ARouteServer

A Python tool to automatically build (and test) feature-rich configurations for BGP route servers.

How it works

1. Two YAML files provide general policies and clients configurations options:

   cfg:
     rs_as: 64496
     router_id: "192.0.2.2"
     filtering:
       irrdb:
         enforce_origin_in_as_set: True
         enforce_prefix_in_as_set: True
       rpki_bgp_origin_validation:
         enabled: True
         reject_invalid: True
         ...

   clients:
     - asn: 64511
       ip:
       - "192.0.2.11"
       - "2001:db8:1:1::11"
       irrdb:
         as_sets:
           - "RIPE::AS-FOO"
     ...

2. ARouteServer acquires external information to enrich them: i.e. bgpq4/bgpq3 for IRR data, PeeringDB for max-prefix limit and AS-SETs, RPKI ROAs, ...

3. Jinja2 built-in templates are used to render the final route server's configuration file.

   Currently, BIRD (>= 1.6.3 up to 1.6.8), BIRD v2 (starting from 2.0.7), BIRD v3 (only for testing, still in pre-release/alpha) and OpenBGPD (OpenBSD >= 7.0 also OpenBGPD Portable >= 7.0) are supported, with almost feature parity between them.

Validation and testing of the configurations generated with this tool are performed using the built-in live tests framework: Docker instances are used to simulate several scenarios and to validate the behaviour of the route server after configuring it with ARouteServer. More details on the Live tests section.

A Docker-based playground is available to experiment with the tool in a virtual IXP environment.

Also, a Docker image is provided to start building rich and secure configurations in a couple of minutes.

Features

• Path hiding mitigation techniques (RFC7947 section 2.3.1).
• Basic filters (mostly enabled by default):
  • NEXT_HOP enforcement (strict / same AS - RFC7948 section 4.8);
  • minimum and maximum IPv4/IPv6 prefix length;
  • maximum AS_PATH length;
  • reject invalid AS_PATHs (containing private/invalid ASNs);
  • reject AS_PATHs containing transit-free or never via route-servers ASNs (using PeeringDB info_never_via_route_servers attribute);
  • reject bogons;
  • max-prefix limit based on global or client-specific values or on PeeringDB data.
• Prefixes and origin ASNs validation (also in tag-only mode):
  • IRR-based filters (RFC7948 section 4.6.2);
  • AS-SETs configured manually or fetched from PeeringDB;
  • support for IRR sources (RIPE::AS-FOO, RADB::AS-BAR);
  • white lists support;
  • extended dataset for filters generation:
    • RPKI ROAs used as route objects;
    • Origin AS from ARIN Whois database dump;
    • NIC.BR Whois data (slide n. 26) from Registro.br;
  • RPKI-based filtering (BGP Prefix Origin Validation);
    • ROAs can be retrieved from publicly available JSON files or from a local validating cache;
  • Route Leak Prevention and Detection Using BGP Roles (RFC9234).
• Blackhole filtering support:
  • optional NEXT_HOP rewriting;
  • signalling via BGP Communities (BLACKHOLE and custom communities);
  • client-by-client control over propagation.
• Graceful shutdown support:
  • honor the GRACEFUL_SHUTDOWN BGP community received from clients (draft-ietf-grow-bgp-gshut-11);
  • allow to perform a graceful shutdown of the route server itself.
• Control and informative BGP communities:
  • prefix/origin ASN present/not present in IRRDBs data;
  • do (not) announce to any / peer / on RTT basis;
  • prepend to any / peer / on RTT basis;
  • add NO_EXPORT / NO_ADVERTISE to any / peer;
  • 32bit ASNs mapping to 16bit ASNs for announcement control BGP communities;
  • Euro-IX large BGP communities to track reject reasons;
  • custom informational BGP communities.
• Optional session features on a client-by-client basis:
  • prepend route server ASN (RFC7947 section 2.2.2.1);
  • active sessions;
  • GTSM (Generalized TTL Security Mechanism - RFC5082);
  • ADD-PATH capability (RFC7911).
  • RFC8950 IPv6 NEXT_HOP for IPv4 routes.
• Automatic building of clients list:
  • integration with IXP-Manager;
  • fetch lists from PeeringDB records and Euro-IX member list JSON files.
• IX-F Member Export JSON files creation.
• Related tools:
  • The Playground, to experiment with the tool in a virtual IXP environment.
  • Invalid routes reporter, to log or report invalid routes and their reject reason.

A comprehensive list of features can be found within the comments of the distributed configuration file on GitHub or on the documentation web page.

More feature are already planned: see the Future work section for more details.

Full documentation

Full documentation can be found on ReadTheDocs: https://arouteserver.readthedocs.org/

Presentations

• Euro-IX "Learn with us: ARouteServer tutorial", 28 July 2021: video (33:13)
• RIPE74, 10 May 2017, Connect Working Group: video (9:53), slides (PDF)
• Salottino MIX, 30 May 2017: slides

Mentions / endorsements:

• Job Snijders, LACNIC29, 3 May 2018: slides (PDF)
• Anurag Bhatia, APNIC46, 12 September 2018: video, slides (PDF)
• Claudio Jeker, RIPE Labs, 28 November 2018: OpenBGPD - Adding Diversity to the Route Server Landscape.

Who is using ARouteServer?

• BharatIX, BIRD.
• CATNIX, BIRD.
• CHIX, BIRD and OpenBGPD.
• CNX, BIRD v2.
• DO-IX, BIRD.
• EVIX, BIRD.
• FCIX, BIRD.
• GAVLIX.
• GigaPIX, BIRD and BIRD v2.
• IX Australia, BIRD v2.
• IX-Denver, BIRD.
• MBIX, BIRD.
• MIX, BIRD.
• Netnod, BIRD and GoBGP¹.
• NIXI Mumbai (GPX), BIRD.
• NZIX, BIRD v2.
• PIT-IX, BIRD.
• QCIX, BIRD.
• RO-CIX, OpenBGPD.
• SFMIX, BIRD and OpenBGPD.
• SwissIX, OpenBGPD.
• Unmetered.Exchange, BIRD.
• VANIX.
• YEGIX, OpenBGPD.
• YXEIX, OpenBGPD.
• YYCIX, OpenBGPD.

Are you using it? Do you want to be listed here? Drop me a message!

¹: GoBGP configurations are generated using a fork of the project which is still WIP and that hopefully will be merged upstream in the future.

Bug? Issues? Support requests?

But also suggestions? New ideas?

Please create an issue on GitHub or drop me a message.

A Slack channel is also available on the network.toCode() community: arouteserver.

Author

Pier Carlo Chiodi - https://pierky.com

Blog: https://blog.pierky.com Twitter: @pierky