Q: Does the S3300/5300/6300 Support Blackhole Routes?

A: Earlier versions of S3300/5300 V100R005 do not support blackhole routes.
The S3300/5300 V100R005, and S3300/5300/6300 V100R006 and later versions support blackhole routes. The following command configures a blackhole route: ip route-static ipaddress mask NULL 0

Q: Can the Next Hop Address Be Not Specified in a Static Route?
A: You must specify the next hop address in a static route, but you can choose not to specify the outbound interface.

The ip route-static ip-address mask Vlanif vlan-id command specifies the VLANIF interface as the outbound interface in a static route and does not specify the next hop address. This command is not recommended because it does not take effect and lowers device performance.

Q: How Is the Source IP Address of Ping Packets Specified?

A: - The -a parameter specifies the source IP address of ping packets.

- If -a is not specified, the system searches for the outbound interface mapping the destination IP address in the routing table and uses the outbound interfaces IP address as the source IP address of ping packets. If there are equal-cost routes to the destination IP address, the system performs the hash algorithm based on the destination IP address, protocol number, ICMP type, and ICMP code and selects the outbound interfaces IP address as the source IP address of ping packets.

I hope the article will be useful to all

Great post! very useful

useful document, thanks