Hi ccie10, Have you considered reflectors ? The configuration is trival and migration easy. Is your reason for confederations partitioning based on the need to run multiple IGP instances in your network ? If so what IGP are you running today (having full mesh of ibgp) and how big is the network we are talking about here ? I am asking as I wonder why scaling ibgp mesh with reflectors was not chosen as the prefered option. R.
It's not a fun process. I've given the matter quite a lot of thought. There are no easy ways to do this. Of course, with sufficient planning, some scripts, a good lab environment, and a few hours of downtime, a network can be transitioned. I don't recommend it for faint of heart. The best candidates for a BGP Confederation design are isolated eBGP networks (i.e. networks where AS border routers run eBGP, with no iBGP mesh) and greenfield networks. The last network I worked with that made a successful transition was Mindspring, AS4355, and they fell into the former category.
The big question is, how big is the network. It's a trivial transition with 10 routers, lets say. If you have 100 fully meshed iBGP peers, I wouldn't bet on it. Also, implement communities - they make certain aspects of confederation configuration much easier.
For more information on confeds, check on the NANOG web site. There are several archived presentations on the subject.
- Dan Golding
On Wed, 4 Oct 2000, ccie10 wrote:
Is there an easy way to migrate an existing network running IBGP full mesh to a Condederation based configration. Any documentation that I have come across states that current BGP configs need to be redone and all peering relationships must torn down and rebuilt. Any addtional info/links regarding confederations would be appreciated
thanks