Configuring a BGP4+ Peer Group

Configuring a BGP4+ peer group simplifies the management of routing policies and improves route advertisement efficiency.

Usage Scenario

A large-scale BGP4+ network has a large number of peers. It is difficult to configure and maintain them. To address this problem, peer groups can be configured to simplify the management of routing policies and improve the efficiency of route advertisement. Peer groups are classified as IBGP peer groups and EBGP peer groups depending upon whether the peers reside in the same AS or not, respectively. EBGP peer groups are further divided into pure EBGP peer groups and mixed EBGP peer groups. If all the peers in an EBGP peer group reside in the same external AS, the group is a pure EBGP peer group; otherwise, the group is a mixed EBGP peer group.

Pre-configuration Tasks

Before configuring a BGP4+ peer group, configure basic BGP4+ functions.

Procedure

Configure an IBGP peer group.
If BGP4+ has multiple IBGP peers, adding them to an IBGP peer group can simplify routing policy management. When creating an IBGP peer group, you do not need to specify the AS number.
1. Run system-view
  The system view is displayed.
2. Run bgp as-number
  The BGP view is displayed.
3. Run group group-name [ internal ]
  A peer group is created.
4. Run ipv6-family unicast
  The IPv6 unicast address family view is displayed.
5. Run peer group-name enable
  The peer group is enabled.
6. Run peer ipv6-address group group-name
  An IPv6 peer is added to the peer group.
  
  After an IBGP peer is added to a peer group, the system automatically creates an IPv6 peer in the BGP view and enables the IPv6 peer in the IPv6 address family view.
7. Run commit
  The configuration is committed.
Configure a pure EBGP peer group.
If BGP4+ has multiple EBGP peers that belong to the same AS, adding them to a pure EBGP peer group can simplify routing policy management. In a pure EBGP peer group, all the peers must reside in the same AS.
1. Run system-view
  The system view is displayed.
2. Run bgp as-number
  The BGP view is displayed.
3. Run group group-name external
  A peer group is created.
4. Run peer group-name as-number as-number
  The AS number is specified for the peer group.
5. Run ipv6-family unicast
  The IPv6 unicast address family view is displayed.
6. Run peer group-name enable
  The peer group is enabled.
7. Run peer ipv6-address group group-name
  An IPv6 peer is added to the peer group.
  
  After an EBGP peer is added to a peer group, the system automatically creates an EBGP peer in the BGP view and enables the EBGP peer in the IPv6 address family view.
  
  An AS number needs to be specified for the pure EBGP peer group.
  
  If the peer group already has peers in it, no AS number needs to be specified for the peer group.
8. Run commit
  The configuration is committed.
Configure a mixed EBGP peer group.
If BGP4+ has multiple EBGP peers that belong to different ASs, adding them to a mixed EBGP peer group can simplify the routing policy management. When creating a mixed EBGP peer group, specify an AS number for each peer.
1. Run system-view
  The system view is displayed.
2. Run bgp as-number
  The BGP view is displayed.
3. Run group group-name external
  A peer group is created.
4. Run peer ipv6-address as-number as-number
  The AS number is specified for an IPv6 peer.
5. Run ipv6-family unicast
  The IPv6 unicast address family view is displayed.
6. Run peer group-name enable
  The peer group is enabled.
7. Run peer ipv6-address group group-name
  The created IPv6 peer is added to the peer group.
  
  After the EBGP peer is added to the peer group, the system automatically enables the EBGP peer in the IPv6 address family view.
  
  When creating a mixed EBGP peer group, you need to create peers and specify their AS numbers separately. No AS number needs to be specified for the mixed EBGP peer group.
8. Run commit
  The configuration is committed.

Checking the Configuration

After the configuration is complete, check whether the configuration has taken effect.

Run the display bgp ipv6 group [ group-name ] command to check information about peer groups.