[179625] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Euro-IX quagga stable download and implementation
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andy Davidson)
Fri Apr 24 05:30:18 2015
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
From: Andy Davidson <andy@nosignal.org>
To: Goran Slavic <gslavic@sox.rs>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2015 09:30:12 +0000
In-Reply-To: <7b5c414d74bd558bbb473086d422c099@sox.rs>
Cc: "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
Hi, Goran, everyone --
On 23 Apr 2015, at 09:06, Goran Slavic <gslavic@sox.rs> wrote:
> at the mailing list and have an interest in downloading and implementing =
the Euro-IX version of Quagga in our Internet exchange. My questions are si=
mple:
> - Considering the time when the post is written (2012) - what is the curr=
ent status of the Euro-IX Quagga ?
> - Where can it be downloaded as a stable release / version ?
This email is a comment on using this software as a route-server, and not a=
comment on using this software as a RIB manager on a forwarding device - i=
f you=92re a reader from the future trying to understand about running this=
software on a router, then please bear this in mind.
There are three well known open source BGP implementations which are common=
ly used as a route-server - BIRD, Quagga, and OpenBGPd. It is typical to c=
onfigure them today in a way that has the route-server calculate a differen=
t RIB for every connected ASN on your exchange. This is because it is also=
common to allow route-server users to filter (prevent their prefixes reach=
ing) other participants. Information about why this is important has been =
published in various presentations and papers at IX and operator events.
Calculating best-path for every participant becomes complex when you have a=
lot of participants, further when the number of prefixes on the exchange g=
rows. =20
OpenBGPd will stay up but take a very long time to process and forward anno=
unce/withdraw BGP messages. On a ~100 ASN/participant/table system with ~5=
000 prefixes, it can take anywhere up to an hour for a withdraw to be proce=
ssed and forwarded which means your participants will get a route that is w=
ithdrawn for a long time and blackhole traffic at the exchange. It is there=
fore problematic to use this software on all but the smallest exchanges. I=
t=92s OK on small instances but does not scale.
Quagga=92s vanilla build will fail to stay up with large numbers of tables =
and participants. Chris Hall did an amazing job at making a build that was=
more prone to staying up and his build is doing a sterling job at LINX (al=
ongside BIRD) but I understand that this source tree is no longer maintaine=
d and that the task of merging his stability fixes into the mainline or OSR=
(https://www.opensourcerouting.org) version is not a simple job and has no=
t been done. This gives me a serious concern about the future of this bran=
ch.
BIRD just doesn=92t die, no matter what scale we seem to throw at it. This=
thing just keeps flying.
We now have two (busy) BIRD instances at the LONAP exchange in London where=
most of our 150 exchange point members use the service.
Goran - SOX is a member of the Euro-IX association for exchange points and =
there is a private mailing list for members who operate route-servers. The=
re may be a greater concentration of route-server operators on that list so=
it=92s probably worth continuing the discussion there? You sign in to the=
website and visit https://www.euro-ix.net/mailing-list-archives to subscri=
be.
With best wishes,
Andy Davidson
(Relevant Hats: LONAP, IXLeeds, Euro-IX, IIX, NapAfrica)=
