ARouteServer

A Python tool to automatically build (and test) feature-rich configurations for BGP route servers.

How it works

1. Two YAML files provide general policies and clients configurations options:

   cfg:
     rs_as: 64496
     router_id: "192.0.2.2"
     add_path: True
     filtering:
       next_hop:
         policy: "same-as"
     blackhole_filtering:
       policy_ipv4: "rewrite-next-hop"
       ...

   clients:
     - asn: 64511
       ip:
       - "192.0.2.11"
       - "2001:db8:1:1::11"
       irrdb:
         as_sets:
           - "RIPE::AS-FOO"
     ...

2. ARouteServer acquires external information to enrich them: i.e. bgpq3/bgpq4 for IRR data, PeeringDB for max-prefix limit and AS-SETs, ...

3. Jinja2 built-in templates are used to render the final route server's configuration file.

   Currently, BIRD (>= 1.6.3 up to 1.6.8), BIRD v2 (starting from 2.0.7 - support for BIRD v2 is in early stages) and OpenBGPD (OpenBSD 6.1 up to 6.8 and also OpenBGPD Portable 6.5p1 up to 6.8p1) are supported, with almost feature parity between them.

Validation and testing of the configurations generated with this tool are performed using the built-in live tests framework: Docker instances are used to simulate several scenarios and to validate the behaviour of the route server after configuring it with ARouteServer. More details on the Live tests section.

A Docker-based playground is available to experiment with the tool in a virtual IXP environment.

Features

• Path hiding mitigation techniques (RFC7947 section 2.3.1).
• Basic filters (mostly enabled by default):
  • NEXT_HOP enforcement (strict / same AS - RFC7948 section 4.8);
  • minimum and maximum IPv4/IPv6 prefix length;
  • maximum AS_PATH length;
  • reject invalid AS_PATHs (containing private/invalid ASNs);
  • reject AS_PATHs containing transit-free or never via route-servers ASNs (using PeeringDB info_never_via_route_servers attribute);
  • reject bogons;
  • max-prefix limit based on global or client-specific values or on PeeringDB data.
• Prefixes and origin ASNs validation (also in tag-only mode):
  • IRR-based filters (RFC7948 section 4.6.2);
  • AS-SETs configured manually or fetched from PeeringDB;
  • support for IRR sources (RIPE::AS-FOO, RADB::AS-BAR);
  • white lists support;
  • extended dataset for filters generation:
    • RPKI ROAs used as route objects;
    • Origin AS from ARIN Whois database dump;
    • NIC.BR Whois data (slide n. 26) from Registro.br;
  • RPKI-based filtering (BGP Prefix Origin Validation).
• Blackhole filtering support:
  • optional NEXT_HOP rewriting;
  • signalling via BGP Communities (BLACKHOLE and custom communities);
  • client-by-client control over propagation.
• Graceful shutdown support:
  • honor the GRACEFUL_SHUTDOWN BGP community received from clients (draft-ietf-grow-bgp-gshut-11);
  • allow to perform a graceful shutdown of the route server itself.
• Control and informative communities:
  • prefix/origin ASN present/not present in IRRDBs data;
  • do (not) announce to any / peer / on RTT basis;
  • prepend to any / peer / on RTT basis;
  • add NO_EXPORT / NO_ADVERTISE to any / peer;
  • custom informational BGP communities.
• Optional session features on a client-by-client basis:
  • prepend route server ASN (RFC7947 section 2.2.2.1);
  • active sessions;
  • GTSM (Generalized TTL Security Mechanism - RFC5082);
  • ADD-PATH capability (RFC7911).
• Automatic building of clients list:
  • integration with IXP-Manager;
  • fetch lists from PeeringDB records and Euro-IX member list JSON files.
• IX-F Member Export JSON files creation.
• Related tools:
  • The Playground, to experiment with the tool in a virtual IXP environment.
  • Invalid routes reporter, to log or report invalid routes and their reject reason.

A comprehensive list of features can be found within the comments of the distributed configuration file on GitHub or on the documentation web page.

More feature are already planned: see the Future work section for more details.

Full documentation

Full documentation can be found on ReadTheDocs: https://arouteserver.readthedocs.org/

Presentations

• RIPE74, 10 May 2017, Connect Working Group: video (9:53), slides (PDF)
• Salottino MIX, 30 May 2017: slides

Mentions / endorsements:

• Job Snijders, LACNIC29, 3 May 2018: slides (PDF)
• Anurag Bhatia, APNIC46, 12 September 2018: video, slides (PDF)
• Claudio Jeker, RIPE Labs, 28 November 2018: OpenBGPD - Adding Diversity to the Route Server Landscape.

Who is using ARouteServer?

• BharatIX, BIRD.
• CATNIX, BIRD.
• DO-IX, BIRD.
• FCIX, BIRD.
• GAVLIX.
• IX Australia, BIRD v2.
• IX-Denver, BIRD.
• MBIX, BIRD.
• MIX, BIRD.
• Netnod, BIRD and GoBGP¹.
• NIXI Mumbai (GPX), BIRD.
• NZIX, BIRD v2.
• PIT-IX, BIRD.
• QCIX, BIRD.
• SwissIX, OpenBGPD.
• Unmetered.Exchange, BIRD.
• VANIX.
• YEGIX, OpenBGPD.
• YXEIX, BIRD.
• YYCIX, OpenBGPD.

Are you using it? Do you want to be listed here? Drop me a message!

¹: GoBGP configurations are generated using a fork of the project which is still WIP and that hopefully will be merged upstream in the future.

Bug? Issues? Support requests?

But also suggestions? New ideas?

Please create an issue on GitHub or drop me a message.

A Slack channel is also available on the network.toCode() community: arouteserver.

Author

Pier Carlo Chiodi - https://pierky.com

Blog: https://blog.pierky.com Twitter: @pierky