Re: ExaBGP and BIRD clue in the house?

["Thomas Mangin" <thomas.mangin () exa-networks co uk>]

Hello Randy,

The current configuration parser is currently progressive: what exists 
when the neighbor is created (or in the neighbor group) is what will be 
associated (which is not really ideal) hence why I have passed the last 
three weeks totally rewriting it in view of version 4.0. This is still 
serious WIP tho.

ExaBGP is indeed “dumb” (outch, it hurts :p) when it comes to route 
filtering, advanced features are “left as an exercise for the end 
user” using the API. I did not see an immediate need to re-invent BIRD 
which covers this part of the ecosystem more than well.

You can find some good examples on how ExaBGP can be used on this site:
https://thepacketgeek.com/tag/exabgp/

Many people have released useful tools:
https://github.com/YoshiyukiYamauchi/mrtparse
https://github.com/dpiekacz/gixlg
https://github.com/abh/bgpapi
https://github.com/search?utf8=✓&q=exabgp returns quite a few more.

Obviously if you have any issues/questions, I am more than happy to help 
( via the mailing list, G+, Gitter, IRC #exabgp on freenode )

Once the connected program receive an update, it can decide to 
re-distribute it.

Have “fun”,

Thomas

http://exa.net.uk/about/contact-us
On 2 Jul 2015, at 18:14, Randy wrote:

> I think you overestimated exabgp's dead simplicity.
>
> After some more testing, I found moving the route higher in the config 
> file (before the neighbor definition rather than inside it), it 
> propagates.   So order matters more than anything.   You have to 
> define routes either BEFORE or WITHIN neighbors in each group scope.
>
> I also do not believe exa supports any sort of routing policy.   It's 
> a dumb tool for manually injecting routes and piping updates to 
> external apps.
>
> ~Randy
>
> On 07/02/2015 9:44 am, Owen DeLong wrote:
> > Exactly… It’s not an issue, it’s expected behavior.
> >
> > If you move the static up within the neighbor definition, it becomes
> > an Anchor Route and Exa knows you want it announced.
> >
> > If you leave it in the static routes section, then you either need a
> > redistribution policy from static to bgp (not recommended) or you 
> > need
> > some other sort of policy that tells exa that you want to announce 
> > the
> > route.
> >
> > Owen
> >
> > > On Jul 2, 2015, at 09:40 , Randy <amps () djlab com> wrote:
> > >
> > > FYI, if the static is moved up within the neighbor definition, it 
> > > works.   So this is an Exa related issue/feature and not a problem 
> > > with BIRD.
> > >
> > > I'll move the noise to the Exa list if needed.
> > >
> > > ~Randy
> > >
> > > On 07/02/2015 9:13 am, Randy wrote:
> > > > Really, it's got to be something dead stupid.   Hoping to borrow 5
> > > > minutes of someone's time.   Replies on or off list are fine.
> > > > I've reduced it to a simple config:
> > > > BIRD:
> > > > protocol bgp {
> > > > description "ExaBGP-local";
> > > > local as 12345;
> > > > allow local as 1;
> > > > neighbor 10.0.0.2 as 12345;
> > > > next hop keep;
> > > > start delay time 5;
> > > > import all;
> > > > export all;
> > > > }
> > > > EXABGP:
> > > > group gixlg {
> > > > hold-time 180;
> > > > local-as 12345;
> > > > router-id 10.0.0.2;
> > > > family {
> > > >   ipv4 unicast;
> > > > }
> > > > neighbor 10.0.0.1 {
> > > >   router-id 10.0.0.2;
> > > >   local-address 10.0.0.2;
> > > >   peer-as 12345;
> > > >   description "Bird-local";
> > > >   group-updates;
> > > > }
> > > > static {
> > > >   route 1.2.3.4/32 next-hop 4.3.2.1;
> > > > }
> > > > }
> > > > Everything comes up.   But bird has no routes.
> > > > bird> sh protocols
> > > > name     proto    table    state  since       info
> > > > bgp1     BGP      master   up     12:06:00    Established
> > > > bird> show route all
> > > > bird>