MPLS L2VPN – Force backup switchover

Related to my previous post about Pseudowire Redundancy I will now show how to force a switchover from your primary to backup peer.

You can either use the interface or the peer details to force a switchover. Below is the configuration of the PE router configured with a primary and backup peer.

PE#sh run interface GigabitEthernet1/2
Building configuration...

Current configuration : 178 bytes
!
interface GigabitEthernet1/2
description "IP-MPLS # Customer X - noc@customer-X.com"
no ip address
xconnect 192.168.0.2 100 encapsulation mpls
backup peer 192.168.0.3 101 encapsulation mpls
end

PE#

To switch from the primary to the backup peer use the following command:

PE#xconnect backup force-switchover interface gi1/2

You can also specify the full peer details:

PE#xconnect backup force-switchover peer 192.168.0.3 101

To revert the changes and go back to the primary LSP; issue the command again with the primary LSP details, or interface.