# Testing BGP Policies

You can analyze and check your BGP routing policies on your network before you implement the policies. Use the test ip bgp neighbor and test bgp ipv6 neighbor commands to test the outcome of a BGP policy. The commands output display the routes that are advertised or accepted if the specified policy is implemented.

BGP routes must be present in the forwarding table for this command to work properly. If you run the policy test on incoming routes, soft reconfiguration (configured with the neighbor soft reconfiguration in command) must be in effect.

| Note: You can use the standard redirect operators to redirect the test output to network or local files. See JunosE System Basics Configuration Guide. The output of these commands is always speculative. It does not reflect the current state of the router.

test bgp ipv6 neighbor

test ip bgp neighbor

- Use to test the effect of BGP policies on a router without implementing the policy.
- You can apply the test to routes advertised to peers or received from peers.
- You can test the following kinds of policies: distribute lists, filter lists, prefix lists, prefix trees, or route maps. If you do not specify a policy, then the test uses whatever policies are currently in effect on the router.

  | Note: If you test the current policies, the results might vary for routes learned before the current policies were activated if you did not clear the forwarding table when the policies changed.

- The following three items apply to the test ip bgp neighbor command only:
  - The address-family identifier for the route is the same as is used for identifying the neighbor.
  - If you do not specify a route, the test is performed for all routes associated with the address-family identifier.
  - Specifying only an address and mask without a route distinguisher causes all routes sharing the address and mask to be taken into account. Specifying only an address causes a best match to be performed for the route.
- If you completely specify a route with IP address, mask, and route distinguisher, the command displays detailed route information. Otherwise only summary information is shown. Use the fields option to select particular fields of interest.
- If you specify a BGP peer group by using the peerGroupName argument, all the members of the peer group inherit the characteristic configured with this command unless it is overridden for a specific peer.
- You can set a weight value for inbound routes filtered with a filter list.
- Example
  host1#test ip bgp neighbor 10.12.54.21 advertised-routes distribute-list boston5 fields all
- There is no no version.
- See test bgp ipv6 neighbor.
- See test ip bgp neighbor.