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Specifying Peer Groups for a BGP Router

Owned by Shirly Tsang
Last updated: Jul 19, 2023 by Alex Mandel
3 min read

Specify the following:

  • Click Add.

  • In the Create a Peer Group section, specify the following:

    • Name: Create a name that does not exceed 64 characters in length. Use numbers, any special characters, uppercase and lowercase letters, and even spaces. Start and end the name with any character but not a space. Leading and trailing spaces will be trimmed off automatically.

    • Description: Enter a description that does not exceed 256 characters in length.

    • Remote ASN (required): Specify the ASN (autonomous system number) of the interface. Use the up and down arrows, or manually enter a value from 1 to 4294967295. BGP uses the unique ASN to identify each system. BloxOne supports up to four-byte ASNs, including ASPLAIN and ASDOT formats.

    • Update Source: Specify the IP address of the loopback interface so that BGP connections to the neighbor get sourced from the loopback IP.

    • ADDRESS FAMILY:

      • IPv4: Leave as Disabled, or toggle to Enabled.

      • Next Hop Self: Leave as Disabled, or toggle to Enabled. Enabling this toggle switch will enable the net hop network address you want to add to the routing table and will ensure that the network is reachable.

      • Route Map - In: Select an existing route map from the drop-down, or create a new one.

      • Route Map - Out: Select an existing route map from the drop-down, or create a new one.

      • Soft Reconfiguration: Set this toggle switch to Enabled to generate inbound updates from a BGP neighbor and to change and activate BGP policies without clearing the BGP session. 

      • Weight: Enter an integer from 0 to 65535. This number represents the weight that BGP will use to choose a path. The path with the highest weight is preferred.

      • IPv6: Leave as Disabled, or toggle to Enabled.

    • ADMIN SHUTDOWN:

      • Enable: To enable administrative shutdown, toggle this to True. The BGP peer groups will be shut down administratively, and the configuration will not be removed from BGP.

      • Message: Enter a description that does not exceed 256 characters in length. This is the message you want to use when shutting down the BGP peer groups.

    • ADVANCED: Expand Advanced Options, and do the following:

      • Graceful Restart: Toggle this to Enabled to announce a graceful restart. If you toggle this to Disabled, the graceful restart capability is not announced. By default, this option is set to Disabled.

      • Password: Use alphanumeric and special characters.

      • TTL Security: Enter a value from 1 to 254. This is the minimum TTL (Time To Live) value for incoming IP packets received from peers in the remote autonomous system.

      • Advertise Interval: Enter a value from 0 to 600. This is the number of seconds that must elapse between an advertisement or a withdrawal of routes to a BGP peer.

      • Hold Time: Enter a value from 1 to 65535. This is the number of seconds that a router will wait for incoming BGP messages before it assumes the neighbor is dead. This heartbeat mechanism ensures that the BGP neighbors are healthy and alive. The hold time you enter here sets the hold timer for each BGP neighbor. Upon receipt of an UPDATE or a KEEPALIVE message, the hold timer resets to the initial value. If the hold timer reaches zero, the BGP session is terminated, the routing paths from that neighbor are removed, and, for the prefixes affected, an appropriate message about withdrawal of an update route is sent to other BGP neighbors.

      • Keep Alive: Enter a value from 1 to 65535.

      • Connect Time: Enter a value from 1 to 65535. This is the interval of time, in seconds, that the BGP peer is to stay connected.

Click Save.