How To Configure, Verify, and Troubleshoot RIPv2 for IPv4?

Pre-requisite: Routing Information Protocol (RIP) V1 & V2, Configuring RIP Versions 1 and 2 in Cisco.

RIPv2 is a classless, distance-vector routing protocol (DVRP). It is a timer-driver routing protocol. It uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as a transport protocol and port 520. It uses hop count as the metric with 15 as the maximum metric and 16 as the infinite to remove the previously installed route i.e., to perform route poisoning which is a method of quickly forgetting outdated routing information from the neighbor router’s routing table. RIPv2 supports both plain text and MD5 authentication.

RIPv2 multicast address is 224.0.0.9. It relies on periodic full routing updates instead of partial updates. In the case of on-demand circuits, RIPv2 sends full updates once and then remains silent until some changes occur in the topology under the RIP routing domain. It also sends triggered updates when routes change. Route tags function in RIPv2 allows it to tag routes as they are redistributed. It supports the configuration of the next-hop IP address for a route.

RIPv2 Commands:

Enabling RIPv2:

ROUTER(config)#router rip
ROUTER(config-router)#version 2
ROUTER(config-router)#network <network id>

Verifying RIPv2:

ROUTER#show ip route rip

ROUTER#show ip protocols

ROUTER#show ip rip database

Troubleshooting RIPv2:

ROUTER#debug ip rip [events]

Configuring RIPv2:

Step 1: Create the 3 router topology in GNS3 or CISCO Packet Tracer as shown in the image below:

Step 2: Configure the IPv4 address on the physical interface of the routers :

R1(config)#int f0/0
R1(config-if)#ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0
R1(config-if)#no shutdown

R2(config)#int f0/0
R2(config-if)#ip address 10.0.0.2 255.255.255.0
R2(config-if)#no shutdown
R2(config-if)#int f0/1
R2(config-if)#ip address 20.0.0.1 255.255.255.0
R2(config-if)#no shutdown

R3(config-if)#int f0/0
R3(config-if)#ip address 20.0.0.2 255.255.255.0
R3(config-if)#no shutdown

Step 3: Configure a loopback interface on R1 with an IPv4 address :

R1(config)#interface Loopback0
R1(config-if)#ip address 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.255

Step 4: Configure a loopback interface on R3 with an IPv4 address :

R3(config)#interface Loopback0
R3(config-if)#ip address 3.3.3.3 255.255.255.255

Step 5: Enabling RIPv2 on all routers using the router rip global configuration command :

R1(config)#router rip
R1(config-router)#version 2
R1(config-router)#network 10.0.0.0
R1(config-router)#network 1.0.0.0

R2(config)#router rip 
R2(config-router)#version 2
R2(config-router)#network 10.0.0.0
R2(config-router)#network 20.0.0.0

R3(config)#router rip
R3(config-router)#version 2
R3(config-router)#network 20.0.0.0
R3(config-router)#network 3.0.0.0

Step 6: Checking the IPv4 routing table on the routers for RIPv2 route entry with the show command shows IP route rip :

R1#show ip route rip

R2#show ip route rip

R3#show ip route rip

Step 7: Checking the IPv4 protocols enabled on the routers with the show command show IP protocols :

R1#show ip protocols

R2#show ip protocols

R3#show ip protocols

Step 8: Checking the RIPv2 database on all the routers with the show command show iP rip database:

R1#show ip rip database

R2#show ip rip database

R3#show ip rip database

Step 9: Checking connectivity :

Step 10: Debugging RIPV2 event packets with the command debug iP rip events :

R1#debug ip rip events

• RIPv2 advertisements are sent via R1’s loop back and fastethernet0/0 interface.

R2#debug ip rip events

• RIPv2 advertisements are sent via both the physical interfaces of R2, fastethernet0/0, and fastethernet0/1.

R3#debug ip rip events

• RIPv2 advertisements are sent via R3’s loop back and fastethernet0/0 interface.

To turn off debugging :

R1#undebug all

Simulation : 

Pinging R3 loopback interface from R1:

Pinging R1 loopback interface from R3: