BGP Profile

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is an interdomain path-vector routing protocol that runs over TCP on port 179. It provides a reliable loop-free routing between different Autonomous Systems (ASs). BGP routers (called speakers) form peerings (also known as neighbor relationships) with other BGP peers. These peerings can either be internal (iBGP: within the same AS) or external, (eBGP: connecting two different ASs).

Creating a BGP Profile

To create a BGP profile, complete the following steps:

  1. In the HPE Aruba Networking Central landing page, click the configurationicon.
    The Profiles tab is displayed.

  2. In the left navigation menu, select one of the following options:

    • Library—This is the default selection. If you create profiles in the Library, then you must assign scope and device functions to the profiles. For more information, see Assigning Scope to a BGP Profile.

    • Global—If you create profiles at the Global level, then the profiles have Global scope assigned by default.

    • Site Collections—If you create profiles at the Site Collections level, then the profiles have site collection scope assigned by default.

    • Sites—If you create profiles at the Site level, then the profiles have site scope assigned by default.

    • Devices—If you create profiles at the Device level, then the profiles have device scope assigned by default.

    • Device Groups—If you create profiles at the Device Group level, then the profiles have device group scope assigned by default.

    Note:

    • To create profiles at the Global level, select the device type from the Device Function drop-down list before step 4.
    • To create profiles at the Site Collections, Sites, Devices, and Device Group level, complete the following steps before step 4:
      1. Select Site Collection, Site, Device, or Device Group in the left navigation menu.
      2. Select a Site Collection, Site, Device, or Device Group from the list view depending on the level where you are creating the profile.
      3. Select the device type from the Device Function drop-down list.

  3. On the Routing & Overlays card, click BGP.
    Alternatively, you can complete the following steps:

    1. On the Routing & Overlays card, click Manage.

    2. On the BGP card, click Manage.

    The BGP list view is displayed.

  4. Click Create Profile.
    The Create Profile side panel is displayed.

  5. Configure the BGP profile parameters:

    • Create as a local profile—Select this checkbox if you want to configure this profile as local.

      Note:

      The Create as a local profile checkbox is available at the Global, Site Collections, Sites, Devices, and Device Groups levels. It is not available at the Library level.

    • Name—Enter the name of the BGP profile.

    • Description—Enter the description for the BGP profile.

  6. To add a BGP router, click + to In the Routers table and configure the following parameters:

    • AS—Enter the Autonomous System (AS) number. The AS Number can only be set for the first router instance in a BGP profile. All subsequent routers configured under other VRFs within the same profile will automatically use this AS Number.

    • VRF—Select the VRF from the drop-down list. To add a new VRF, click New VRF Profile. A router instance under the default VRF is required for BGP operation and will be automatically created when you click the + icon for the first time. To create a router under a non-default VRF, ensure that a router instance also exists under the default VRF.

  7. Under BGP Global Settings, configure the following parameters:

    • AS Notation—Specify the AS notation format. The available options are Dotted, Dotted-Plus, or Plain Text. Default: Plain Text.

    • Enable BGP Instance—Use this checkbox to enable or disable the BGP instance. The BGP instance is enabled by default.

    • Fast External Fall Over—Use this checkbox to enable or disable the Fast External Fall Over. This option is enabled by default. When enabled, it sets the switch to reset BGP sessions with any directly connected external peers when the link goes down.

    • Maximum Paths—Specify the maximum number of paths that BGP adds to the routing table for equal-cost multipath (ECMP) load balancing, based on routes learned from both internal and external BGP peers. Range: 1 to 32 paths.

    • Maximum AS Limit—Specify the maximum AS‑path length accepted in BGP updates. Routes with longer AS paths are discarded. Range: 1 to 32.

    • Log Neighbor State Changes—Select the checkbox to enable logging of BGP neighbor session state changes

    • Enable SNMP Traps—Use this checkbox to enable or disable SNMP trap notifications. This option is enabled by default.

  8. Under BGP Timers, configure the following parameters:

    • Keepalive Timer—Set the value for the keepalive timer.

      The keepalive timer defines the number of seconds a BGP peer waits for a keepalive message from its peer before determining that the connection is down. Default: 60 seconds. Range: 0-65535.

    • Hold Timer—Set the value for the holdtime timer. Default: 180 seconds. Range: 0–65535.

      The holdtime timer defines the number of seconds a BGP peer waits without receiving a keepalive, update, or notification message before declaring the connection with its peer as down.

