BGP next-hop-self, community no-export &

send-community GNS3 Lab

February 29th, 2012 in Basic Labs Go to comments
In this GNS3 lab we will learn how to establish neighborship between routers running BGP and
use BGP attributes to control how a route is advertised to its neighbors. In this lab I wish to show
how to create a basic BGP network and explain about next-hop-self, community no-export &
send-community features in BGP. Below is the topology of this lab:

IOS used in this lab: c3640-jk9s-mz.124-16.bin

Objectives of this lab:
+ Task 1: Configure EBGP on AS 1, AS 23, AS 4 and configure IBGP between R2 & R3 (AS23)
+ Task 2: Advertise loopback0 on R1 to R4 and make sure R4 can ping to that loopback interface
(AS23 becomes a transit AS)
+ Task 3: Make AS 23 not a transit AS by using the feature community no-export
First we will configure all IP addresses of this lab and turn on all the interfaces:
Configure IP addresses on all interfaces

R1(config)#interface f0/0
R1(config-if)#ip address 12.12.12.1
255.255.255.0
R1(config-if)#no shutdown

R3(config)#interface f0/0
R3(config-if)#ip address 23.23.23.3
255.255.255.0
R3(config-if)#no shutdown
R3(config)#interface f1/0
R3(config-if)#ip address 34.34.34.3
255.255.255.0

R3(config-if)#no shutdown
R2(config)#interface f0/0
R2(config-if)#ip address 12.12.12.2
255.255.255.0
R2(config-if)#no shutdown
R2(config)#interface f1/0
R2(config-if)#ip address 23.23.23.2
255.255.255.0
R2(config-if)#no shutdown

R4(config)#interface f0/0
R4(config-if)#ip address 34.34.34.4
255.255.255.0
R4(config-if)#no shutdown

Task 1: Configure EBGP & IBGP

R3(config)#router bgp 23
R1(config)#router bgp 1
R3(config-router)#neighbor 23.23.23.3 remoteR1(config-router)#neighbor 12.12.12.2 remote- as 23
as 23
R3(config-router)#neighbor 34.34.34.4 remoteas 4
R2(config)#router bgp 23
R2(config-router)#neighbor 12.12.12.1 remote- R4(config)#router bgp 4
as 1
R4(config-router)#neighbor 34.34.34.3 remoteR2(config-router)#neighbor 23.23.23.3 remote- as 23
as 23
Now we should check to make sure each BGP speaker (router running BGP) learn about their
neighbors with the show ip bgp summary command:

Note: At this time, the show ip bgp commands on all routers show nothing and the show ip
route commands only show directly connected networks. For example on R4:

Task 2: Advertise loopback0 on R1 to R4 and make sure R4 can ping to that loopback
interface
First, create loopback 1.1.1.1/24 on R1 and advertise it
R1(config)#interface loopback0
R1(config-if)#ip address 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.0
R1(config-if)#exit
R1(config)#router bgp 1
R1(config-router)#network 1.1.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0
Now we can see that route in both the routing table and BGP routing table of R2.

By the way, lets have a look of the output of the show ip bgp command on R3 at this time

Please notice the Next Hop field from the output above. We can see that although the
loopback0 of R1 is learned from R2 (so the next hop field should be the fa1/0 interface of R2)
but here the Next Hop field here is an interface on R1 (12.12.12.1). The reason is:
For EBGP, the next hop is always the IP address of the neighbor specified in the neighbor
command. For IBGP, the protocol states that the next hop advertised by EBGP should be
carried into IBGP. In this case, the next hop of EBGP (R1 on AS 1) will be installed into BGP
of R3.
Therefore R3 needs an IGP (like OSPF, EIGRP) to reach that EBGP router, if not it will drop
all packets destined for network 1.1.1.0/24. In this case no IGP has been configured so a ping to
1.1.1.1 from R3 will surely fail because R3 doesnt know how to reach 12.12.12.1.
Also, we can see that R3 cant reach 1.1.1.0/24 with the show ip bgp 1.1.1.0/24 command

This route is inaccessible so R3 will not advertise this route to R4 -> no network 1.1.1.0/24 is
installed in the BGP routing table of R4

To overcome this problem, we can declare the next-hop-self on the edge router (R2). With this
command, R2 will send its own IP address as the next hop instead of sending the EBGP next
hop.
R2(config-router)#neighbor 23.23.23.3 next-hop-self
Now the Next Hop field will be an interface on R2 (23.23.23.2):

And network 1.1.1.0/24 is also installed in the BGP routing table of R4 because the route is now
accessible and R3 advertises it to R4

Notice that although the network 1.1.1.0/24 exists in the BGP routing table but R4 still cant ping
to it

Check the BGP routing table of R1 we will see that R1 does not know how to reach 34.34.34.0
network -> R1 does not know how to send the ping reply (ICMP response) to R4.

