BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

The BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) Flowspec (Flow Specification) Route Reflector feature enables service providers to control traffic flows in their network. This helps in filtering traffic and helps in taking action against distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation by dropping the DDoS traffic or diverting it to an analyzer.

BGP flow specification provides a mechanism to encode flow specification rules for traffic flows that can be distributed as BGP Network Layer Reachability Information (NLRI).

Restrictions for BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

  • In Cisco IOS 15.5(S) release, BGP flow specification is supported only on a route reflector.
  • Mixing of address family matches and actions is not supported in flow spec rules. For example, IPv4 matches cannot be combined with IPv6 actions and vice versa.

Information About BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

Overview of Flowspec

Flowspec specifies procedures for the distribution of flow specification rules as Border Gateway Protocol Network Layer Reachability Information (BGP NLRI) that can be used in any application. It also defines application for the purpose of packet filtering in order to mitigate distributed denial of service attacks.

A flow specification rule consists of a matching part encoded in the BGP NLRI field and an action part encoded as BGP extended community as defined in the RFC 5575. A flow specification rule is a set of data (represented in an n-tuple) consisting of several matching criteria that can be applied to IP packet data. BGP flow specification rules are internally converted to equivalent Cisco Common Classification Policy Language (C3PL) representing corresponding match and action parameters.

In Cisco IOS 15.5(S) release, Flowspec supports following functions for the BGP route reflector:
  • Flowspec rules defined in RFC 5575

  • IPv6 extensions

  • Redirect IP extensions

  • BGP flowspec validation

Matching Criteria

The following table lists the various Flowspec tuples that are supported for BGP.

BGP Flowspec NLRI Type

QoS Matching Field (IPv6)

QoS Matching Field (IPv4)

Input Value

Type 1

IPv6 destination address

IPv4 destination address

Prefix length

Type 2

IPv6 source address

IPv4 source address

Prefix length

Type 3

IPv6 next header

IPv4 protocol

Multi-value range

Type 4

IPv6 source or destination port

IPv4 source or destination port

Multi-value range

Type 5

IPv6 destination port

IPv4 destination port

Multi-value range

Type 6

IPv6 source port

IPv4 source port

Multi-value range

Type 7

IPv6 ICMP type

IPv4 ICMP type

Multi-value range

Type 8

IPv6 ICMP code

IPv4 ICMP code

Multi-value range

Type 9

IPv6 TCP flags

IPv4 TCP flags (2 bytes include reserved bits)

Bit mask

Type 10

IPv6 packet length

IPv4 packet length

Multi-value range

Type 11

IPv6 traffic class

IPv4 DSCP

Multi-value range

Type 12

Reserved

IPv4 fragment bits

Bit mask

Type 13

IPv6 flow label

Multi-value range

How to Configure BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

Configuring BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

Perform this task to configure BGP FlowSpec on a route reflector. This task specifies only the IPv4 address family but, other address families are also supported for BGP flow specifications.

Before you begin

Configure a BGP route reflector.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. enable
  2. configure terminal
  3. router bgp autonomous-system-number
  4. neighbor ip-address remote-as autonomous-system-number
  5. address-family {ipv4 | ipv6 | vpnv4 | vpnv6} flowspec
  6. neighbor ip-address activate
  7. neighbor ip-address route-reflector-client
  8. end

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose

Step 1

enable

Example:

Device> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

  • Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

configure terminal

Example:

Device# configure terminal 

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3

router bgp autonomous-system-number

Example:

Device(config)# router bgp 1

Enters router configuration mode for the BGP routing process.

Step 4

neighbor ip-address remote-as autonomous-system-number

Example:

Device(config-router)# neighbor 10.1.1.1 remote-as 1

Adds an entry to the BGP or multiprotocol BGP neighbor table.

Step 5

address-family {ipv4 | ipv6 | vpnv4 | vpnv6} flowspec

Example:

Device(config-router)# address-family ipv4 flowspec

Specifies the address family and enters address family configuration mode.

  • Flowspec is supported on IPv4, IPv6, VPNv4 and VPNv6 address families.

Step 6

neighbor ip-address activate

Example:

Device(config-router-af)# neighbor 10.1.1.1 activate

Enables the exchange of information with a BGP neighbor.

