Creating a BGP instance

You can create BGP instances in a network template or on a device. BGP settings specified in the network template are automatically propagated to all devices that use this template.

To create a BGP instance:

  1. Create a BGP instance in one of the following ways:
    • If you want to create a BGP instance in a network template, in the menu, select the Network templates tab, click the network template, and select the Routing → BGP section.
    • If you want to create a BGP instance on a device, in the menu, select the Devices tab, click the device and select the Routing → BGP section.
  2. In the Autonomous system field, enter the autonomous system number (from 1 to 4 294 967 295). The specified autonomous system is used for all BGP instances created in the template or on the device and is displayed in the AS field of the BGP instance.

  3. Create one or more BGP instances:
    1. Click Create. The workspace for adding a BGP instance is displayed.

      By default, the General tab is selected, which displays the basic BGP settings.

    2. Set the Status toggle switch to On. By default, the toggle switch is in the Off position.
    3. In the VRF drop-down list, select a previously created VRF instance to which you want to advertise BGP routes. The list only shows those VRFs that are not associated with other BGP devices on the device or in the template.
    4. In the Router ID field, enter the IPv4 address that you want to assign to the router ID of the device.

    5. If necessary, in the Maximum paths field, enter the maximum number of entries in the routing and forwarding table of the device. Range of values: 1 to 128.
    6. If you want the device to compare the multi-exit discriminator (MED) attribute of routes advertised from different autonomous systems, enable the Always compare MED toggle switch.

      This setting must be enabled for all devices in your autonomous system. Otherwise, exchange of routing information may result in routing loops.

    7. If necessary, enable graceful restart on the device using the Graceful restart toggle switch.
    8. If you do not want the device to exchange IPv4 routes with BGP peers by default, enable the Default IPv4 unicast toggle switch.
    9. If necessary, configure BGP timers. To do this, enable the Set BGP timers toggle switch and specify the following setting:
      1. In the Keepalive (s) field, enter the time interval in seconds that the device uses to send control packets to BGP peers. Range of values: 0 to 65 535.
      2. In the Holdtime (s) field, enter the time interval in seconds for which the device waits to receive control packets from BGP peers. If no control packets are received from the BGP peer within the specified time, the device considers the peer unavailable. Range of values: 0 to 65 535.
    10. If you want to configure route redistribution in BGP, under Route redistribution, do the following:
      1. Enable the necessary toggle switches next to the route types:
        • Kernel to redistribute Kernel routes generated by the operating system kernel of the device.
        • Connected to redistribute routes directly connected to network interfaces of the device.
        • OSPF to redistribute OSPF routes.
        • Static to redistribute static routes.
      2. Specify the following settings that are displayed when you enable each toggle switch:
        • In the Route map drop-down list, select a previously created route map for redistributed routes.
        • In the Metric field, enter a metric of redistributed routes. Range of values: 0 to 16 777 214.
    11. If you want the device to advertise one or more subnets to BGP peers, add the subnets in the Networks section. To do so, perform the following:
      1. In the upper part of the Networks section, click the + Add button.
      2. In the Network field, enter the IPv4 subnet prefix in CIDR format.
      3. In the Route map drop-down list, select a previously created route map for the subnet.

        The subnet is specified and displayed under Networks. To delete a subnet, click the delete icon cross_icon_3 next to it.

    12. If necessary, manage the corresponding BGP instance settings on the Neighbors, Peer groups, and Route leaking tabs.
    13. In the lower part of the workspace for adding a BGP instance, click Create to save the BGP instance settings.

      The BGP instance is added to the table of BGP instances in the settings area.

  4. Save the settings of the network template or device.

The BGP instance is created.

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