Let me share what made the light dawn for me about BGP: first understanding the problem it was meant to solve, not how the protocol proper works or how to configure it on Cisco or Juniper.
It's a reasonable simplification to say that BGP is policy controlled. Therefore, it makes sense to understand what those policies are. I started with the now-obsolete RIPE-181 document, but there now is a Routing Policy Specification Language and a fair bit of tutorials about it. See http://www.radb.net/ and for a wide range of sources, and also browse the archives of http://www.nanog.org. Look for both RPSL and BGP at NANOG. Another tutorial is at http://ncne.nlanr.net/training/techs/2001/0128/presentations/200101-prior2/. In my new service provider book, due out in April, I found it a very different approach to Halabi: start with the customer (or provider) problem definition, map it to RPSL (at least informally), and then configure based on RPSL. There is a freeware conversion program called RtConfig (part of the RAtoolset) that will take RPSL and produce about 80% of the BGP code for an actual router. You can download the RAToolset and get other information at http://www.isi.edu/ra. RtConfig best supports Cisco command language, but will also generate GateD, Bay RS, and RsD configurations. I don't know if there is a version specific to Juniper, but GateD configuration language is quite close to Juniper. The RAtoolset runs on most *NIX boxes. Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=35305&t=35305 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
