12-31-2011
12:46 PM
- last edited on
05-08-2023
02:40 AM
by
Translator
Hi everybody.
The command
clear ip bgp *soft command
performs soft reset of bgp neighbors relationship in both direction i.e in and out.
Since this command also performs Soft reset for " in" direction so does it not require command
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
as well ?
thanks and havea great weekend
Solved! Go to Solution.
12-31-2011 03:58 PM
Hi Sarah,
Only when you are clearing inbound you need to configure the BGP neighbor with soft configuration.
If you are clearing outbound, no need to configure the BGP neighbor with soft configuration.
have a look at the command reference guide for more info:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/iproute_bgp/command/reference/irg_bgp2.html#wp1107408
HTH
12-31-2011
04:09 PM
- last edited on
05-08-2023
02:09 AM
by
Translator
Hi Sarah,
You have to distinguish between the Soft Reconfiguration and the Dynamic Inbound Soft Reset.
The Soft Reconfiguration is the older method that had to be configured manually on a per-neighbor basis using the
soft-reconfiguration inbound
whose point was to store a separate unfiltered database of all advertisements sent by the particular neighbor. Using the
clear ip bgp * soft [ in ]
command simply caused this unfiltered database to be re-filtered anew depending on the actual inbound routing policies. This approach, obviously, was very memory-intensive.
The Dynamic Inbound Soft Reset is the Cisco name for the Route Refresh capability defined by the RFC 2918. This capability is negotiated dynamically with the neighbor and there are no configuration commands related to it. This capability will be negotiated automatically on a per-neighbor basis during the BGP neighborship establishement. After using the
clear ip bgp * soft [ in ]
, the router will automatically send the ROUTE-REFRESH message to all neighbors supporting this feature, requesting them to resend their routing advertisements for the particular address family.
In other words, the
clear ip bgp * soft
command has the same effect, whether the Soft Reconfiguration or the Route Refresh is used. Obviously, the means to achieve the same effect are very different.
I would like to stress that to this day, I am seeing a lot of BGP configurations even here on CSC to have the
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
command configured for various neighbors. I would like to highlight the fact that this is absolutely useless, ineffective and missing the point. It seems that people are confusing the Soft Reconfig with the Route Refresh capability. Every solid BGP implementation nowadays supports the Route Refresh without needing to configure anything and without consuming those inordinate amounts of RAM. The RFC 2918 was published in September 2000, so it's nearly 12 years old and its support is nearly ubiquitous. I cannot stress this enough - configuring the
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
is neither necessary nor called for.
You may be interested in reading the following article:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6599/products_data_sheet09186a0080087b3a.html
Best regards,
Peter
12-31-2011
04:50 PM
- last edited on
05-08-2023
02:43 AM
by
Translator
Hi Reza,
Aaah, yes, I see. Well, this is a classic play with words:
To generate new inbound updates from stored update information (rather than dynamically) without resetting the BGP session, you must preconfigure the local BGP router using the
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
command
Note that this statement discusses only the stored update information rather than dynamic inbound update - which is exactly the reference to the Soft Reconfiguration as opposed to the Dynamic Inbound Soft Reset. This statement does not directly say what you are supposed to do if you want to use the Route Refresh feature.
In a way, this is one part of the documentation that actually misleads people to believe that the
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
is a necessary command - while it is not. While this documentation snippet does speak about stored updates and tries to put it in contrast with dynamic updates via Route Refresh, the terminology is so convoluted that the difference is not really clear.
Best regards,
Peter
01-01-2012
03:43 AM
- last edited on
05-08-2023
02:37 AM
by
Translator
Hi Sarah,
If both neighbors support the Route Refresh and at the same time, they are configured with
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
then the Soft Reconfiguration is used instead of the Route Refresh. In other words, the Route Refresh capability dynamically negotiated during the peering establishement will be ignored, the ROUTE-REFRESH messaging will not be used, and instead, both routers will store both the unfiltered and the filtered databases.
This is also stressed in the document I've linked in my previous response:
The dynamic inbound soft reset and inbound soft reset using stored information functions are mutually exclusive and cannot be configured together. If the inbound soft reset using stored routing table updates is configured for a neighbor, the dynamic inbound soft update method cannot be used.
Best regards,
Peter
12-31-2011 03:58 PM
Hi Sarah,
Only when you are clearing inbound you need to configure the BGP neighbor with soft configuration.
If you are clearing outbound, no need to configure the BGP neighbor with soft configuration.
have a look at the command reference guide for more info:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/iproute_bgp/command/reference/irg_bgp2.html#wp1107408
HTH
12-31-2011 04:11 PM
Hi Reza,
Only when you are clearing inbound you need to configure the BGP neighbor with soft configuration
I respectfully disagree. If both routers support Route Refresh as per RFC 2918, there is no configuration necessary whatsoever. Please read my answer below.
