Creating and configuring a Maintenance Association

Perform the following steps to create and configure a Maintenance Association (MA).

Create a MA within a specific domain, use the ma-name command.

device# configure terminal
device(config)# protocol cfm
device(config-cfm)# domain name md1 id 1 level 4
device(config-cfm-md-md1)# ma-name ma1 id 1 vlan-id 30 priority 4
device(config-cfm-md-ma-ma1)#

This command changes the Maintenance Domain (MD) mode to the specific MA mode.

Set the time interval between two successive Continuity Check Messages (CCMs) that are sent by Maintenance End Points (MEP) in the specified MA, use the ccm-interval command.
```
device# configure terminal
device(config)# protocol cfm
device(config-cfm)# domain name md1 id 1  level 4
device(config-cfm-md-md1)# ma-name ma1 id 1 vlan-id 30 priority 3
device(config-cfm-md-ma-ma1)# ccm-interval 10-second
device(config-cfm-md-ma-ma1)#
```
The id field specifies the short MAID format that is carried in the CCM frame. The default time interval is 10 seconds.
Add local ports as MEP to a specific maintenance association using the mep command in MA mode.
```
device# configure terminal
device(config)# protocol cfm
device(config-cfm)# domain name md1 id 1 level 4
device(config-cfm-md-md1)# ma-name ma1 id 1 vlan-id 30 priority 3
device(config-cfm-md-ma-ma1)# mep 1 down ethernet 1/2
device(config-cfm-md-ma-mep-1)#
```
To configure a CFM packet to a Down MEP, you must sent it out on the port on which it was configured. To configure a Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) packet to an Up MEP, you must sent it to the entire VLAN for multicast traffic and the unicast traffic must be sent to a particular port as per the MAC table.

Configure the remote MEPs using the remote-mep command.

device# configure terminal
device(config)# protocol cfm
device(config-cfm)# domain name md1 id 1clevel 4
device(config-cfm-md-md1)# ma-name ma1 id 1 vlan-id 30 priority 3
device(config-cfm-md-ma-ma1)# mep 1 down ethernet 1/2
device(config-cfm-md-ma-mep-1)# remote-mep 2
device(config-cfm-md-ma-mep-1)#

If a remote MEP is not specified, the remote MEP database is built based on the CCM. If one remote MEP never sends CCM, the failure cannot be detected.

Configure the conditions to automatically create MIPs on ports using the mip-policy command, in Maintenance Association mode.
```
device# configure terminal
device(config)# protocol cfm
device(config-cfm)# domain name md1 id 1 level 4
device(config-cfm-md-md1)#ma-name ma1 id 1 vlan-id 30 pri 7
device(config-cfm-md-ma-ma1)#mip-policy explicit
device(config-cfm-md-ma-ma1)#
```
A MIP can be created on a port and VLAN, only when explicit or default policy is defined for them. For a specific port and VLAN, a MIP is created at the lowest level. Additionally, the level created should be the immediate higher level than the MEP level defined for this port and VLAN.