Re: state of the art in router configuration
Ratul,
1. how do most operators configure their bgp (text editor or some high-level configuration tool)?
I think this varies a lot depending on the network and the type of configuration change being made. Some folks work directly at the command-line interface (perhaps with some cut-and-paste from previous configs, especially for boiler-plate stuff), some use GUIs provided by router vendors for some types of config changes, others use their own scripts, and still others might use third-party commercial products like Orchestream or Goldwiretech.
2. are there "configuration checkers" out there that would check whether an operator has not made a common error while modifying configuration?
For this, you might be interested in the paper http://www.research.att.com/~jrex/papers/ieeenet01.ps that appeared in IEEE Network Magazine in Sept/Oct 2001. The paper describes a checker that looks for inconsistencies within and across routers in an AS, by parsing and analyzing router configuration files. -- Jen
1. how do most operators configure their bgp (text editor or some high-level configuration tool)?
I think this varies a lot depending on the network and the type of configuration change being made. Some folks work directly at the command-line interface (perhaps with some cut-and-paste from previous configs, especially for boiler-plate stuff), some use GUIs provided by router vendors for some types of config changes, others use their own scripts, and still others might use third-party commercial products like Orchestream or Goldwiretech.
and some completely generate them from an enterprise database randy
On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Randy Bush wrote:
scripts, and still others might use third-party commercial products like Orchestream or Goldwiretech.
and some completely generate them from an enterprise database
I wonder what the biggest backbones use? 2 out of our 3 T3 providers have broken our connections by assigning our T3 serial interface IP to another customer connection...one of them has done it twice. The two that have done this are, AFAIK, the biggest providers in the continent. Whatever they're using, it's obviously not working well and not checking to make sure IP's about to be configured for an interface aren't already in their IGP. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jon Lewis *jlewis@lewis.org*| I route System Administrator | therefore you are Atlantic Net | _________ http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key_________
### On Tue, 22 Jan 2002 00:56:28 -0500 (EST), <jlewis@lewis.org> casually ### decided to expound upon Randy Bush <randy@psg.com> the following ### thoughts about "Re: state of the art in router configuration": j> On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Randy Bush wrote: j> j> > > scripts, and still others might use third-party commercial products j> > > like Orchestream or Goldwiretech. j> > j> > and some completely generate them from an enterprise database j> j> I wonder what the biggest backbones use? 2 out of our 3 T3 providers have j> broken our connections by assigning our T3 serial interface IP to another j> customer connection...one of them has done it twice. The two that have j> done this are, AFAIK, the biggest providers in the continent. j> j> Whatever they're using, it's obviously not working well and not checking j> to make sure IP's about to be configured for an interface aren't already j> in their IGP. Some vendors and providors have given some thought to integrating IP address and inventory databases into their config management as well. Much work in this area has occurred in the VPN arena for service activation and end-to-end provisioning but the Internet access and transit world is a little bit more open ended and still much less seamlessly managed so there's quite a bit of humans in the loop to coordinate all the assignments, build, and operations. And humans do make mistakes. -- /*===================[ Jake Khuon <khuon@NEEBU.Net> ]======================+ | Packet Plumber, Network Engineers /| / [~ [~ |) | | --------------- | | for Effective Bandwidth Utilisation / |/ [_ [_ |) |_| N E T W O R K S | +=========================================================================*/
participants (4)
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Jake Khuon -
Jennifer Rexford -
jlewis＠lewis.org -
Randy Bush