    • Connect Retry Interval—Sets the connect-retry timer for a specific BGP neighbor or peer group. Default: 120 seconds. Range: 0–65535.

    • Confederation ID—Set the identifier for the confederation. Range: 1 – 4294967295

    • Confederation Members—Specify the autonomous system numbers to establish an eBGP membership. Click + to add a list of members.

  9. Under Graceful Restart Options, configure the following parameters:

    • Graceful Restart Time—Set the graceful restart timer which determines how long the switch waits for a graceful-restart capable neighbor to re-establish BGP peering.

    • Graceful Restart Stalepath Time—Set the stale path timer, which determines how long BGP retains stale routes from a restarting BGP peer. Any changes to the BGP configuration are applied by restarting the current BGP sessions on the VRFs.

  10. Expand the Advanced accordion if you want to configure the following advanced BGP parameters:

    • Enable Split Horizon for Aggregate Address—Use this checkbox to enable or disable Split Horizon for aggregate routes.

    • Cluster ID—Specify the cluster ID when the BGP router is used as a route-reflector. The cluster ID default is the router ID. Any changes in BGP configuration are applied by restarting the current BGP sessions on the VRFs.

    • External Route Distance—Specify the administrative distance for eBGP routes. Range: 1 to 255.

    • Internal Route Distance—Specify the administrative distance for iBGP routes. Range: 1 to 255.

    • Local Preference—Specify the local preference value for BGP learned routes.

    Note:

    Both internal and external route distances should be configured together.

  11. Under Route Selection Options, configure the following parameters:

    • Always Compare MED—Select the checkbox to enable comparison of the Multi‑Exit Discriminator (MED) for paths from neighbors in different autonomous systems.

    • Treat Missing MED as Worst—Select the checkbox to configure the BGP routing process to assign a value of infinity (the maximum possible) to routes missing the Multi Exit Discriminator (MED) attribute, making paths without a MED value the least desirable.

    • Ignore AS Path Length—Select the checkbox to configure BGP to ignore the autonomous system (AS) path during best path route selection. By default, the AS path is considered in BGP best path selection.

    • Compare Router ID—Select the checkbox to configure the BGP routing process to compare identical routes received from different external peers during best-path selection and select the route with the lowest router ID as the best path.

    • Use Deterministic MED—Select the checkbox to enable comparison of the Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) attribute when selecting routes advertised by different peers in the same autonomous system.

    • Compare MED Across Confederations—Select the checkbox to enable comparison of the Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) attribute across BGP confederations.

    • ECMP Best Path—Select the checkbox to enable Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routing for BGP best path selection, allowing multiple best paths with the same cost.

  12. To configure IPv4 or IPv6 address families under Address Family IPv4 or Address Family IPv6 , complete the following steps:

    1. To add IPv4 or IPv6 advertise networks, click + in the Advertise Networks table and configure the following parameters:

      • Network—Specify an aggregate address in IPv4 format (x.x.x.x), where x is a decimal number from 0 to 255, or IPv6 format (xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx), where x is a hexadecimal number from 0 to F.

      • Route Map Profile—Select a Route Map profile from the drop-down list. Click New Route Map profile to add a new Route Map profile.

    2. To configure advanced parameters, expand the Advanced accordion and configure the following parameters:

      • Under Redistribution, select the checkbox to choose a redistribution protocol name and the corresponding Route Map to match for redistribution. The available protocols are:

        • Redistribute Connected—Redistributes directly attached networks (directly attached to the subnet or host).

        • Redistribute OSPF—Redistributes OSPFv2 routes under the IPv4 Address Family and OSPFv3 routes under the IPv6 Address Family. After selecting the checkbox, you can specify the OSPF process ID for redistribution in the OSPF ID field. An OSPF profile with the same instance ID must already be configured.

        • Redistribute Static—Redistributes statically configured routes.

        • Redistribute Local Loopback—Redistributes local routes on loopback interfaces.

    3. To add aggregate addresses, click + in the Aggregate Address table and configure the following parameters:

      • Address—Specify an aggregate address for the BGP routing table. Enter the address in IPv4 format (x.x.x.x) or IPv6 format (xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx), and include the address mask in CIDR notation (/x), where x is a decimal number from 0 to 128.

      • Summary Only—Select this checkbox to create an aggregate route and suppress advertisements of more-specific routes to all neighbors.

      • Set AS—Select this checkbox to enable the Set AS option. When enabled, the AS_PATH attribute for the aggregate route will include an AS_SET containing all AS numbers from the summarized paths.

