GRE Tunneling

What this topic solves

Generic Routing Encapsulation, tunnel endpoints, routing over tunnels, MTU overhead and troubleshooting.

Follow state and packet path

Validate the underlay first, then tunnel negotiation/state, routes, policy, MTU and return path.

Input → classification/state → decision → table → next-hop/output → counters

Design before configuration

• Define the failure domain and expected convergence behavior.
• Document addressing, identifiers, timers, MTU and policy boundaries.
• Prefer explicit, observable state over assumptions.
• Plan rollback and out-of-band access before risky changes.

Commands and verification

Command syntax varies by platform and software release. The examples below come from the existing portal content and must be validated against the target platform documentation before production use.

Pacote interno
[IP interno][payload]
       ↓ GRE
[IP externo][GRE][IP interno][payload]
     underlay       overlay

interface Tunnel10
 ip address 10.255.10.1 255.255.255.252
 tunnel source GigabitEthernet0/0
 tunnel destination 198.51.100.2

show interfaces tunnel 10
show tunnel
show ip route 198.51.100.2
show ip route 10.255.10.2

Evidence-driven workflow

1. Define source, destination, time window and exact symptom.
2. Establish the expected healthy state and compare it with the observed state.
3. Inspect counters, tables, logs and packet captures before resets.
4. Test one hypothesis at a time and prefer reversible changes.
5. Repeat the original test after correction and check side effects.

RFC 2784 and extensions

Use the current standard/RFC and the documentation for the exact software release being operated. Vendor syntax is an implementation detail; protocol behavior should be understood independently.

Prove the behavior in a controlled topology

Build the smallest topology that reproduces the mechanism, capture control and data traffic, introduce one deliberate failure and diagnose it before applying the fix.

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