Ubuntu Manpage: exabgp — Influence or control network using BGP

NAME

     exabgp — Influence or control network using BGP

SYNOPSIS

     exabgp [--help | -h] [--version | -v] [--root | -f] [--env env-config | -e env-config]
            [--full-ini | --fi] [--diff-ini | --di] [--full-env | --fe] [--diff-env | --de]
            [--run helper] [--debug | -d] [--validate] [--signal time] [--once | -1] [--pdb | -p]
            [--memory | -s] [--profile profile] [--test | -t]
            [--decode hex-message | -x hex-message] [configuration ...]

DESCRIPTION

exabgp allows engineers to control their network from commodity servers. Possible uses
include DDoS mitigation, network visualisation, service high availability and implementing
anycast. exabgp does not perform any FIB manipulation on the system it runs on; if you need
that this is not the program for you. exabgp can also print received BGP messages into
readable plain text or JSON formatted text.

The arguments are as follows:

--help | -h
Display summary of usage and configuration of exabgp.

--version | -v
Display the exabgp version number and exit.

--root folder | -f folder
Root folder where etc, bin, sbin are located.

--env env-config | -e env-config
Specify where the environment configuration file can be found.

--full-ini | --fi
Display the full environment configuration using on stdout using the ini format.

--diff-ini | --di
Display the non-default environment configuration on stdout using the ini format.

--full-env | --fe
Display the full environment configuration on stdout using the env format.

--diff-env | --de
Display the non-default configuration on stdout using the env format.

--run helper
Do not run ExaBGP but one of its helper programs, options are: healthcheck and cli

--debug | -d
Start the python debugger on serious logging on and on reception of the SIGTERM
signal. This is a shortcut for exabgp.log.all=true and exabgp.log.level=DEBUG.

--validate
Validate the configuration file format only.

--signal time
Issue a SIGUSR1 signal to reload the configuration after the specified number of
seconds, only useful for code debugging.

--once | -1
Only perform one attempt to connect to peers, used mostly for debugging.

--pdb | -p
Start the python debugger on critical logging, reception of SIGTERM, and on uncaught
python exceptions. This is a shortcut for exabgp.pdb.enable=true.

--memory | -s
Display memory usage information on program exit.

--profile profile
Enable collection of profiling information to the given file. This is a shortcut
for exabgp.profile.enable=true and exabgp.profile.file=profile.

--test | -t
Only do a configuration validity check.

--decode hex-message | -x hex-message
Decode a raw route packet in hexadecimal string.

ENVIRONMENT

The configuration of exabgp is split in two:

• The environment configuration which controls the basic execution of exabgp such as
logging, daemonizing, pid-file, profiling etc.
• The BGP configuration of exabgp, which specifies which neighbors it should talk BGP with
and all other aspects of the BGP configuration.

The environment configuration can be specified a number of different ways, with different
priority:

1. Command line values using dot-separated notation.
2. Environment variables using dot-separated notation.
3. Command line values using underscore-separated notation.
4. Environment variables using underscore-seprated notation.
5. The values from the ini configuration file, /etc/exabgp/exabgp.env
6. The built-in default values.

The following environment variables can be used to configure the basic execution of exabgp:

exabgp.api.encoder (experimental) default encoder to use with external API (text or
json). Default: text.

exabgp.api.highres Controls whether to use high-resolution timestamps in JSON. Default:
false.

exabgp.api.respawn Controls whether to respawn a helper process if it dies. Default:
false.

exabgp.bgp.openwait Controls how many seconds we should wait for a BGP open message once
the TCP session is established. Default: 60 seconds.

exabgp.cache.attributes Controls whether all attributes (configuration and wire) should be
cached for faster parsing. Default: true.

exabgp.cache.nexthops (deprecated) Controls whether route next-hops are cached. Default:
true.

exabgp.daemon.daemonize Controls whether exabgp should run in the background. Default:
false.

exabgp.daemon.pid Where to save the PID of exabgp if we manage it. Default: '' (not
set).

exabgp.daemon.user The user to run exabgp as. Should be an unprivileged user. Default:
nobody.

exabgp.log.all Controls whether debug logging should be done for everything.
Default: false.

exabgp.log.configuration Controls whether logging should be done for the configuration and
command parsing. Default: true.

exabgp.log.daemon Controls whether logging should be done for PID change, forking, etc.
Default: true.

exabgp.log.destination Controls where logging should be sent. syslog (or no setting) sends
the data to the local syslog server. host:<location> sends the data
to a remote syslog server. stdout sends the data to stdout. stderr
sends the data to stderr. <filename> sends the data to the named
file. Default: stdout.

exabgp.log.enable Controls whether logging should be done. Default: true.

exabgp.log.level Sets the minimum severity level to log. Default: INFO.

exabgp.log.message Controls logging of changes in route announcement in config reload.
Default: false.

exabgp.log.network Controls logging of networking information (TCP/IP state, network
state etc.). Default: true.

exabgp.log.packets Controls logging of BGP packets sent and received. Default: false.

exabgp.log.parser Controls logging of BGP message parsing details. Default: false.

exabgp.log.processes Controls logging of forked processes. Default: true.

exabgp.log.reactor Controls logging of signals received and command reload. Default:
true.

exabgp.log.rib Controls logging of changes in locally configured routes. Default:
false.