      • Advertise Route Map—Select the route map from the drop-down list that will be used to build attributes of the aggregate route, such as AS_SET or community.

      • Attribute Route Map—Select the route map from the drop-down list to modify attributes of the aggregate route.

      • Suppress Route Map—Select the route map from the drop-down list that will be used to control suppression of more-specific routes within the aggregate.

    4. Dampening—Select one of the following options for route flap dampening, which reduces the propagation of unstable routes in the network:

      • None—Disable the route flap dampening. This is the default option.

      • Dampening Attributes—Select this option to enable dampening and configure the dampening attributes. Only one of the dampening attributes or the dampening route map can be configured at a time.The following are the dampening attributes:

        • Half Life—Specify the half-life time in minutes. When the time expires, the penalty on a route gets reduced exponentially to half its current value. Range: 1 to 45.

        • Reuse Limit—Specify the lower penalty threshold. For a suppressed route, when the penalty value falls below this threshold, the route is unsuppressed

        • Suppress Time—Specify the upper penalty threshold. When the penalty value for a flapping route exceeds this threshold, the route is suppressed.

        • Max Suppress Time—Specify the maximum duration (in minutes) to keep a route suppressed. Once this timer expires, the suppressed route is unsuppressed. Range: 1 to 255.

  13. To configure the number of paths advertised in the EVPN address family, select the number of paths to advertise in the Number of Paths to Advertise field.

  14. To add peer groups, click + in the Peer Groups table to configure basic and advanced parameters and define address families.

    1. Configure the following basic parameters for the peer group:

      • Name—Enter the name of the BGP peer group.

      • Remote AS—Specifies the Autonomous System (AS) number of the remote BGP peer.

      • Description—Enter the description for the BGP peer group.

      • Admin Enable—Use this checkbox to enable or disable the BGP peer group. This option is disabled

        by default.

      • Fall Over—Use this checkbox to enable or disable BGP fast peering session deactivation. When enabled, the BGP process monitors the routing table and immediately shuts down the peer session if the route to the neighbor is missing without waiting for the hold down timer. This option is disabled by default.

      • BFD—Use this checkbox to enable or disable BFD support for BGP. When enabled, BGP registers with Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) to receive fast peering session deactivation messages. This option is disabled by default.

      • L3 VLAN Interface—Select the layer 3 VLAN interface from the drop-down list.

    2. Expand the Advanced accordion to configure the advanced parameters:

      • Configure Authentication Password—Select this checkbox to enable authentication between BGP neighbors by setting the password. Enter the password in Password and Retype password fields. When a password is applied to a peer group, all neighbors within that group inherit the configured authentication setting.

      • Configure TCP AO—Select the checkbox to enable TCP Authentication Option (TCP‑AO) on the TCP session between the two BGP neighbors, and configure the following parameters:

        • AO Keychain—Select the pre‑configured keychain from the AO Keychain drop‑down list.

        • Include TCP Options—Select the checkbox to enable TCP options on the session. This includes the TCP header options for MAC calculation.

        • Accept AO Mismatch—Select the checkbox to enable this setting. If enabled, the device accepts a connection from the peer even when the received TCP packets do not contain the TCP‑AO option.

      • Passive—Select this checkbox to enable passive mode for a specific neighbor or all neighbors in a peer group. In passive mode, the neighbor will not initiate the TCP session.

      • Port—Specify a custom TCP port on which to communicate with the BGP neighbor. When this configuration is applied for a peer group, all the neighbors that are part of peer-group will inherit this setting.

      • Ignore Invalid Attributes—Select this checkbox to ignore BGP routes with invalid attributes.

      • Weight—Specify a weight to a neighbor connection. When the weight is applied to a peer-group then all the neighbors that are part of the peer-group will inherit the value configured.

      • TTL Limit—Set the maximum Time To Live (TTL) value for BGP peer group sessions.

      • Keepalive Timer—Set the value for the keepalive timer. The keepalive timer defines the number of seconds a BGP peer waits for a keepalive message from its peer before determining that the connection is down. Default: 60 seconds. Range: 0-65535.

      • Hold Timer—Set the value for the holdtime timer. Default: 180 seconds. Range: 0–65535. The holdtime timer defines the number of seconds a BGP peer waits without receiving a keepalive, update, or notification message before declaring the connection with its peer as down.

      • Connect Retry Interval—Set the connect-retry timer for a specific peer group. Default: 120 seconds. Range: 0–65535.

