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NET-C0108 · Routing

OSPF vs EIGRP vs BGP

Pick one routing protocol for one lab, and write what you will not mix in.

Updated 25 October 2026 · Comparison

This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.

What this hour is for

OSPF is a link-state protocol with areas. EIGRP is a distance-vector protocol you will mostly see on Cisco. BGP is the protocol for policies between autonomous systems, and sometimes inside a large one. They solve different jobs.

Running all three so the table looks full is how a loop hides. Pick one for the lab. Redistribution between them is a later design with filters, not a checkbox.

If you already run one, the choice is to keep it unless the ticket says migrate. A migration is not this comparison.

Write the failure you accept: OSPF area design, EIGRP vendor constraint, or BGP's need for prefixes you actually originate.

The change you can finish

Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.

Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.

  1. Name the lab.
  2. Pick one protocol.
  3. Write the reason in a sentence.
  4. Write the protocol you will not turn on.
  5. Leave redistribution off.
  6. Stop.

Mistakes that outlive the command

OSPF vs EIGRP vs BGP goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.

Decisions to write down

One decision for OSPF vs EIGRP vs BGP: One protocol is chosen. The reason is a sentence. The others stay off. Redistribution is off. And no prefix you do not hold is involved.

Checks before you call it done

Confirm this before you call the change done: The choice is in the ticket. The rejected protocols are named. No redistribution. No session or adjacency was formed from this page. And a second person can repeat the reason. If one of those fails, stop.

One protocol for the lab.
Redistribution stays off.

Before you leave the device

OSPF vs EIGRP vs BGP ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.

The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.

0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.

prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, a community string, or a pre-shared key you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the store.

One change is the window. A VLAN and a routing protocol and a VPN do not share it. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next feature waits for its own page.

If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied config produces a device nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.

A second person reads the device name and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the device alone.

This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not a permission to touch a network you do not administer. The pillar guide owns the wider design. This page owns one lab proof.

Tools for this guide

This guide does not name a browser tool. The pillar it belongs to links the calculators for the neighbouring work.

More in this cluster

The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.