Im an enterprise guy, so this is what I see for our clients. 
 I don't have exact info but if for example a TCP sessions stays up between two 
end hosts (whether they are routers or windows boxes whatever..) and a path 
changes from say a P2P to a routed VPN, quick enough that the tcp session 
between the endpoints doesn't time out (I hope so) - the MSS is NOT 
recalculated as, it is only set in the TCP handshake - which is what Adam is 
referring to when you set the MSS on the interface.

The exact path mtu discovery technique doesn't seem to be well documented - the 
RFC is 26 years old - and unless your hosts are actively "checking" mtu using 
DF bit the whole time a session is up (for changes)  - I don't believe even 
half of  RFC-1191 is implemented in the real world.  

If someone has knowledge of how cisco routers do it exactly - I would love to 
hear.

-----Original Message-----
From: cisco-nsp [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of 
CiscoNSP List
Sent: 24 February 2016 10:08
To: Dan Peachey; [email protected]
Subject: Re: [c-nsp] transport path-mtu-discovery - ME3600....too unpredictable 
to use?


Cheers Dan (apologies for top post, on phone) - Ill check all Ints for no ip 
unreachables (I dont believe any have it configured)...We have some relatively 
unpredictable carriers that supply interpop links unfortunately, and no matter 
how many assurances they provide that circuit X will support MTU Y, and will 
not change....6 months down the track, someone fat fingers a transit device, 
and defaults MTU to 1500, and we are left with all sorts of fun and games with 
OSPF/MPLS/BGP...so unfortunately, we deal with each link individually, hope it 
doesnt change, and set MTU based on carriers provisioning docs....hence why I 
think that living with disabling PMTUD/default MSS is the "safest" option for 
us (At least for BGP :) )

Is having a much smaller segment size going to pose that much of an issue in a 
small network? we take 4-6 full tables, have a number of peering links, and 
also have 50-100 customer BGP sessions in VRF's predominantly

Side note - Im still a little uncertain "when/how often" PMTUD calculates, or 
re-calculates it values....If someone could point me to some docco that details 
it, that would be fantastic.

Thanks.


Hi,

Make sure that you don't have 'no ip unreachables' configured on any of your 
core interfaces. This can screw up PMTUD as it relies on routers in the path 
sending back 'ICMP type 3 Fragmentation Needed' packets to the source when the 
egress interface MTU is too small to send the packet.

Having circuit MTU's that are smaller than defined interface MTU's will also 
screw it up. Can you not set a consistent MTU across the network that you know 
will be supported on every core circuit? If not, then I think you will have to 
disable PMTUD and live with the default MSS.

Cheers,

Dan
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