[ixpmanager] IXP Manager v5 and BIRD2 configuration questions

[Barry O'Donovan]

Hi Enes,

Enes Halilović wrote on 29/08/2019 07:35:
> I have some questions about IXP Manager v5 and BIRD2 route server 
> configuration. For example, in IXP Manager we can add 2 separate
> route servers and we actually define four “handles” 
> (rs1-lan1-ipv4,rs1-lan1-ipv6, rs2-lan1-ipv4, rs2-lan1-ipv6).

Correct. This is the intended way to set up resilient v4 and v6 route
servers at an exchange.

> As a result, We have 4 route server configuration files. BIRD2
> integrates IPv4 and IPv6 into a single daemon and they read single
> config file.

It does but we don't use that feature - more below:

> 1. Could you please verify explained setup?

4 route server definitions is correct for resilient v4 and v6.

> 2. Do we need to merge two config files from IXP Manager (for
> one server) to create one  BIRD2 route server config file?

No. We still run separate v4 and v6 daemons for a number of reasons:

1. IXP Manager is designed to generate config on a per-protocol basis.

2. The internal and external tooling around IXP Manager such as the 
looking glass, route server prefix analysis, IRRDB, Nagios and 
monitoring, etc are all designed on a per-protocol basis.

3. The Bird developers recommend running a per-protocol daemon for route 
server purposes rather than trying to merge then. Bird2 does of course 
support merged configurations but stability and scalability is greater 
on a per-protocol basis.

4. The per-protocol decision was not because of Bird v1 - in fact it 
dates from our earliest route server implementations ~13 years ago on 
Quagga. Splitting the protocols allows for development and operational 
flexibility, provides greater resiliency and reduces complexity.


> 3. Is there anyone who can share bird2 configuration templates?

Just click the configuration button (document icon) in the route list. 
E.g. if your IXP Manager install was at https://ixp.example.com/ then 
this URL would generate a configuration:

https://ixp.example.com/api/v4/router/gen-config/rs1-lan1-ipv6

For TravisCI, we have known good configurations that are used for our 
unit testing. See the ci-apiv4-bs-rs1-lan1-ipv4/6.conf files in:

https://github.com/inex/IXP-Manager/tree/master/data/travis-ci/known-good


> 4. What will be your suggestions for automating > configurations/reconfigurations of route servers?

This is all pretty well documented including sample scripts to run on 
your route servers here:

https://docs.ixpmanager.org/features/routers/#configuration-generation-overview

If you think the documentation is lacking, please provide suggestions 
and we'll try and make it clearer.

Thanks!

  - Barry



-- 

Kind regards,
Barry O'Donovan
INEX Operations

https://www.inex.ie/support/
+353 1 531 3339