I don't want to crash the 'net
Hi all, First, an apology if this is off topic. A (brief) intro/explanation. My name is Sheryl Chapin. I am the network administrator for a startup ISP in Maine. I would say that I am the sr. network admin, except I am the *only* network admin. I have 18 years expierience in computers, 10 years with Unix and 3 with Cisco routers. I am not a programmer, I am a system and network administrator. My topology: I have two 7513's in two different cities in Maine: Portland and Winthrop. They are connected via a T3. I have a T3 connection to UU Net from Portland and in a week I will have a T3 connection to AGIS from Winthrop. I have a *very* basic BGP configuration running on the Portland router right now. What I need is some practical help/advice on how to configure my routers once AGIS is also connected. I want to be able to load balance and I would like to do it without crashing a major portion of the internet. I have been reading everything I can find on BGP, Avi Freedman's columns and web pages have been extremely helpfull, but the Cisco documentation just gives me a headache. I am not a stupid person, but I am willing to admit that I have never done this level of configuration before. I figure I can either ask for some help and look stupid or crash the internet, and quite frankly, I would rather look stupid then do something stupid. (Mr. Freedman's columns do a really good job of putting the fear of God into someone just starting out with BGP :-) Part of my problem is the documenation does a good job of giving me syntax, but not of explaining WHY I should or should not do something. For example, UU Net gave me configuration commands for turning on BGP which included a "redistribute connected" command. Someone else from another ISP here in Maine (that we are co-locating with) told me not to use it. Now I know what the redistribute command does, I just haven't found anything anywhere to explain what the pros and cons are for using it. How does it affect the routing? I really work better when I understand how things work. So if anyone has any advice, caveats, pointers to docs, things I absolutely should do or things I absolutely shouldn't do, I would be EXTREMELY grateful. If this is just totally off topic, again, my apologies. Thanks for your time. Sheryl Chapin CommTel Internet 207.377.3508 schapin@ctel.net
At 12:34 PM 11/12/97 -0500, Sheryl Chapin wrote:
Part of my problem is the documenation does a good job of giving me syntax, but not of explaining WHY I should or should not do something. For example, UU Net gave me configuration commands for turning on BGP which included a "redistribute connected" command. Someone else from another ISP here in Maine (that we are co-locating with) told me not to use it. Now I know what the redistribute command does, I just haven't found anything anywhere to explain what the pros and cons are for using it. How does it affect the routing? I really work better when I understand how things work.
A good resource is a book by Bassam Halabi, published by Cisco Press called Internet Routing Architecture. It explains BGP while using the Cisco commands and how nad why you should do it. It's ISBN is 1-56205-652-2. It is hardcover and is a great learning tool and reference.
At 12:42 PM 11/12/97 -0500, Matthew Pearson wrote:
A good resource is a book by Bassam Halabi, published by Cisco Press called Internet Routing Architecture. It explains BGP while using the Cisco commands and how nad why you should do it. It's ISBN is 1-56205-652-2. It is hardcover and is a great learning tool and reference.
As an aside, a lot of the same information is contained at: BGP Technical Tips o EBGP Sample Configuration to Load Balance over Multiple Serial Links o Using the Border Gateway Protocol for Interdomain Routing http://cio.cisco.com/warp/public/459/18.html - paul
participants (3)
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Matthew Pearson -
Paul Ferguson -
Sheryl Chapin