      • Graceful Shutdown Time—Specify the wait time before shutting down the BGP neighbor session. Range: 10 – 1200 seconds (Default: 180 seconds)

      • Graceful Shutdown Local Preference—Specify the local preference value to be used when exporting iBGP routes during a graceful shutdown. A lower value indicates a lower local preference. Range: 0 – 4294967295 (Default: 0)

      • Local AS Number—Specify an alternate local AS number for establishing sessions with peers. This enables the router to present itself as part of both its actual autonomous system (AS) and an additional AS.

      • Local AS Mode—Select one of the following local AS modes from the drop-down list:

        • No Prepend—Use this option to prevent the switch from prepending the local ASN value to the AS path list for all routes received from the peer.

        • No Prepend Replace As—Use this option to replace the configured router AS with the local AS in the EBGP updates.

        • No Prepend Replace As Dual As—Use this option to form a neighborship with either of the two AS numbers: the configured router ASN or the local ASN.

      • Remove Private AS—Select the checkbox to force the BGP neighbor to drop private AS numbers. When the checkbox is selected, all neighbors that are part of the peer‑group will remove the private AS before sending the BGP update message.

      • Listen Parameters for Dynamic Peering—Select this checkbox to configure BGP dynamic neighbors as ranges of remote addresses with associated peer groups and configure the following parameters:

        • IP Range—Specify the subnet range.

        • AS Range—Specify the AS numbers for BGP dynamic peers in the range format. Overlapping AS ranges are not supported. Example: 100,65001-65010.

        • Max Limit—Specify the limit for maximum number of peers. Range: 1 to 256.

    3. Configure the following Address Family Parameters under the Address Family IPv4 and Address Family IPv6 sections:

      • Next Hop Self—Select this checkbox to configure the router as the next hop for a peer group and enable BGP to advertise itself as the next hop for outbound routes.

      • Route Reflector Client—Select this checkbox to configure the router as a BGP route reflector and the specified peer as its client.

      • Send Community—Select this checkbox to allow community values to be sent to the peers and configure Send Community Type from the drop-down list. The available options are: Standard, Extended, or Both.

      • Route Map In—Select a route map from the drop-down list to apply policy to routes received from the specified neighbor. Click New Route Map profile to add a new route map profile.

      • Route Map Out—Select a route map from the drop-down list to apply policy to routes advertised to the specified neighbor. Click New Route Map profile to add a new route map profile.

    4. Expand the Advance accordion to configure the following advanced parameters for address families:

      • Advertise Interval—Set the advertisement interval in seconds, which defines the length of time between transmission of BGP routing updates.

      • Allow AS In—Specify the number of times that the AS path of a received route can contain the AS number of the recipient BGP speaker and still be accepted.

      • Number of Paths to Advertise—Specify the number of best BGP Paths to be advertised by a BGP speaker to a BGP peer.

      • Add Paths—Select how the router handles the advertisement and reception of multiple BGP paths for the same prefix with this neighbor. The available options are:

        • None—Disables the Add-Paths feature. Only the best path is advertised and accepted.

        • Both—Enables both sending and receiving of multiple paths for the same prefix.

        • Receive—Allows the router to receive multiple paths from the neighbor.

        • Send — Allows the router to advertise multiple paths to the neighbor.

      • Soft Configuration Inbound—Select this checkbox to generate inbound updates from a neighbor and apply BGP policy changes without resetting the BGP session.

      • Inboud ORF Prefix List—Select this checkbox to apply an inbound prefix list filter, which controls the distribution of BGP neighbor information. The following parameters are displayed:

        • ORF Prefix List—Select the prefix list name to be filtered from the drop‑down list.

      • Default Info Originate—Select this checkbox to enable the local router to send the default route 0.0.0.0 to a neighbor. The neighbor can use this route to reach the router when all other routes are unavailable.

      • Max Prefix—Set the maximum number of prefixes that can be received from a neighbor. By default, the device accepts 128,000 prefixes from a BGP neighbor with a threshold value of 75%.

    5. Configure the following Address Family Parameters under the Address Family EVPN section:

      • Next Hop Self—Select the checkbox to configure the router as the next hop for a BGP‑speaking neighbor or peer group. This enables BGP to advertise routes with the router itself as the next hop.

        Route Reflector Client—Select this checkbox to configure the router as a BGP route reflector and the specified peer as its client.

