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Why do you disable EIGRP split horizon on a DMVPN hub?

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Split horizon stops a router advertising a route out the interface it learned it on. A DMVPN hub reaches every spoke through one multipoint tunnel interface, so spoke A's LAN, learned on Tunnel0, would never be sent back out Tunnel0 to spoke B. Turning split horizon off on the hub tunnel lets the spokes learn each other's routes. Split horizon is on by default on every EIGRP interface.

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The commands

Classic mode, on the hub tunnel:

Cisco IOS
interface Tunnel0
 no ip split-horizon eigrp 100

Named mode:

Cisco IOS
router eigrp WAN
 address-family ipv4 unicast autonomous-system 100
  af-interface Tunnel0
   no split-horizon

DMVPN phases

  • Phase 1: all traffic goes through the hub. The hub can send just a summary or a default, and split horizon does not matter.
  • Phase 2: spokes build direct tunnels, so each spoke needs the other spoke's real next hop. The hub needs split horizon off and no ip next-hop-self eigrp 100 so it does not rewrite the next hop.
  • Phase 3: NHRP redirects and shortcuts handle spoke to spoke, so the hub can summarize to the spokes again. This is the design I would pick.

Is it safe?

Yes. For EIGRP, split horizon is an optimization. DUAL's feasibility condition still prevents loops when it is off.

Traps

  • Disabling split horizon on the spokes. It only matters on the hub's multipoint interface.
How did you do?Book 3.4 Routing