Step 7

neighbor ip-address route-reflector-client

Example:

Device(config-router-af)# neighbor 10.1.1.1 route-reflector-client

Configures the router as a BGP route reflector and configures the specified neighbor as its client.

Step 8

end

Example:

Device(config-router-af)# end

(Optional) Exits address family configuration mode and returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Disabling BGP FlowSpec Validation

Perform this task if you want to disable the BGP flow specification validations for eBGP peers. The validations are enabled by default.

To know more about BGP flow specification validations, see RFC 5575 (draft-ietf-idr-bgp-flowspec-oid-01-Revised Validation Procedure for BGP Flow Specifications).

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. enable
  2. configure terminal
  3. router bgp autonomous-system-number
  4. address-family {ipv4 | ipv6 | vpnv4 | vpnv6} flowspec
  5. neighbor ip-address validation off

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose

Step 1

enable

Example:

Device> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

  • Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

configure terminal

Example:

Device# configure terminal 

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3

router bgp autonomous-system-number

Example:

Device(config)# router bgp 1

Enters router configuration mode for the BGP routing process.

Step 4

address-family {ipv4 | ipv6 | vpnv4 | vpnv6} flowspec

Example:

Device(config-router)# address-family ipv4 flowspec

Specifies the address family and enters address family configuration mode.

  • Flowspec is supported on IPv4, IPv6, VPNv4 and VPNv6 address families.

Step 5

neighbor ip-address validation off

Example:

Device(config-router-af)# neighbor 10.1.1.1 validation off

Disables validation of flow specification for eBGP peers.

Verifying BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

The show commands can be entered in any order.

Before you begin

Configure BGP FlowSec on a route reflector.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. show bgp ipv4 flowspec
  2. show bgp ipv4 flowspec detail
  3. show bgp ipv4 flowspec summary
  4. show bgp ipv6 flowspec
  5. show bgp ipv6 flowspec detail
  6. show bgp ipv6 flowspec summary
  7. show bgp vpnv4 flowspec
  8. show bgp vpnv4 flowspec all detail
  9. show bgp vpnv6 flowspec
  10. show bgp vpnv6 flowspec all detail

DETAILED STEPS


Step 1

show bgp ipv4 flowspec

This command displays the IPv4 flowspec routes.

Example:

Device# show bgp ipv4 flowspec

BGP table version is 3, local router ID is 10.10.10.2 Status codes: s suppressed, d damped, h history, 
* valid, > best, i - internal, r RIB-failure, S Stale,
m multipath, b backup-path, f RT-Filter, best-external, a additional-path, 
c RIB-compressed, Origin codes: i - IGP, e - EGP, ? - incomplete RPKI validation codes: V valid,
I invalid, N Not found

     Network          Next Hop            Metric LocPrf Weight Path
 *>i Dest:2.2.2.0/24  10.0.101.1                    100      0 i
 *>i Dest:3.3.3.0/24  10.0.101.1                    100      0 i

 

Step 2

show bgp ipv4 flowspec detail

This command displays the detailed information about IPv4 flowspec routes.

Example:

Device# show bgp ipv4 flowspec detail

BGP routing table entry for Dest:2.2.2.0/24, version 2
  Paths: (1 available, best #1, table IPv4-Flowspec-BGP-Table)
  Advertised to update-groups:
     1         
  Refresh Epoch 1
  Local, (Received from a RR-client)
    10.0.101.1 from 10.0.101.1 (10.0.101.1)
      Origin IGP, localpref 100, valid, internal, best
      Extended Community: FLOWSPEC Redirect-IP:0x000000000001
      rx pathid: 0, tx pathid: 0x0
BGP routing table entry for Dest:3.3.3.0/24, version 3
  Paths: (1 available, best #1, table IPv4-Flowspec-BGP-Table)
  Advertised to update-groups:
     1         
  Refresh Epoch 1
  Local, (Received from a RR-client)
    10.0.101.1 from 10.0.101.1 (10.0.101.1)
      Origin IGP, localpref 100, valid, internal, best
      rx pathid: 0, tx pathid: 0x0

 

Step 3

show bgp ipv4 flowspec summary

This command displays the IPv4 flowspec neighbors.