      • Next Hop Unchanged—Select this checkbox to enable the neighbor to preserve the next hop while advertising routes to eBGP peers in the L2VPN EVPN address family.

      • Replace RT ASN—Select this checkbox to enable the BGP router to replace the ASN portion of the route target in received BGP update messages with the local AS number. This facilitates the use of auto‑RT on all BGP peers across EVPN fabrics.

      • Send Community—Select this checkbox to allow community values to be sent to the peers and configure Send Community Type from the drop-down list. The available options are: Standard, Extended, or Both

      • Route Map In—Select a route map from the drop-down list to apply policy to routes received from the specified neighbor. Click New Route Map profile to add a new route map profile.

      • Route Map Out—Select a route map from the drop-down list to apply policy to routes advertised to the specified neighbor. Click New Route Map profile to add a new route map profile.

    6. Expand the Advance accordion to configure the following advanced parameter for the EVPN address family:

      Allow AS In—Specify the number of times that the AS path of a received route can contain the AS number of the recipient BGP speaker and still be accepted.

  15. To add a peer, click + in the Peers table and configure the basic and advanced parameters and define address families:

    • IP address—Specify the IP address of the BGP peer.

    • Peer group—Select this checkbox to use the existing peer group and select the peer group from the drop-down list. If a peer belongs to a peer group, it uses the settings from that group by default. You can change these settings in the Advanced section. To add a new peer group, click New Peer Group from the drop-down list.

    • Configure the same parameters as specified for the BGP peer group.

  16. Click Create.

  17. To delete a profile, hover on the profile name, and click the delete icon.

  18. To search for a profile, type the profile name in the search bar. The search bar displays dynamic results as soon as you start typing.

Assigning Scope to a BGP Profile

You must assign a scope and device function to a BGP profile created in the Library.

To assign scope to a profile, complete the following steps:

  1. In the HPE Aruba Networking Central landing page, click the configurationicon.
    The Profiles tab is displayed.

  2. Ensure that the default option Library is selected in the left navigation menu.

  3. On the Routing & Overlays card, click BGP.
    Alternatively, you can complete the following steps:

    1. On the Routing & Overlays card, click Manage.

    2. On the BGP card, click Manage.

    The BGP list view is displayed.

  4. Hover on the profile to which you want to assign a scope and click the ellipsis icon.

  5. Select Assign.

    The Assign Profile side panel is displayed.

  6. Select the device types from Device Function list.

  7. To add a scope, click the Add icon on the Scopes table.

  8. Select a scope from the following Scope Level options in the drop-down list.

    • Global—Selecting this option assigns the scope at the Global level.

    • Site Collections—Select the site collections from the Assign to Scope drop-down list.

    • Sites—Select the sites from the Assign to Scope drop-down list.

    • Device Groups—Select the device groups from the Assign to Scope drop-down list.

    • Devices—Select the devices from the Assign to Scope drop-down list.

  9. Click Add.

    The Scopes table displays the newly added scopes.

  10. Click Assign.

    The BGP list displays the device functions and number of scopes assigned to the profile.

  11. To unassign a scope from a profile, complete the following steps:

    1. Hover on the profile name and click the Ellipsis icon.

    2. Select Unassign.

    3. Select the required scope and click Unassign.

  12. To customize the BGP profile list, click the Customize Columns icon .

Considerations

The following are some considerations before configuring BGP:

  • To configure BGP dampening attributes such as Half Life, Suppress Map, and Advertise Map, the Dampening Attributes option must be selected.

  • To configure a dampening route‑map, the Dampening Attributes option must not be selected, or None must be chosen.

  • The neighbor IP address must not be configured on a Layer 3 interface.

  • When redistributing an OSPF process with an instance ID, ensure that the instance is already created under OSPF.

  • The update source IP address must be configured under Layer 3 interfaces.

  • If a VRF is used for BGP, the l3vpn-only attribute must be set to false or left unset.

  • When selecting an update source option (LAG, SVI, or Loopback), the corresponding profile must already be configured with an IP address on the Profiles page. If you choose an IP address directly, it must be pre-configured on any Ethernet interface of the switch.

  • A subflow to create a new interface (LAG/SVI/Loopback) is not available in the BGP UI.

  • When both the graceful restart stale‑path timer and the graceful restart restart‑timer are configured, the stale‑path timer must be set to a value greater than the restart‑timer.

  • BGP cluster‑ID configuration will not work in the UI for higher ranges: values between 2,147,483,647 and 4,294,967,295.