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BGP Peering Sessions

Advantages of Using External BGP Peer Groups

BGP is the only routing protocol in use today that is suited to carry all of the routes in the Internet. This is largely because BGP runs on top of TCP and can make use of TCP flow control. In contrast, the internal gateway protocols (IGPs) do not have flow control. When IGPs have too much route information, they begin to churn. When BGP has a neighboring speaker that is sending information too quickly, BGP can throttle down the neighbor by delaying TCP acknowledgments.

Another benefit of BGP is that (like IS-IS) it uses type, length, value (TLV) tuples and network layer reachability information (NLRI) that provide seemingly endless extensibility without the need for the underlying protocol to be altered.

In Junos OS, BGP is completely policy driven. The operator must explicitly configure neighbors to peer with and explicity accept routes into BGP. Further, routing policy is used to filter and modify routing information. Thus, routing policies provide complete administrative control over the routing tables.

The preferred way to configure a large number of BGP peer neighbors is to configure peer groups consisting of multiple neighbors per group.

As the number of external BGP (EBGP) groups increases, the ability to support a large number of BGP sessions might become a CPU and memory resource scaling issue. Supporting fewer EBGP groups generally scales better than supporting a large number of EBGP groups. This becomes more evident in the case of hundreds of EBGP groups when compared with a few EBGP groups with multiple peers in each group. The reason for this scaling behavior is that Junos OS has data structures that occur on a per route-per group basis. When you add a group, you multiply those numbers and decrease the amount of memory available.

BGP peering creates mutually beneficial traffic exchange relationships between two independent autonomous systems (ASs). It is especially useful at service provider exchange points. This relationship has the primary benefit of reducing transit costs and equipment resources for both networks. Other potential benefits of creating BGP peer groups include reducing the complexity of the BGP configuration and increasing route redundancy by reducing the dependence on transit providers.

BGP peering can be used to create point-to-point traffic exchanges between two remote networks, such as a remote office and the company headquarters. It can also be used to quickly connect two disparate networks, such as between two merged offices.

Understanding External BGP Peering Sessions

To establish point-to-point connections between peer autonomous systems (ASs), you configure a BGP session on each interface of a point-to-point link. Generally, such sessions are made at network exit points with neighboring hosts outside the AS. Figure 1 shows an example of a BGP peering session.

Figure 1: BGP Peering SessionBGP Peering Session

In Figure 1, Router A is a gateway router for AS 3, and Router B is a gateway router for AS 10. For traffic internal to either AS, an interior gateway protocol (IGP) is used (OSPF, for instance). To route traffic between peer ASs, a BGP session is used.

You arrange BGP routing devices into groups of peers. Different peer groups can have different group types, AS numbers, and route reflector cluster identifiers.

To define a BGP group that recognizes only the specified BGP systems as peers, statically configure all the system’s peers by including one or more neighbor statements. The peer neighbor’s address can be either an IPv6 or IPv4 address.

After the BGP peers are established, non-BGP routes are not automatically advertised by the BGP peers. At each BGP-enabled device, policy configuration is required to export the local, static, or IGP-learned routes into the BGP RIB and then advertise them as BGP routes to the other peers. BGP's advertisement policy, by default, does not advertise any non-BGP routes (such as local routes) to peers.

Note:

On SRX Series Firewalls, you must enable the expected host-inbound traffic on the specified interfaces or all interfaces of the zone. Otherwise inbound traffic destined to this device is dropped by default.

For example, to allow BGP traffic on a specific zone of your SRX Series Firewall, use the following step:

(All interfaces) (Specified interface)

Example: Configuring External BGP Point-to-Point Peer Sessions

This example shows how to configure BGP point-to-point peer sessions.

Requirements

Before you begin, if the default BGP policy is not adequate for your network, configure routing policies to filter incoming BGP routes and to advertise BGP routes.

Overview

Figure 2 shows a network with BGP peer sessions. In the sample network, Device E in AS 17 has BGP peer sessions to a group of peers called external-peers. Peers A, B, and C reside in AS 22 and have IP addresses 10.10.10.2, 10.10.10.6, and 10.10.10.10. Peer D resides in AS 79, at IP address 10.21.7.2. This example shows the configuration on Device E.

Topology

Figure 2: Typical Network with BGP Peer SessionsTypical Network with BGP Peer Sessions

Configuration

Procedure

CLI Quick Configuration

To quickly configure this example, copy the following commands, paste them into a text file, remove any line breaks, change any details necessary to match your network configuration, and then copy and paste the commands into the CLI at the [edit] hierarchy level.

