Route Maps/Distribution Lists

bharvey92

Hi All,

I've finished reading the CCNP Route OCG book and going to read through Route Simplified however I am struggling to fully understand the concepts of Route Maps and Distribution Lists and the advantage and disadvantages with using each one.

Any advice?

networker050184

Depends on what your goals are and they are not mutually exclusive. You can call a route-map with a distribute-list command.

Danielh22185

Distribute lists are more tailiored to performing filtering as Route-Maps can do just about anything. I suggest doing some labs on both topics. Within the given examplesin the books try implement them with either GNS3 or live equipment. Nothing beats learning how something works by actually doing it instead of just reading about it.

tomtom1

With a route map, for example, you can set information, such as tags, metrics, (BGP) attributes (LocPref, MED, community, etc) and a whole lot of other stuff. You can also match the items mentioned earlier, and when a match is found (or not) do specific things, such as setting other information based on your match statement. You can also do some filtering with the route-map.

A distribute-list (mostly used in RIP, OSPF and EIGRP) can be used to filter inbound / outbound routing updates (on a specific interface if you want to). Just lab it out.

bharvey92

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the reply on this topic. I've read the OCG twice and started Route Simplified but this is one of the topics which is puzzling me most! (a bit like ACL's when I first started by CCNA).

Would you say Route Maps, Prefix-lists and Distribute-lists are all very similar just filter using different methods?

networker050184

Yes, they are all similar and sometimes can accomplish the same goal. I think if you went through a few labs and implemented each one you'd notice the similarities and differences.

bharvey92

Thanks for that networker050184. I've not currently started labbing, mostly going through the gudies and note taking. I'm sure your right if I did some labs it would become more apparent.

Danielh22185

bharvey92 wrote: »

Thanks for that networker050184. I've not currently started labbing, mostly going through the gudies and note taking. I'm sure your right if I did some labs it would become more apparent.

You are always going to need your theory knowlege to know the technicalities of specific things however I don't feel you actually learn how something works until you do it youself and observe the operation of what you are doing.

mistabrumley89

I was having the same problem not too long ago. I understand the concepts behind them and how to implement them, but it would just seem to be overwhelming when applying different lists/maps on a single scenario. Lab, lab, lab. That is the only thing that got me used to seeing them configured. The configurations will get easier to read as time goes on and you see it more.

Ninz

networker050184 wrote: »

Depends on what your goals are and they are not mutually exclusive. You can call a route-map with a distribute-list command.

Agree with this totally, I've just recently installed GNS3, and am finding quite fun )

bharvey92

Thanks for the reply, I've managed to get a fair idea now of the difference! You can route filter using ACL's, Prefix Lists, Route Maps. However to implement these you use Distribution Lists! ... I will definitely be doing some labbing on this after I finish the Router Simplified chapter!