BGP Configuration Guidelines > Modifying the Hold-Time Value

The hold time is the maximum number of seconds allowed to elapse between successive keepalive or update messages that BGP receives from a peer. When establishing a BGP connection with the local router, a peer sends an open message, which contains a hold-time value. BGP on the local router uses the smaller of either the local hold-time value or the peer's hold-time value received in the open message as the hold time for the BGP connection between the two peers.

To modify the hold-time value on the local BGP system, include the hold-time statement:

hold-time seconds; 

For a list of hierarchy levels at which you can configure this statement, see the statement summary section for this statement.

The default hold-time value is 90 seconds.

The hold time is three times the interval at which keepalive messages are sent.