Step-by-Step Procedure

The following example requires you to navigate various levels in the configuration hierarchy. For information about navigating the CLI, see Using the CLI Editor in Configuration Mode in the Junos OS CLI User Guide.

To configure the BGP peer sessions:

  1. Configure the interfaces to Peers A, B, C, and D.

  2. Set the autonomous system (AS) number.

  3. Create the BGP group, and add the external neighbor addresses.

  4. Specify the autonomous system (AS) number of the external AS.

  5. Add Peer D, and set the AS number at the individual neighbor level.

    The neighbor configuration overrides the group configuration. So, while peer-as 22 is set for all the other neighbors in the group, peer-as 79 is set for neighbor 10.21.7.2.

  6. Set the peer type to external BGP (EBGP).

Results

From configuration mode, confirm your configuration by entering the show interfaces, show protocols, and show routing-options commands. If the output does not display the intended configuration, repeat the instructions in this example to correct the configuration.

If you are done configuring the device, enter commit from configuration mode.

Verification

Confirm that the configuration is working properly.

Verifying BGP Neighbors

Purpose

Verify that BGP is running on configured interfaces and that the BGP session is active for each neighbor address.

Action

From operational mode, run the show bgp neighbor command.

Verifying BGP Groups

Purpose

Verify that the BGP groups are configured correctly.

Action

From operational mode, run the show bgp group command.

Verifying BGP Summary Information

Purpose

Verify that the BGP configuration is correct.

Action

From operational mode, run the show bgp summary command.

Example: Configuring External BGP on Logical Systems with IPv6 Interfaces

This example shows how to configure external BGP (EBGP) point-to-point peer sessions on logical systems with IPv6 interfaces.

Requirements

In this example, no special configuration beyond device initialization is required.

Overview

Junos OS supports EBGP peer sessions by means of IPv6 addresses. An IPv6 peer session can be configured when an IPv6 address is specified in the neighbor statement. This example uses EUI-64 to generate IPv6 addresses that are automatically applied to the interfaces. An EUI-64 address is an IPv6 address that uses the IEEE EUI-64 format for the interface identifier portion of the address (the last 64 bits).

Note:

Alternatively, you can configure EBGP sessions using manually assigned 128-bit IPv6 addresses.

If you use 128-bit link-local addresses for the interfaces, you must include the local-interface statement. This statement is valid only for 128-bit IPv6 link-local addresses and is mandatory for configuring an IPv6 EBGP link-local peer session.

Configuring EBGP peering using link-local addresses is only applicable for directly connected interfaces. There is no support for multihop peering.

After your interfaces are up, you can use the show interfaces terse command to view the EUI-64-generated IPv6 addresses on the interfaces. You must use these generated addresses in the BGP neighbor statements. This example demonstrates the full end-to-end procedure.

In this example, Frame Relay interface encapsulation is applied to the logical tunnel (lt) interfaces. This is a requirement because only Frame Relay encapsulation is supported when IPv6 addresses are configured on the lt interfaces.

Figure 3 shows a network with BGP peer sessions. In the sample network, Router R1 has five logical systems configured. Device E in autonomous system (AS) 17 has BGP peer sessions to a group of peers called external-peers. Peers A, B, and C reside in AS 22. This example shows the step-by-step configuration on Logical System A and Logical System E.

Topology

Figure 3: Typical Network with BGP Peer SessionsTypical Network with BGP Peer Sessions

Configuration

Procedure

CLI Quick Configuration

To quickly configure this example, copy the following commands, paste them into a text file, remove any line breaks, change any details necessary to match your network configuration, copy and paste the commands into the CLI at the [edit] hierarchy level, and then enter commit from configuration mode.

Device A

Device B

Device C

Device D

Device E

Step-by-Step Procedure

The following example requires you to navigate various levels in the configuration hierarchy. For information about navigating the CLI, see Using the CLI Editor in Configuration Mode in the CLI User Guide.

To configure the BGP peer sessions:

  1. Run the show interfaces terse command to verify that the physical router has a logical tunnel (lt) interface.

  2. On Logical System A, configure the interface encapsulation, peer-unit number, and DLCI to reach Logical System E.

  3. On Logical System A, configure the network address for the link to Peer E, and configure a loopback interface.

  4. On Logical System E, configure the interface encapsulation, peer-unit number, and DLCI to reach Logical System A.

  5. On Logical System E, configure the network address for the link to Peer A, and configure a loopback interface.

  6. Run the show interfaces terse command to see the IPv6 addresses that are generated by EUI-64.

    The 2001 addresses are used in this example in the BGP neighbor statements.

