[j-nsp] L2VPN Active Route Selection

[Eric Van Tol]

Hi all,
I've got a question about the route selection for L2VPN routes (Kompella).  I'm trying to figure out why my PEs are not choosing the direct IBGP peering between themselves for active route selection.  Here's the basic topology:

      /--P1--P3--P5--P7--\
PE1 --    |   |   |   |   -- PE2
      \--P2--P4--P6--P8--/


PE1 is RR client of P1/P2.
PE2 is RR client of P7/P8.

P1/P2 are RR clients of P3/P4.
P7/P8 are RR clients of P5/P6.

P3/P4/P5/P6 are all full-mesh IBGP peers.

I'm using IS-IS for my IGP and RSVP as the label distribution protocol.

The LSP is setup between PE1 and PE2 and IBGP is established.  According to http://tinyurl.com/625ve7w, it appears to me that #9 should be the tie-breaker here.  All other criteria are the same.  However, both PE1 and PE2 are showing the best path as the prefix announced through their respective RRs with "Not Best in its group - No difference".  Below is the output of a 'show route extensive' the VPN's routing table.  Can someone take a look and school me on what it is I'm missing?

Thanks,
evt

~~~~

admin at lab.router# run show route table cid-512.l2vpn.0 detail    

cid-512.l2vpn.0: 3 destinations, 5 routes (3 active, 0 holddown, 0 hidden)
 10.18.20.10:2:1:1/96 (3 entries, 1 announced)
        *BGP    Preference: 170/-101
                Route Distinguisher: 10.18.20.10:2
                Next hop type: Indirect
                Next-hop reference count: 11
                Source: 10.18.20.72
                Protocol next hop: 10.18.20.10
                Indirect next hop: 2 no-forward
                State: <Secondary Active Int Ext>
                Local AS:  65000 Peer AS:  65000
                Age: 6d 2:03:37         Metric2: 1 
                Task: BGP_65000.10.18.20.72+49179
                Announcement bits (1): 0-cid-512-l2vpn 
                AS path: I (Originator) Cluster list:  10.18.20.72 10.18.20.70 10.18.20.65 10.18.20.67
                AS path:  Originator ID: 10.18.20.10
                Communities: target:65000:2 Layer2-info: encaps:VLAN, control flags:Control-Word, mtu: 0, site preference: 100
                Import Accepted
                Label-base: 800000, range: 4, status-vector: 0x0 
                Localpref: 100
                Router ID: 10.18.20.72
                Primary Routing Table bgp.l2vpn.0
         BGP    Preference: 170/-101
                Route Distinguisher: 10.18.20.10:2
                Next hop type: Indirect
                Next-hop reference count: 11
                Source: 10.18.20.73
                Protocol next hop: 10.18.20.10
                Indirect next hop: 2 no-forward
                State: <Secondary NotBest Int Ext>
                Inactive reason: Not Best in its group - No difference
                Local AS:  65000 Peer AS:  65000
                Age: 6d 2:03:37         Metric2: 1 
                Task: BGP_65000.10.18.20.73+52338
                AS path: I (Originator) Cluster list:  10.18.20.73 10.18.20.70 10.18.20.65 10.18.20.67
                AS path:  Originator ID: 10.18.20.10
                Communities: target:65000:2 Layer2-info: encaps:VLAN, control flags:Control-Word, mtu: 0, site preference: 100
                Import Accepted
                Label-base: 800000, range: 4, status-vector: 0x0 
                Localpref: 100
                Router ID: 10.18.20.73
                Primary Routing Table bgp.l2vpn.0
         BGP    Preference: 170/-101
                Route Distinguisher: 10.18.20.10:2
                Next hop type: Indirect
                Next-hop reference count: 11
                Source: 10.18.20.10
                Protocol next hop: 10.18.20.10
                Indirect next hop: 2 no-forward
                State: <Secondary NotBest Int Ext>
                Inactive reason: Not Best in its group - No difference
                Local AS:  65000 Peer AS:  65000
                Age: 6d 2:03:37         Metric2: 1 
                Task: BGP_65000.10.18.20.10+59106
                AS path: I
                Communities: target:65000:2 Layer2-info: encaps:VLAN, control flags:Control-Word, mtu: 0, site preference: 100
                Import Accepted
                Label-base: 800000, range: 4, status-vector: 0x0 
                Localpref: 100
                Router ID: 10.18.20.10
                Primary Routing Table bgp.l2vpn.0