Route server guide

Two route servers, run on different BGP daemons in different buildings, give you reach to every participant with open policy from a single pair of sessions.

RS1 · primary

Active

Hostname: rs1.greatlakes-ix.net
ASN: AS-TBD
IPv4: TBD
IPv6: TBD
Daemon: TBD
Location: TBD

RS2 · secondary

Active

Hostname: rs2.greatlakes-ix.net
ASN: AS-TBD
IPv4: TBD
IPv6: TBD
Daemon: TBD
Location: TBD

How the route servers behave

RFC 7947

Transparent next hop

The route server does not insert itself into the AS path and does not rewrite the next hop. Traffic flows directly between participants.

RPKI strict

Announcements that evaluate as RPKI invalid are dropped at parse time. Valid and not-found states are accepted.

IRR filtering

Prefix lists are generated from your registered route objects and AS-SET, and rebuilt on a regular schedule.

Graceful shutdown

RFC 8326 is honored, so you can drain traffic cleanly before maintenance instead of tearing a session down.

BGP communities

RFC 1997 and RFC 8092

Tag your announcements to control redistribution through the route servers without tearing down multilateral sessions. Substitute the exchange ASN for IXP_AS and your target's ASN for peer-as once they are assigned.

Action	Standard community	Large community	Effect
Do not announce to any peer	0:IXP_AS	IXP_AS:0:0	Global drop
Do not announce to one peer	0:peer-as	IXP_AS:0:peer-as	Selective block
Announce only to one peer	IXP_AS:peer-as	IXP_AS:1:peer-as	Selective announce
Prepend once to all peers	65501:IXP_AS	IXP_AS:101:0	One prepend
Prepend twice to all peers	65502:IXP_AS	IXP_AS:102:0	Two prepends
Graceful shutdown	65535:0	—	Drain traffic (RFC 8326)

Sample router configuration

Replace every placeholder before use

These snippets use documentation addresses and AS numbers from RFC 5737 and RFC 5398. Do not paste them onto a production router; substitute the addresses the NOC assigns you and review against your own configuration standard first.

Cisco IOS XE

ios-xe example only

interface TenGigabitEthernet0/0/0
 description GLIX peering fabric
 ip address 198.51.100.10 255.255.255.0
 ipv6 address 2001:DB8::10/64
 mtu 1500
 no ip proxy-arp
 no ip redirects
!
router bgp 64500
 neighbor 198.51.100.1 remote-as 64496
 neighbor 198.51.100.1 description GLIX RS1
 neighbor 198.51.100.2 remote-as 64496
 neighbor 198.51.100.2 description GLIX RS2
 ! RS1 and RS2 addresses and the exchange ASN are assigned at turn-up

Juniper Junos

junos example only

protocols {
    bgp {
        group glix-route-servers {
            type external;
            peer-as 64496;
            multipath;
            neighbor 198.51.100.1 { description "GLIX RS1"; }
            neighbor 198.51.100.2 { description "GLIX RS2"; }
        }
    }
}

Need a snippet for another platform? The NOC keeps working examples. Ask the NOC →

Before you open a ticket

Confirm your route objects and ROAs are published and current.
Check your maximum prefix limit has not tripped the session.
Verify the interface MTU matches what you agreed with the NOC.

Make sure the peer is reachable by ping on the fabric subnet.
Check the looking glass for what the route servers actually see from you.
Include your ASN and port in the first line of any ticket.