Mailing List Archive: Equinix routeservers (MLPE) behavior c/f no

Equinix routeservers (MLPE) behavior c/f no_export

Oct 28, 2022, 5:21 AM

Post #1 of 3 (150 views)

Hi guys (and others),

I couldn't find an official description/explanation of this (EQX docs only
mention that this should behave the same as their "set the no_export" TE
community.

We are using Equinix' IXP platform's routeserver service (MLPE) in a few
locations on the planet, and due to the nature of our anycast structure, we are
sending our prefixes with the well-known NO_EXPORT community attached.

It seems to me that, at least in some places (i.e. Warsaw, ex-PLIX), the
routeservers will not forward the routes further, being intransparent to the
NO_EXPORT setting.

My assumption was transparency, so the prefixes would be forwarded unchanged,
including the NO_EXPORT community attached.

It would be nice to hear directly from Equinix, of course, but if anybody on
this list has hard knowledge of this, please share, so that I can take the
appropriate measures...

Thanks in advance,
Elmar.

Re: Equinix routeservers (MLPE) behavior c/f no_export [ In reply to ]

geier at geier

Oct 28, 2022, 6:04 AM

Post #2 of 3 (150 views)

Permalink

Hi Elmar,

it seems to be a not completely agreed/standardised question.

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7947#section-2.2.4

The BGP Communities [RFC1997] and Extended Communities [RFC4360]
attributes are intended for labeling information carried in BGP
UPDATE messages. Transitive as well as non-transitive Communities
attributes applied to an NLRI UPDATE sent to a route server SHOULD
NOT be modified, processed, or removed, except as defined by local
policy. If a Communities attribute is intended for processing by the
route server itself, as determined by local policy, it MAY be
modified or removed.

and
https://docs.ixpmanager.org/features/route-servers/#rfc1997-passthru
has some more background.

Hi Nick!

Frank

On 28/10/2022 15:21, Elmar K. Bins wrote:
> Hi guys (and others),
>
> I couldn't find an official description/explanation of this (EQX docs only
> mention that this should behave the same as their "set the no_export" TE
> community.
>
> We are using Equinix' IXP platform's routeserver service (MLPE) in a few
> locations on the planet, and due to the nature of our anycast structure, we are
> sending our prefixes with the well-known NO_EXPORT community attached.
>
> It seems to me that, at least in some places (i.e. Warsaw, ex-PLIX), the
> routeservers will not forward the routes further, being intransparent to the
> NO_EXPORT setting.
>
> My assumption was transparency, so the prefixes would be forwarded unchanged,
> including the NO_EXPORT community attached.
>
> It would be nice to hear directly from Equinix, of course, but if anybody on
> this list has hard knowledge of this, please share, so that I can take the
> appropriate measures...
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Elmar.

Re: Equinix routeservers (MLPE) behavior c/f no_export [ In reply to ]

elmi at 4ever

Oct 28, 2022, 6:22 AM

Post #3 of 3 (149 views)

Permalink

Re Frank, thanks for the quickie,

geier@geier.ne.tz (Frank Habicht) wrote:

> it seems to be a not completely agreed/standardised question.

> https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7947#section-2.2.4
[...]
> https://docs.ixpmanager.org/features/route-servers/#rfc1997-passthru
[...]

Yeah, I know... I just don't know what Equinix actually does.
As said before, I assumed transparency (==passthru).

Any hard experience info would be helpful here :-)

Thanks again,
Elmar.