Hello Graham, I had a chance to analysis this topic GR and GR helper mode( default) for EoR msg and for the LLGR timer afterwards and had e-mail correspondence with the RFC auther. I would say based on your environment topology and the type of BGP fault/error. You keep the default mode unless BFD is configured. Even if you donot have GR configured. There is benefit to help your neigh ( if no BFD) in the restart process based on the type of peering relation. Now, to enable GR itself. You have to know what are you doing and why and where in the network it is actually enabled. Still, you don't enable it where BFD is configured. Brgds, LG ________________________________ From: NANOG <nanog-bounces+lobna_gouda=hotmail.com@nanog.org> on behalf of Graham Johnston <johnston.grahamj@gmail.com> Sent: Friday, April 16, 2021 10:11 AM To: nanog@nanog.org <nanog@nanog.org> Subject: BGP Graceful Restart I do believe that I understand the intended purpose of BGP graceful-restart. With that said, I was watching a video of a talk given by someone respected in the industry the other day on the use of graceful-shutdown and at the beginning of the talk there was a quick disclaimer that his topic had nothing to do with graceful-restart along with some text on the slide that provided me a clear indication that he was not a fan of graceful-restart. Largely, I suspect that his point was that if you otherwise do the right things during maintenance that graceful-restart has the potential of being really problematic if things go wrong, and thus he was discouraging the use of it. Is there consensus as to whether graceful-restart has any place in a service provider network? Thanks, Graham