    Note:

    The fe80 addresses are link-local addresses and are not used in this example.

  7. Repeat the interface configuration on the other logical systems.

Configuring the External BGP Sessions

Step-by-Step Procedure

The following example requires you to navigate various levels in the configuration hierarchy. For information about navigating the CLI, see Using the CLI Editor in Configuration Mode in the CLI User Guide.

To configure the BGP peer sessions:

  1. On Logical System A, create the BGP group, and add the external neighbor address.

  2. On Logical System E, create the BGP group, and add the external neighbor address.

  3. On Logical System A, specify the autonomous system (AS) number of the external AS.

  4. On Logical System E, specify the autonomous system (AS) number of the external AS.

  5. On Logical System A, set the peer type to EBGP.

  6. On Logical System E, set the peer type to EBGP.

  7. On Logical System A, set the autonomous system (AS) number and router ID.

  8. On Logical System E, set the AS number and router ID.

  9. Repeat these steps for Peers A, B, C, and D.

Results

From configuration mode, confirm your configuration by entering the show logical-systems command. If the output does not display the intended configuration, repeat the instructions in this example to correct the configuration.

If you are done configuring the device, enter commit from configuration mode.

Verification

Confirm that the configuration is working properly.

Verifying BGP Neighbors

Purpose

Verify that BGP is running on configured interfaces and that the BGP session is active for each neighbor address.

Action

From operational mode, run the show bgp neighbor command.

Meaning

IPv6 unicast network layer reachability information (NLRI) is being exchanged between the neighbors.

Verifying BGP Groups

Purpose

Verify that the BGP groups are configured correctly.

Action

From operational mode, run the show bgp group command.

Meaning

The group type is external, and the group has four peers.

Verifying BGP Summary Information

Purpose

Verify that the BGP peer relationships are established.

Action

From operational mode, run the show bgp summary command.

Meaning

The Down peers: 0 output shows that the BGP peers are in the established state.

Checking the Routing Table

Purpose

Verify that the inet6.0 routing table is populated with local and direct routes.

Action

From operational mode, run the show route command.

Meaning

The inet6.0 routing table contains local and direct routes. To populate the routing table with other types of routes, you must configure routing policies.

Understanding Internal BGP Peering Sessions

When two BGP-enabled devices are in the same autonomous system (AS), the BGP session is called an internal BGP session, or IBGP session. BGP uses the same message types on IBGP and external BGP (EBGP) sessions, but the rules for when to send each message and how to interpret each message differ slightly. For this reason, some people refer to IBGP and EBGP as two separate protocols.

Figure 4: Internal and External BGPInternal and External BGP

In Figure 4, Device Jackson, Device Memphis, and Device Biloxi have IBGP peer sessions with each other. Likewise, Device Miami and Device Atlanta have IBGP peer sessions between each other.

The purpose of IBGP is to provide a means by which EBGP route advertisements can be forwarded throughout the network. In theory, to accomplish this task you could redistribute all of your EBGP routes into an interior gateway protocol (IGP), such as OSPF or IS-IS. This, however, is not recommended in a production environment because of the large number of EBGP routes in the Internet and because of the way that IGPs operate. In short, with that many routes the IGP churns or crashes.

Generally, the loopback interface (lo0) is used to establish connections between IBGP peers. The loopback interface is always up as long as the device is operating. If there is a route to the loopback address, the IBGP peering session stays up. If a physical interface address is used instead and that interface goes up and down, the IBGP peering session also goes up and down. Thus the loopback interface provides fault tolerance in case the physical interface or the link goes down, if the device has link redundancy.

While IBGP neighbors do not need to be directly connected, they do need to be fully meshed. In this case, fully meshed means that each device is logically connected to every other device through neighbor peer relationships. The neighbor statement creates the mesh. Because of the full mesh requirement of IBGP, you must configure individual peering sessions between all IBGP devices in the AS. The full mesh need not be physical links. Rather, the configuration on each routing device must create a full mesh of peer sessions (using multiple neighbor statements).

Note:

The requirement for a full mesh is waived if you configure a confederation or route reflection.

