Lab 4-TS, Ticket 8: Does the solutions guide virtual-link suggestion really work?

R5 lo100 (3001:5::5/128) is in area 2.
R3 should choose optimum direct path to R5s Lo100

R3 also has two tunnel interfaces in area 2 (to R2 and R4).
This way the IPv6 prefix of R5 Lo100 is always learned as
an INTRA-AREA route to R3. This is via R2 or R4 respectively.

How to make R3 choose the direct serial link to R5 instead?

The only way i know is to make a better metric over another area 2 link
appear at R3. I chose to do this as a new ipv6 tunnel between R3 and R5,
putting this tunnel in area 2. The cost over this tunnel is lower than
over the tunnels via R2 or R4. The new tunnel is ipv6 only – thus
keeping with the restriction of only adding ipv6 addresses.

The solutions guide points to the use of an virtual link through the
existing area 1 between R3 and R5. I can't see how this should work?
(and I can not get it to work). The virtual link will be an area 0 link,
but both R3 and R5 already have interfaces in area 0 (via SW1).

So another area0 link will not change the fact that through area 0 the
R5 Lo100 loopback will still be seen as an INTER-AREA (O IA) route
at R3 – still not taking precedence over the INTRA-AREA (O) route
that R3 already has…….

I have spent hours on this today, now I give up.

Anyone else done this and got it to work with a virtual link?

Regards

Orjan