I am running protocol ospf on my lab Router.I have a load balancing policy configured on the forwarding table on my Router. The detialed output for an external route seen in the routing table is as below.
admin@R6# run show route 172.30.63.1/32 detail inet.0: 56 destinations, 64 routes (56 active, 0 holddown, 0 hidden) 172.30.63.1/32 (1 entry, 1 announced) *OSPF Preference: 150 Next hop type: Router, Next hop index: 262149 Address: 0x94e4280 Next-hop reference count: 73 Next hop: 172.16.0.29 via ge-0/0/4.123 Next hop: 172.16.0.37 via ge-0/0/4.135, selected State: <Active Int Ext> Local AS: 4012345678 Age: 6:41 Metric: 1 Tag: 2624 Task: OSPF Announcement bits (3): 0-KRT 4-LDP 7-Resolve tree 2 AS path: I inet.3: 35 destinations, 42 routes (6 active, 0 holddown, 34 hidden)
The forwarding table is also showing 2 next hops installed in it for this external route.
admin@R6# run show route forwarding-table destination 172.30.63.1 Routing table: default.inet Internet: Destination Type RtRef Next hop Type Index NhRef Netif 172.30.63.1/32 user 0 ulst 262149 24 172.16.0.29 ucst 625 5 ge-0/0/4.123 172.16.0.37 ucst 626 13 ge-0/0/4.135 Routing table: __master.anon__.inet Internet: Destination Type RtRef Next hop Type Index NhRef Netif default perm 0 rjct 527 1
The Trace for this external route is as below.
admin@R6# run traceroute 172.30.63.1 no-resolve traceroute to 172.30.63.1 (172.30.63.1), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 172.16.0.29 14.933 ms 14.972 ms 172.16.0.37 19.948 ms 2 172.16.0.21 19.811 ms 172.16.0.13 19.937 ms 20.364 ms 3 172.30.63.1 24.715 ms 24.814 ms 172.16.0.10 25.117 ms [edit] admin@R6# run traceroute 172.30.63.1 no-resolve traceroute to 172.30.63.1 (172.30.63.1), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 172.16.0.37 14.973 ms 172.16.0.29 14.855 ms 14.969 ms 2 172.16.0.21 20.138 ms 20.070 ms 172.16.0.13 19.780 ms 3 172.16.0.10 25.012 ms 172.30.63.1 24.665 ms 25.152 ms
I am confused in the output of traceroute that why it is showing two next-hops in every line of trace for this route. In line 1 it is showing 172.16.0.37 as well as 172.16.0.29. Is it because of load-balancing configured on my router?? Can anyone explain in detail ?? The topology diagram is also attached.