To understand the full-mesh requirement, consider that an IBGP-learned route cannot be readvertised to another IBGP peer. The reason for preventing the readvertisement of IBGP routes and requiring the full mesh is to avoid routing loops within an AS. The AS path attribute is the means by which BGP routing devices avoid loops. The path information is examined for the local AS number only when the route is received from an EBGP peer. Because the attribute is only modified across AS boundaries, this system works well. However, the fact that the attribute is only modified across AS boundaries presents an issue inside the AS. For example, suppose that routing devices A, B, and C are all in the same AS. Device A receives a route from an EBGP peer and sends the route to Device B, which installs it as the active route. The route is then sent to Device C, which installs it locally and sends it back to Device A. If Device A installs the route, a loop is formed within the AS. The routing devices are not able to detect the loop because the AS path attribute is not modified during these advertisements. Therefore, the BGP protocol designers decided that the only assurance of never forming a routing loop was to prevent an IBGP peer from advertising an IBGP-learned route within the AS. For route reachability, the IBGP peers are fully meshed.

IBGP supports multihop connections, so IBGP neighbors can be located anywhere within the AS and often do not share a link. A recursive route lookup resolves the loopback peering address to an IP forwarding next hop. The lookup service is provided by static routes or an IGP such as OSPF, or BGP routes.

Example: Configuring Internal BGP Peer Sessions

This example shows how to configure internal BGP peer sessions.

Requirements

No special configuration beyond device initialization is required before you configure this example.

Overview

In this example, you configure internal BGP (IBGP) peer sessions. The loopback interface (lo0) is used to establish connections between IBGP peers. The loopback interface is always up as long as the device is operating. If there is a route to the loopback address, the IBGP peer session stays up. If a physical interface address is used instead and that interface goes up and down, the IBGP peer session also goes up and down. Thus, if the device has link redundancy, the loopback interface provides fault tolerance in case the physical interface or one of the links goes down.

When a device peers with a remote device’s loopback interface address, the local device expects BGP update messages to come from (be sourced by) the remote device’s loopback interface address. The local-address statement enables you to specify the source information in BGP update messages. If you omit the local-address statement, the expected source of BGP update messages is based on the device’s source address selection rules, which normally results in the egress interface address being the expected source of update messages. When this happens, the peer session is not established because a mismatch exists between the expected source address (the egress interface of the peer) and the actual source (the loopback interface of the peer). To make sure that the expected source address matches the actual source address, specify the loopback interface address in the local-address statement.

Because IBGP supports multihop connections, IBGP neighbors can be located anywhere within the autonomous system (AS) and often do not share a link. A recursive route lookup resolves the loopback peer address to an IP forwarding next hop. In this example, this service is provided by OSPF. Although interior gateway protocol (IGP) neighbors do not need to be directly connected, they do need to be fully meshed. In this case, fully meshed means that each device is logically connected to every other device through neighbor peer relationships. The neighbor statement creates the mesh.

Note:

The requirement for a full mesh is waived if you configure a confederation or route reflection.

After the BGP peers are established, local routes are not automatically advertised by the BGP peers. At each BGP-enabled device, policy configuration is required to export the local, static, or IGP-learned routes into the BGP routing information base (RIB) and then advertise them as BGP routes to the other peers. BGP's advertisement policy, by default, does not advertise any non-BGP routes (such as local routes) to peers.

In the sample network, the devices in AS 17 are fully meshed in the group internal-peers. The devices have loopback addresses 192.168.6.5, 192.163.6.4, and 192.168.40.4.

Figure 5 shows a typical network with internal peer sessions.

Figure 5: Typical Network with IBGP SessionsTypical Network with IBGP Sessions

Configuration

CLI Quick Configuration

To quickly configure this example, copy the following commands, paste them into a text file, remove any line breaks, change any details necessary to match your network configuration, and then copy and paste the commands into the CLI at the [edit] hierarchy level.

Device A

Device B

Device C

Configuring Device A

Step-by-Step Procedure

The following example requires you to navigate various levels in the configuration hierarchy. For information about navigating the CLI, see Using the CLI Editor in Configuration Mode in the Junos OS CLI User Guide.

To configure internal BGP peer sessions on Device A:

  1. Configure the interfaces.

  2. Configure BGP.

    The neighbor statements are included for both Device B and Device C, even though Device A is not directly connected to Device C.

  3. Configure OSPF.

  4. Configure a policy that accepts direct routes.

    Other useful options for this scenario might be to accept routes learned through OSPF or local routes.

  5. Configure the router ID and the AS number.

Results

From configuration mode, confirm your configuration by entering the show interfaces, show policy-options, show protocols, and show routing-options commands. If the output does not display the intended configuration, repeat the instructions in this example to correct the configuration.

If you are done configuring the device, enter commit from configuration mode.

Configuring Device B

Step-by-Step Procedure

The following example requires that you navigate various levels in the configuration hierarchy. For information about navigating the CLI, see Using the CLI Editor in Configuration Mode.

