Cisco Systems 3750E manual Configuring BGP Decision Attributes, 38-52

Chapter 38 Configuring IP Unicast Routing

Configuring BGP

Configuring BGP Decision Attributes

When a BGP speaker receives updates from multiple autonomous systems that describe different paths to the same destination, it must choose the single best path for reaching that destination. When chosen, the selected path is entered into the BGP routing table and propagated to its neighbors. The decision is based on the value of attributes that the update contains and other BGP-configurable factors.

When a BGP peer learns two EBGP paths for a prefix from a neighboring AS, it chooses the best path and inserts that path in the IP routing table. If BGP multipath support is enabled and the EBGP paths are learned from the same neighboring autonomous systems, instead of a single best path, multiple paths are installed in the IP routing table. Then, during packet switching, per-packet or per-destination load-balancing is performed among the multiple paths. The maximum-pathsrouter configuration command controls the number of paths allowed.

These factors summarize the order in which BGP evaluates the attributes for choosing the best path:

1.If the path specifies a next hop that is inaccessible, drop the update. The BGP next-hop attribute, automatically determined by the software, is the IP address of the next hop that is going to be used to reach a destination. For EBGP, this is usually the IP address of the neighbor specified by the neighbor remote-asrouter configuration command. You can disable next-hop processing by using route maps or the neighbor next-hop-selfrouter configuration command.

2.Prefer the path with the largest weight (a Cisco proprietary parameter). The weight attribute is local to the router and not propagated in routing updates. By default, the weight attribute is 32768 for paths that the router originates and zero for other paths. Routes with the largest weight are preferred. You can use access lists, route maps, or the neighbor weight router configuration command to set weights.

3.Prefer the route with the highest local preference. Local preference is part of the routing update and exchanged among routers in the same AS. The default value of the local preference attribute is 100. You can set local preference by using the bgp default local-preferencerouter configuration command or by using a route map.

4.Prefer the route that was originated by BGP running on the local router.

5.Prefer the route with the shortest AS path.

6.Prefer the route with the lowest origin type. An interior route or IGP is lower than a route learned by EGP, and an EGP-learned route is lower than one of unknown origin or learned in another way.

7.Prefer the route with the lowest multi -exit discriminator (MED) metric attribute if the neighboring AS is the same for all routes considered. You can configure the MED by using route maps or by using the default-metricrouter configuration command. When an update is sent to an IBGP peer, the MED is included.

8.Prefer the external (EBGP) path over the internal (IBGP) path.

9.Prefer the route that can be reached through the closest IGP neighbor (the lowest IGP metric). This means that the router will prefer the shortest internal path within the AS to reach the destination (the shortest path to the BGP next-hop).

10.If the following conditions are all true, insert the route for this path into the IP routing table:

•Both the best route and this route are external.

•Both the best route and this route are from the same neighboring autonomous system.

•maximum-paths is enabled.

11.If multipath is not enabled, prefer the route with the lowest IP address value for the BGP router ID. The router ID is usually the highest IP address on the router or the loopback (virtual) address, but might be implementation-specific.

	Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E Switch Software Configuration Guide
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