Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Use BGP maximum-paths eibgp with Caution

Under the BGP command process, "maximum-paths" enables BGP to perform load-sharing among multiple paths. There are 3 options:
  1. maximum-paths: only allow equal-cost path load-sharing
  2. maximum-paths ibgp: enable both equal-cost and unequal-cost path load-sharing for internal BGP
  3. maximum-paths eibgp: enable both equal-cost and unequal-cost path load-sharing for both internal and external BGP
If you have 2 or more edge BGP routers on same AS and is using both iBGP and eBGP, use the "maximum-paths eibgp" with caution. The Cisco routers would assign iBGP routes with same administrative distance (i.e. 20) as eBGP. You could end up with a routing loop if you design eBGP to be preferred over iBGP paths.

2 comments:

  1. Here is a article about eBGP load balancing with single-homed BGP environment & two ISP connected through Static route.

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  2. I feel dumber for having read your blog.

    ReplyDelete