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Configuring BGP on Vultr With OpenBSD

Last Updated: Thu, Mar 30, 2017
BSD Networking

Vultr's BGP feature allows you to bring your own IP space and use it across any of our locations, with an OpenBSD instance no additional software is needed!

Getting started

In order to use BGP, you would need your own IP space (either v4 or v6). If you have your own ASN, you can use that or we can assign a private one.

Open a ticket with the following information:

  • Your IP ranges

  • Your ASN (if you have one)

  • A LOA for your IP ranges (only if you don't have your own ASN)

Once BGP has been configured on your account, you can proceed with configuring BGP.

Our examples are going to use the following:

  • ASN: 64512

  • Instance's IPv4 address: 203.0.113.123

  • Instance's IPv6 address: 2001:DB8:1000::1/64

  • IPv4 Block: 198.51.100.0/24

  • IPv6 Block: 2001:0db8::/32

  • BGP Password: hunter2

BGP Setup

OpenBSD ships with bgpd(8) already installed and only requires a few configuration file changes to start.

Edit rc.conf.local(8) to add the following line to allow the bgpd(8) daemon to start via rc.d(8)

bgpd_flags=

A complete example of bgpd.conf(8) can be found at /etc/examples/bgpd.conf and contains lots of extra configuration options you may need.

Adjust the example configuration below as required and write to /etc/bgpd.conf (ensure that the permissions for this file are 600)

   AS 64512

    router-id 203.0.113.123



    listen on 127.0.0.1

    listen on ::1

    log updates

    network 198.51.100.0/24

    network 2001:0db8::/32



    neighbor 169.254.169.254 {

            remote-as               64515

            descr                   "Vultr IPv4"

            announce IPv4           unicast

            announce IPv6           none

            tcp md5sig password     hunter2

            multihop                2

            local-address           203.0.113.123

    }

    neighbor 2001:19f0:ffff::1 {

            remote-as               64515

            descr                   "Vultr IPv6"

            announce IPv4           none

            announce IPv6           unicast

            tcp md5sig password     hunter2

            multihop                2

            local-address           2001:DB8:1000::1

    }

To make sure everything is in order, you can issue the command bgpd -f /etc/bgpd.conf -n. If bgpd(ok) is returned, you can start the daemon.

# rcctl enable bgpd

# rcctl start bgpd

bgpd(ok)

To check the status of your BGP sessions, you will need to use bgpctl(8). For example, to see a basic overview you can use bgpctl show summary

# bgpctl show summary

Neighbor                   AS    MsgRcvd    MsgSent  OutQ Up/Down  State/PrfRcvd

Vultr IPv6              64515        230        207     0 01:41:40      0

Vultr IPv4              64515        244        220     0 01:48:09      0

To see detailed information about a BPG neighbor use bgpctl show neighbor

BGP neighbor is 2001:19f0:ffff::1, remote AS 64515, Multihop (2)

 Description: Vultr IPv6

  BGP version 4, remote router-id 45.63.102.186, using md5sig

  BGP state = Established, up for 01:46:45

  Last read 00:00:08, holdtime 90s, keepalive interval 30s

  Neighbor capabilities:

    Multiprotocol extensions: IPv6 unicast

    Route Refresh

    Graceful Restart: Timeout: 120, IPv6 unicast

    4-byte AS numbers



  Message statistics:

          Sent       Received  

  Opens                    1          1

  Notifications            0          0

  Updates                  2          1

  Keepalives             214        240

  Route Refresh            0          0

  Total                  217        242



  Update statistics:

          Sent       Received  

  Updates                  4          0

  Withdraws                0          0

  End-of-Rib               1          1



  Local host:  2001:DB8:1000::1, Local port:  38298

  Remote host:    2001:19f0:ffff::1, Remote port:   179



BGP neighbor is 169.254.169.254, remote AS 64515, Multihop (2)

 Description: Vultr IPv4

  BGP version 4, remote router-id 45.63.102.186, using md5sig

  BGP state = Established, up for 01:53:14

  Last read 00:00:14, holdtime 90s, keepalive interval 30s

  Neighbor capabilities:

    Multiprotocol extensions: IPv4 unicast

    Route Refresh

    Graceful Restart: Timeout: 120, IPv4 unicast

    4-byte AS numbers



  Message statistics:

          Sent       Received  

  Opens                    1          1

  Notifications            0          0

  Updates                  2          1

  Keepalives             227        253

  Route Refresh            0          0

  Total                  230        255



  Update statistics:

          Sent       Received  

  Updates                  4          0

  Withdraws                0          0

  End-of-Rib               1          1



  Local host:         203.0.113.123, Local port:  19824

  Remote host:      169.254.169.254, Remote port:   179

At this point we can start assigning our IP addresses to interfaces (e.g. by configuring /etc/hostname.lo1 ) so applications can be configured to listen on these IPs.

If you intend to use your IP addresses on multiple instances you will need to adjust the network statements on each instance to announce a more specific route for those IPs.

Instance A

   AS 64512

    router-id 203.0.113.123



    listen on 127.0.0.1

    listen on ::1

    log updates

    network 198.51.100.0/24

    network 198.51.100.1/32

    network 2001:0db8::/32

    network 2001:0db8::/64



    neighbor 169.254.169.254 {

            remote-as               64515

            descr                   "Vultr IPv4"

            announce IPv4           unicast

            announce IPv6           none

            tcp md5sig password     hunter2

            multihop                2

            local-address           203.0.113.123

    }

    neighbor 2001:19f0:ffff::1 {

            remote-as               64515

            descr                   "Vultr IPv6"

            announce IPv4           none

            announce IPv6           unicast

            tcp md5sig password     hunter2

            multihop                2

            local-address           2001:DB8:1000::1

    }

Instance B

   AS 64512

    router-id 203.0.113.124



    listen on 127.0.0.1

    listen on ::1

    log updates

    network 198.51.100.0/24

    network 198.51.100.2/32

    network 2001:0db8::/32

    network 2001:0db8:0001::/64



    neighbor 169.254.169.254 {

            remote-as               64515

            descr                   "Vultr IPv4"

            announce IPv4           unicast

            announce IPv6           none

            tcp md5sig password     hunter2

            multihop                2

            local-address           203.0.113.124

    }

    neighbor 2001:19f0:ffff::1 {

            remote-as               64515

            descr                   "Vultr IPv6"

            announce IPv4           none

            announce IPv6           unicast

            tcp md5sig password     hunter2

            multihop                2

            local-address           2001:DB8:1000::2

    }

Note: Do not forget to use a different password from what is referenced in this article.

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