Day One: Migrating EIGRP to OSPF

Even though I work for Juniper Networks today, I learned networking on Cisco gear in the late 90's and I earned my CCIE in 2003. As a customer of both Cisco and Juniper, I migrated a ISP network from EIGRP to OSPF/BGP. My Cisco foundation and real world EIGRP to OSPF migration experience helped me develop the content that you will find in this book.

I wrote this book for those engineers who are tired of reading whitepapers about migrating their networks and actually provide a walkthrough of an actual EIGRP to OSPF migration. I'm a hands-on engineer. I like getting on the router CLI and making things happen. If you like to roll up your sleeves and get into the weeds, then this book is for you.

I want the readers to become comfortable with the migration process. Changing an IGP is no small task and success will be determined by your attention to detail and a documented process. Sharing the processes that I have used in the past and covering the common migration models should ease the burden of the unknown.

There is nothing magical or extremely difficult in migrating your network from EIGRP to OSPF. It can be planned, executed and successful. I hope the readers will also use this Day One book as a lab guide to practice a migration - this is the primary reason I focused most of the material on the CLI. The book topology is simple to reconstruct in a small lab but still effective to demonstrate the methods and procedures of a protocol migration. There is no better teacher than experience.

I don't have a specific reading list. I plan on reading the IPv6 Day One Books as well as Network Mergers and Migrations. Like everyone else, I try to stay ahead of the learning curve on the new technologies that are on the horizon.

My professional interest is more focused on building and innovating networks. I'm not a good day-to-day maintenance engineer. I'm always thinking about the next evolution of the network and how to gain a business edge. Proprietary and inflexible solutions prevent innovation and change. The proprietary nature of EIGRP is one reason I wrote this book. Migrating the network away from EIGRP removes a major roadblock to unlocking advanced features on any network like MPLS.

I enjoyed the actual migration process shown in the book. I enjoy building networks and taking them to a new level. I hope this helps you take your network to a new level.