Configuring BGP Connectivity

You can configure your Traffic IP Groups to use RHI as the IP distribution mode, using BGP as the routing protocol. To enable RHI for your Traffic IP addresses, use the Services > Traffic IP Groups page.

The settings in System > Fault Tolerance > BGP Route Health Injection control BGP connectivity between Traffic Managers in your cluster and the neighboring routing infrastructure:

•bgp!enabled: Whether BGP Route Health Injection is enabled.

•bgp!as_number: The Autonomous System (AS) in which your Traffic Manager cluster operates. Use a decimal value to represent the AS. This number applies to all Traffic Managers in your cluster (or each Configuration Location within a Multi-Site Manager cluster; see Multi-Site Cluster Management).

Configuring BGP Router IDs

By default, each Traffic Manager in the cluster joins the BGP routing domain using the address and subnet by which it is connected to its IPv4 default gateway. To override this behavior, you can set an alternate ID for each cluster member individually using flipper!bgp_router_id.

Managing BGP Neighbors

Unlike with OSPFv2, the Traffic Manager is unable to automatically discover its BGP neighbors. To enable your cluster to establish BGP sessions, you must first define the neighboring routers and then create applicable mappings between each cluster member and the desired neighbor.

To manage the BGP neighbors you can use in this mapping, click Manage BGP Neighbors. Use this page to define a new neighboring BGP enabled router, and to modify the parameters for existing neighbor definitions.

For each new router, input the following BGP connection parameters:

Field	Description
BGP Neighbor name	An identifying name
IP Address	The IPv4 address of the neighbor
AS Number	The AS number for this neighbor. This might be the same AS as your proposed corresponding Traffic Manager (in which case the session uses iBGP), or it might be a different AS altogether (in which case the session uses eBGP).
Keepalive	The interval, in seconds, between health message transmission.
Holdtime	The minimum interval, in seconds, that must elapse after the last received keepalive before this neighbor assumes the mapped Traffic Manager is no longer active.
Advertisement Interval	The interval, in seconds, that must elapse between advertisements made to this neighbor.
Authentication Password	(optional) The per-BGP session password that your mapped Traffic Manager must use with this neighbor. Linux kernel versions earlier than 2.6.20, or any kernel built without the relevant option (CONFIG_TCP_MD5SIG) enabled, might not support this setting. For further clarification, see your system administrator or support provider.

After you have defined your BGP neighbors, click back to the System > Fault Tolerance page to create the mappings to your individual Traffic Managers.

Before you can use BGP, you must configure the neighboring BGP routers to establish sessions with the selected Traffic Managers. This effectively corresponds with the neighbor definitions you have just created at the Traffic Manager end of the connection.

Click Update to apply your mappings and configuration. The settings on this page are replicated across all members of the Traffic Manager cluster.

The Traffic Manager reports all router peering and connection failures in the event log. The applet in the Admin UI and the Diagnose page both reflect the current status.