Verifying the MAC Address Learning Capability

Context

VPLS data forwarding relies on MAC address learning. Therefore, data packets cannot be correctly forwarded in the VPLS domain unless the MAC addresses of data packets can be learned by the PE device. Diagnostic tool of the OAM MAC address learning capability can check the MAC address learning of the VSIs on a device by adding special OAM MAC addresses to a VPLS network.

When packets fail to be forwarded between CEs but the PW is Up, you can use the diagnostic tool of the OAM MAC address learning capability to check whether a fault occurs in the MAC address learning on a device.

The diagnostic tool of the OAM MAC address learning capability include:

MAC Populate: adds OAM MAC addresses to a VPLS network.
MAC Purge: removes the added OAM MAC addresses.

On the switch, you can diagnose the MAC address learning capability in the following methods:

Add OAM MAC addresses to the local or peer device in the VPLS network.

After adding the OAM MAC address, a MAC address test is performed for the device.
Remove the OAM MAC addresses from the local or peer device in the VPLS network.

The OAM MAC addresses to be removed must be the ones that have been added.
Add OAM MAC addresses of the register type to the local or peer device in the VPLS network.

After the OAM MAC addresses of the register type are added, the packets destined for the addresses are discarded.

The diagnostic tool of the OAM MAC address learning capability can be used in the following VPLS networks:

VPLS in LDP mode
VPLS in BGP mode
BGP AD VPLS
HVPLS in LDP mode

Do as follows on the PEs:

Procedure

Run the mac-diagnose enable command to enable diagnostic test on the MAC address learning capacity.
Run the mac-populate vsi vsi-name mac mac-address [ packet-num num | flood ] ^* command to initiate a test on the MAC address learning capacity by adding an OAM MAC address to the device.
- vsi vsi-name: specifies the name of the VSI of which the MAC address learning capability needs to be diagnosed.
- mac mac-address: only 10 OAM MAC addresses are supported currently.
  - 0018-82a4-3fb1
  - 0018-82a4-3fb2
  - 0018-82a4-3fb3
  - 0018-82a4-3fb4
  - 0018-82a4-3fb5
  - 0018-82a4-3fb6
  - 0018-82a4-3fb7
  - 0018-82a4-3fb8
  - 0018-82a4-3fb9
  - 0018-82a4-3fba
- packet-num num: specifies the number of the sent diagnosis packets. The value is a decimal integer that ranges from 1 to 5. The default value is 3.
- flood: indicates that diagnose packets are flooded in the VPLS network. In this case, both the local device and the peer device configured with the same VSI can learn the specified OAM MAC address. If this parameter is not specified, only the PE where the command is run can learn the specified OAM MAC address.
Run the mac-purge vsi vsi-name mac mac-address [ packet-num num | register | flood ] ^* command to purge an OAM MAC address from the forwarding table.
- flood: If this parameter is not specified, only the local PE can delete the specified OAM MAC address. If this parameter is specified, the diagnose packets are flooded in the VPLS network. In this case, both the local device and the peer device configured with the same VSI can delete the specified OAM MAC address.
- register: indicates that the specified OAM MAC address becomes the blackhole MAC address, and all the packets destined for this address are discarded.

Exception Handling

Run the mac-purge command to check the MAC address list for the diagnostic test on the MAC address learning capacity.
Run the display oam-mac statistics { populate | purge | purge-register | all } command to check the statistics about MAC diagnostic packets.

To clear statistics about MAC diagnostic packets, run the reset oam-mac statistics { populate | purge | purge-register | all } command.