After a department merger, a municipal hospital campus mutually redistributes EIGRP and OSPF at a single border. What seed-metric consideration is most important to avoid unusable or surprising external paths?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Mutual redistribution without a seed metric is like merging two hospital wings with no door signs—traffic gets weird. Stamp sane seed metrics, and choose the OSPF external type, so external routes behave predictably.
Full Explanation
When a municipal hospital campus mutually redistributes EIGRP and OSPF at a single border, the most important consideration is to set explicit seed metrics, and OSPF metric-type as needed, so redistributed routes receive predictable external costs. Leaving metrics unset can yield unreachable infinity metrics or surprisingly attractive externals that draw traffic onto suboptimal paths. For OSPF, also choose metric-type, E1 versus E2, intentionally: E2 keeps the seed cost constant across the OSPF domain; E1 accumulates internal cost. For EIGRP, supply a sensible composite seed metric on redistribute. Predictable seeds prevent 'mystery' external preferences after the department merger.
Leaving seed metrics at zero, or unset and defaulted poorly, can make externals unrealistically attractive or unusable depending on protocol—either way it is not safe design. Using only BGP MED values when redistributing between IGPs is not the tool for IGP-to-IGP redistribution metrics. Disabling metrics entirely so administrative distance alone builds the topology ignores that within a protocol, metric still selects among externals and influences path quality after administrative distance picks the source.
Exam caveat: single-border mutual redistribution still needs filtering or tags to avoid re-injection loops even when seed metrics are correct. Seed metrics affect path preference among externals but do not replace administrative distance when comparing native OSPF versus native EIGRP. Document hospital metric standards, for example OSPF E2 cost 100 for EIGRP-injected routes, so future borders match.
Operational check: show ip route <prefix> for redistributed externals and verify the OSPF external route codes and costs, or the EIGRP external composite metrics, match the configured seeds. show route-map / redistribute statements confirm metric and metric-type. From endpoints on each side of the hospital campus, traceroute across the border and confirm traffic does not hairpin unexpectedly through an under-costed external.