Best regards,
Peter
12-31-2011
04:34 PM
- last edited on
05-08-2023
02:03 AM
by
Translator
Hi Peter,
The reason I mentioned it is because it is noted in the command reference guide.
To generate new inbound updates from stored update information (rather than dynamically) without resetting the BGP session, you must preconfigure the local BGP router using the
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
command. This preconfiguration causes the software to store all received updates without modification regardless of whether an update is accepted by the inbound policy. Storing updates is memory intensive and should be avoided if possible.
Outbound BGP soft configuration has no memory overhead and does not require any preconfiguration. You can trigger an outbound reconfiguration on the other side of the BGP session to make the new inbound policy take effect.
Now. as you noted, if both routers support it, then no need to preconfigure it.
Thanks,
Reza
12-31-2011
04:50 PM
- last edited on
05-08-2023
02:43 AM
by
Translator
Hi Reza,
Aaah, yes, I see. Well, this is a classic play with words:
To generate new inbound updates from stored update information (rather than dynamically) without resetting the BGP session, you must preconfigure the local BGP router using the
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
command
Note that this statement discusses only the stored update information rather than dynamic inbound update - which is exactly the reference to the Soft Reconfiguration as opposed to the Dynamic Inbound Soft Reset. This statement does not directly say what you are supposed to do if you want to use the Route Refresh feature.
In a way, this is one part of the documentation that actually misleads people to believe that the
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
is a necessary command - while it is not. While this documentation snippet does speak about stored updates and tries to put it in contrast with dynamic updates via Route Refresh, the terminology is so convoluted that the difference is not really clear.
Best regards,
Peter
12-31-2011
04:09 PM
- last edited on
05-08-2023
02:09 AM
by
Translator
Hi Sarah,
You have to distinguish between the Soft Reconfiguration and the Dynamic Inbound Soft Reset.
The Soft Reconfiguration is the older method that had to be configured manually on a per-neighbor basis using the
soft-reconfiguration inbound
whose point was to store a separate unfiltered database of all advertisements sent by the particular neighbor. Using the
clear ip bgp * soft [ in ]
command simply caused this unfiltered database to be re-filtered anew depending on the actual inbound routing policies. This approach, obviously, was very memory-intensive.
The Dynamic Inbound Soft Reset is the Cisco name for the Route Refresh capability defined by the RFC 2918. This capability is negotiated dynamically with the neighbor and there are no configuration commands related to it. This capability will be negotiated automatically on a per-neighbor basis during the BGP neighborship establishement. After using the
clear ip bgp * soft [ in ]
, the router will automatically send the ROUTE-REFRESH message to all neighbors supporting this feature, requesting them to resend their routing advertisements for the particular address family.
In other words, the
clear ip bgp * soft
command has the same effect, whether the Soft Reconfiguration or the Route Refresh is used. Obviously, the means to achieve the same effect are very different.
I would like to stress that to this day, I am seeing a lot of BGP configurations even here on CSC to have the
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
command configured for various neighbors. I would like to highlight the fact that this is absolutely useless, ineffective and missing the point. It seems that people are confusing the Soft Reconfig with the Route Refresh capability. Every solid BGP implementation nowadays supports the Route Refresh without needing to configure anything and without consuming those inordinate amounts of RAM. The RFC 2918 was published in September 2000, so it's nearly 12 years old and its support is nearly ubiquitous. I cannot stress this enough - configuring the
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
is neither necessary nor called for.
You may be interested in reading the following article:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6599/products_data_sheet09186a0080087b3a.html
Best regards,
Peter
12-31-2011
11:06 PM
- last edited on
05-08-2023
02:36 AM
by
Translator
Thanks Peter and I wish you and all members at cisco support comunity a happy new year.
clear ip bgp * soft
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
Let say we have a router that support refresh capability and so does its neighbor R2. Also assume"
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
is configured. Now router has two options to achieve the same goal. The question is which method router will prefer, will it send refresh message? will it just use the database of unfilitered packets?
I totally understand in modern routers if we issue
clear ip bgp * soft" it does not require " neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound"
Rather router just use refresh capability and sends a refresh request to its neighbor.
Thanks .
01-01-2012
03:43 AM
- last edited on
05-08-2023
02:37 AM
by
Translator
Hi Sarah,
If both neighbors support the Route Refresh and at the same time, they are configured with
neighbor soft-reconfiguration inbound
then the Soft Reconfiguration is used instead of the Route Refresh. In other words, the Route Refresh capability dynamically negotiated during the peering establishement will be ignored, the ROUTE-REFRESH messaging will not be used, and instead, both routers will store both the unfiltered and the filtered databases.
This is also stressed in the document I've linked in my previous response:
The dynamic inbound soft reset and inbound soft reset using stored information functions are mutually exclusive and cannot be configured together. If the inbound soft reset using stored routing table updates is configured for a neighbor, the dynamic inbound soft update method cannot be used.
Best regards,
Peter
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