: 23:29:50
  Signaling protocol: LDP, peer 1.1.1.2:0 up
    MPLS VC labels: local 1270, remote 114880 
    Group ID: local 0, remote 0
    MTU: local 1546, remote 1546

So, since some bright flame over at Cisco apparently forgot to merge in
the Tunnel Selection part, i.e. the "preferred-path" CLI option in the
pw-class, into 12.2(25)S - is there any way to actually make this router
understand that the TE-tunnel is a valid path for this EoMPLS-link, and
thereby choose that as its "default path"? Or do we have to bite the
bullet and "downgrade" this router to 12.0(29)S (although I know some
would call this an upgrade...)?

I have tried setting the TE tunnel up as a forwarding-adjacency (tunnel
mpls traffic-eng forwarding-adjacency) in case that made any difference
- which it did not. Any other suggestions on stuff I might try to make
this work, apart from using Juniper's trade-in program and sticking an
M7i at that site instead?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions on this, as I would like to
avoid going back to 12.0S for this particular router, and the M7i option
would take to long for this particular link... :)

/leg