To make a successful ping from R4, we must advertise network 34.34.34.0 on R4.
R4(config-router)#network 34.34.34.0 mask 255.255.255.0
Now R1 has learned about network 34.34.34.0/24

Maybe we can now ping from R4 to loopback0? The answer is still no! Although the ping can
reach loopback0 but the reply packets cant reach R4 because there is a mistake on the BGP
routing table of R2

As you can guess, the same problem next hop advertised by EBGP should be carried into
IBGP occurs so we need to use the command:
R3(config-router)#neighbor 23.23.23.2 next-hop-self

Now we can ping from R4 to loopback0 on R1

Task 3: Make AS 23 not a transit AS

This is an important problem in real life. Suppose your company (with R2 & R3 routers) wants
the connection to the Internet must be available in any time so your administrators hired two
internet lines from two separate ISPs (R1 & R4). But improper configuration can make traffic
flow from R1 -> R2 -> R3 -> R4 and your company becomes a transit AS. Surely your company
does not want to receive this traffic as it takes much bandwidth of the company. We need to filter
out this type of traffic.
The purpose of this task is opposite to task 2. We will make AS 23 not a transit AS by not
advertising network 1.1.1.0 to R4. To do this, we will create a route-map for 1.1.1.0/24 and set
the no-export attribute to this route:
R3(config)#access-list 1 permit 1.1.1.0 0.0.0.255
R3(config)#route-map NOEXPORT permit 10
R3(config-route-map)#match ip address 1
R3(config-route-map)#set community no-export
R3(config)#router bgp 23
R3(config-router)#neighbor 23.23.23.2 route-map NOEXPORT in
The no-export means do not advertise this route to any EBGP peers and this attribute is set
to network 1.1.1.0/24 before entering R3 (because we apply this route-map on inbound direction

to R3). Therefore R3 will understand do not advertise 1.1.1.0/24 to any EBGP neighbor, in this
case EBGP neighbor is R4.

Also on R4 the 1.1.1.0/24 network disappears.

Another way to achieve the same result as above is configuring a route-map and apply it on the
outbound direction of R2 (to R3):
R2(config)#access-list 1 permit 1.1.1.0 0.0.0.255
R2(config)#route-map NOEXPORT permit 10
R2(config-route-map)#match ip address 1
R2(config-route-map)#set community no-export
R2(config)#router bgp 23
R2(config-router)#neighbor 23.23.23.3 route-map NOEXPORT out
For your information, we can use the community no-export on R1 on outbound direction to
achieve the same result but notice you have to add the send-community feature so that the
community attribute on R1 is sent to R2 because even if you set the community attribute on R1,
this attribute does not transmit to BGP neighbors by default.
R1(config)#access-list 1 permit 1.1.1.0 0.0.0.255
R1(config)#route-map NOEXPORT permit 10
R1(config-route-map)#match ip address 1
R1(config-route-map)#set community no-export
R1(config)#router bgp 1
R1(config-router)#neighbor 12.12.12.2 route-map NOEXPORT out
R1(config-router)#neighbor 12.12.12.2 send-community

Now on R2 you will see

Also add neighbor send-community command on R2 to propagate community attribute to

R3
R2(config)#router bgp 23
R2(config-router)#neighbor 23.23.23.3 send-community
Now both R2 & R3 receive community attribute on R1

R3 knows network 1.1.1.0/24 is not allowed to advertise to R4 (R4 is an EBGP) so R4 does not
have this route in its BGP routing table (note: we dont need to set the send-community on R3
because R3 understands this route should not be advertised to any peer).

This is the end of this lab. I dont upload the configuration files because I wish you to do it by
yourself (I am sorry).