To configure internal BGP peer sessions on Device B:

  1. Configure the interfaces.

  2. Configure BGP.

    The neighbor statements are included for both Device B and Device C, even though Device A is not directly connected to Device C.

  3. Configure OSPF.

  4. Configure a policy that accepts direct routes.

    Other useful options for this scenario might be to accept routes learned through OSPF or local routes.

  5. Configure the router ID and the AS number.

Results

From configuration mode, confirm your configuration by entering the show interfaces, show policy-options, show protocols, and show routing-options commands. If the output does not display the intended configuration, repeat the instructions in this example to correct the configuration.

If you are done configuring the device, enter commit from configuration mode.

Configuring Device C

Step-by-Step Procedure

The following example requires you to navigate various levels in the configuration hierarchy. For information about navigating the CLI, see Using the CLI Editor in Configuration Mode in the Junos OS CLI User Guide.

To configure internal BGP peer sessions on Device C:

  1. Configure the interfaces.

  2. Configure BGP.

    The neighbor statements are included for both Device B and Device C, even though Device A is not directly connected to Device C.

  3. Configure OSPF.

  4. Configure a policy that accepts direct routes.

    Other useful options for this scenario might be to accept routes learned through OSPF or local routes.

  5. Configure the router ID and the AS number.

Results

From configuration mode, confirm your configuration by entering the show interfaces, show policy-options, show protocols, and show routing-options commands. If the output does not display the intended configuration, repeat the instructions in this example to correct the configuration.

If you are done configuring the device, enter commit from configuration mode.

Verification

Confirm that the configuration is working properly.

Verifying BGP Neighbors

Purpose

Verify that BGP is running on configured interfaces and that the BGP session is active for each neighbor address.

Action

From operational mode, enter the show bgp neighbor command.

Verifying BGP Groups

Purpose

Verify that the BGP groups are configured correctly.

Action

From operational mode, enter the show bgp group command.

Verifying BGP Summary Information

Purpose

Verify that the BGP configuration is correct.

Action

From operational mode, enter the show bgp summary command.

Verifying That BGP Routes Are Installed in the Routing Table

Purpose

Verify that the export policy configuration is causing the BGP routes to be installed in the routing tables of the peers.

Action

From operational mode, enter the show route protocol bgp command.

Example: Configuring Internal BGP Peering Sessions on Logical Systems

This example shows how to configure internal BGP peer sessions on logical systems.

Requirements

In this example, no special configuration beyond device initialization is required.

Overview

In this example, you configure internal BGP (IBGP) peering sessions.

In the sample network, the devices in AS 17 are fully meshed in the group internal-peers. The devices have loopback addresses 192.168.6.5, 192.163.6.4, and 192.168.40.4.

Figure 6 shows a typical network with internal peer sessions.

Figure 6: Typical Network with IBGP SessionsTypical Network with IBGP Sessions

Configuration

CLI Quick Configuration

To quickly configure this example, copy the following commands, paste them into a text file, remove any line breaks, change any details necessary to match your network configuration, and then copy and paste the commands into the CLI at the [edit] hierarchy level.

Device A

Step-by-Step Procedure

The following example requires you to navigate various levels in the configuration hierarchy. For information about navigating the CLI, see Using the CLI Editor in Configuration Mode in the CLI User Guide.

To configure internal BGP peer sessions on Device A:

  1. Configure the interfaces.

  2. Configure BGP.

    On Logical System A, the neighbor statements are included for both Device B and Device C, even though Logical System A is not directly connected to Device C.

  3. Configure OSPF.

  4. Configure a policy that accepts direct routes.

    Other useful options for this scenario might be to accept routes learned through OSPF or local routes.

  5. Configure the router ID and the autonomous system (AS) number.

Results

From configuration mode, confirm your configuration by entering the show logical-systems command. If the output does not display the intended configuration, repeat the configuration instructions in this example to correct it.

If you are done configuring the device, enter commit from configuration mode.

Verification

Confirm that the configuration is working properly.

Verifying BGP Neighbors

Purpose

Verify that BGP is running on configured interfaces and that the BGP session is active for each neighbor address.

Action

From the operational mode, enter the show bgp neighbor command.

Verifying BGP Groups

Purpose

Verify that the BGP groups are configured correctly.

Action

From the operational mode, enter the show bgp group command.

Verifying BGP Summary Information

Purpose

Verify that the BGP configuration is correct.

Action

From the operational mode, enter the show bgp summary command.

Verifying That BGP Routes Are Installed in the Routing Table

Purpose

Verify that the export policy configuration is working.

Action

From the operational mode, enter the show route protocol bgp command.