exabgp.log.routes Controls logging of received routes. Default: false.

exabgp.log.short Coontrols whether to use long or short log format (not prepended with
time, level, pid and source). Default: false.

exabgp.log.timers Controls logging of keepalive timers. Default: false.

exabgp.pdb.enable Controls whether pdb, the python interactive debugger should be
started on program faults. Default: false.

exabgp.profile.enable Controls whether profiling of the code should be done. Default:
false.

exabgp.profile.file Controls where profiling results should be written. None/empty means
stdout. Default: empty.

exabgp.reactor.speed Controls the time of one reactor loop. Use only if you understand the
code. Default: 1.0.

exabgp.tcp.acl (experimental, unimplemented). Default: empty.

exabgp.tcp.bind IP address to bind to when listening (no ip to disable). Default:
empty.

exabgp.tcp.delay Start to announce routes when the minutes in the hour is a modulo of
this number. Default: 0.

exabgp.tcp.once Only perform one TCP connection attempt per peer, for debugging
scripts. Default: false.

exabgp.tcp.port Port to bind to when listening. Default: 179.

FILES

     /etc/exabgp/exabgp.env is the default file for setting the "environment" variables
     controlling the execution of exabgp.  An alaternative "env" configuration file can be
     supplied via the --env env-config argument.  The format of this file is "Windows INI
     format".  All the default settings can be shown with the exabgp --test --full-init command,
     an example showing parts of this output is:

        [exabgp.api]
        encoder = text
        highres = false
        respawn = false

        [exabgp.bgp]
        openwait = 60

     Additionally, the user will need to supply a configuration file controlling the BGP
     configuration of exabgp, in the format described in exabgp.conf(5).

SIGNALS

     exabgp catches a few different signals to control specific actions.  They are:

     ALRM   Restarts exabgp.
     USR1   Causes exabgp to reload the configuration.
     USR2   Causes exabgp to reload the configuration and restart any forked processes.
     TERM   Terminates exabgp.
     HUP    Also terminates exabgp (does not reload the configuration anymore).

     Reloading large configurations using signals is currently not recommended, because the
     configuration parsing code is currently blocking.  Therefore if you have a large
     configuration change, it could cause the peer to miss some keepalive and cause a session
     flap.

DIAGNOSTICS

     The --test argument is useful to validate the syntax of the configuration file.  The --debug
     flag will provide copious debug output to whereever the various exabgp.log variable settings
     dictate.

STANDARDS

     A list of the standards exabgp implements which is indicative of the features implemented
     is:

     RFC 4893    BGP Support for Four-octet AS Number Space
     RFC 4760    Multiprotocol Extension for BGP-4
     RFC 4659    BGP-MPLS IP Virtual Private Network (VPN) Extension for IPv6 VPN
     RFC 4762    Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) Using Label Distribution Protocol (LDP)
                 Signalling
     RFC 5575    Dissemination of Flow Specification Rules
     RFC 4724    Graceful Restart Mechanism for BGP
     RFC 7313    Enhanced Route Refresh Capability for BGP-4
     RFC 7311    The Accumulated IGP Metric Attribute for BGP
     draft-raszuk-idr-flow-spec-v6-03 (draft-ietf-idr-flow-spec-v6-06), Dissemination of Flow
                 Specification Rules for IPv6
     draft-simpson-idr-flowspec-redirect-00 (-02) BGP Flow-Spec Redirect to IP Action
     draft-ietf-idr-flowspec-redirect-00 (-02) BGP Flow-Spec Redirect to IP Action
     draft-ietf-idr-add-paths-08 (-10) Advertisement of Multiple Paths in BGP
     draft-ietf-idr-bgp-multisession-07 (??)
     draft-scudder-bmp-01 (??)

     A list of other more basic BGP-related standard entirely or partially implemented is:

     RFC 1997    BGP Communities Attribute
     RFC 8092    BGP Large Communities Attribute
     RFC 2385    Protection of BGP Sessions via the TCP MD5 Signature
     RFC 2545    Use of BGP-4 Multirptocol Extensions for IPv6 Inter-Domain Routing
     RFC 2918    Route Refresh Capability for BGP-4
     RFC 3107    Carrying Label Information in BGP-4
     RFC 3765    NOPEER Community for Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Route Scope Control
     RFC 7999    BLACKHOLE BGP Community for Blackholing
     RFC 4271    A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)
     RFC 4360    BGP Extended Communities Attribute
     RFC 4364    Constrained Route Distribution for BGP/MPLS IP VPNs
     RFC 4456    BGP Rotue Relection: An Alternative to Full Mesh Internal BGP (iBGP)
     RFC 5396    Textual Representation of Autonomous System (AS) Numbers
     RFC 5492    Capabilities Advertisement with BGP-4
     RFC 6286    Autonomous-System-Wide Unique BGP Identifier for BGP-4
     RFC 6608    Subcodes for BGP Finate State Machine Error
     RFC 7752    North-Bound Distribution of Link-State and Traffic Engineering (TE) Information
                 Using BGP
     draft-gredler-idr-bgp-ls-segment-routing-ext-03 BGP Link-State extensions for Segment
                 Routing
     draft-ietf-idr-bgp-prefix-sid-05 Segment Routing Prefix SID extensions for BGP

                                        February 26, 2015