Example:

Device# show bgp ipv4 flowspec summary

BGP router identifier 10.10.10.2, local AS number 239 BGP table version is 3, main routing table version 3
2 network entries using 16608 bytes of memory
2 path entries using 152 bytes of memory
2/2 BGP path/bestpath attribute entries using 304 bytes of memory
1 BGP AS-PATH entries using 24 bytes of memory
2 BGP extended community entries using 48 bytes of memory
0 BGP route-map cache entries using 0 bytes of memory
0 BGP filter-list cache entries using 0 bytes of memory BGP using 17136 total bytes of memory BGP activity 18/0 
prefixes, 18/0 paths, scan interval 15 secs

Neighbor        V           AS MsgRcvd MsgSent   TblVer  InQ OutQ Up/Down
State/PfxRcd
10.0.101.1      4          239      70      24        3    0    0 00:10:58
       2
10.0.101.2      4          239       0       0        1    0    0 never
Idle
10.0.101.3      4          240       0       0        1    0    0 never
Idle
10.10.10.1      4          239      19      23        3    0    0 00:10:53

Step 4

show bgp ipv6 flowspec

This command displays the IPv6 flowspec routes.

Example:

Device# show bgp ipv6 flowspec

BGP table version is 2, local router ID is 10.10.10.2 Status codes: s suppressed, d damped, h history,
 * valid, > best, i - internal, r RIB-failure, S Stale, m multipath, b backup-path, f RT-Filter, 
 x best-external, a additional-path, c RIB-compressed, Origin codes: i - IGP, e - EGP, 
 ? - incomplete RPKI validation codes: V valid, I invalid, N Not found

     Network          Next Hop            Metric LocPrf Weight Path
 *>i Dest:3::/0-24,Source:4::/0-24
                       FEC0::1001                    100      0 i
 

Step 5

show bgp ipv6 flowspec detail

This command displays the detailed information about IPv6 flowspec routes.

Example:

Device# show bgp ipv6 flowspec detail

BGP routing table entry for Dest:3::/0-24,Source:4::/0-24, version 2
  Paths: (1 available, best #1, table Global-Flowspecv6-Table)
  Advertised to update-groups:
     2         
  Refresh Epoch 1
  Local
    FEC0::1001 from FEC0::1001 (10.0.101.2)
      Origin IGP, localpref 100, valid, internal, best
      rx pathid: 0, tx pathid: 0x0

 

Step 6

show bgp ipv6 flowspec summary

This command displays the IPv6 flowspec neighbors.

Example:

Device# show bgp ipv6 flowspec summary 

BGP router identifier 10.10.10.2, local AS number 239 BGP table version is 3, main routing table version 3
2 network entries using 16608 bytes of memory
2 path entries using 152 bytes of memory
2/2 BGP path/bestpath attribute entries using 304 bytes of memory
1 BGP AS-PATH entries using 24 bytes of memory
2 BGP extended community entries using 48 bytes of memory
0 BGP route-map cache entries using 0 bytes of memory
0 BGP filter-list cache entries using 0 bytes of memory BGP using 17136 total bytes of memory BGP activity 18/0
prefixes, 18/0 paths, scan interval 15 secs

Neighbor        V           AS MsgRcvd MsgSent   TblVer  InQ OutQ Up/Down
State/PfxRcd
10.0.101.1      4          239      70      24        3    0    0 00:10:58
       2
10.0.101.2      4          239       0       0        1    0    0 never
Idle
10.0.101.3      4          240       0       0        1    0    0 never
Idle
10.10.10.1      4          239      19      23        3    0    0 00:10:53

Step 7

show bgp vpnv4 flowspec

This command displays the VPNv4 flowspec neighbors.

Example:

Device# show bgp vpnv4 flowspec 

BGP table version is 2, local router ID is 10.10.10.2 Status codes: s suppressed, d damped, h history, 
* valid, > best, i - internal,r RIB-failure, S Stale, m multipath, b backup-path, f RT-Filter, 
x best-external, a additional-path, c RIB-compressed, Origin codes: i - IGP, e - EGP, 
? - incomplete RPKI validation codes: V valid, I invalid, N Not found

     Network          Next Hop            Metric LocPrf Weight Path
Route Distinguisher:  200:200
 *>i Dest:10.0.1.0/24 10.0.101.1                    100      0 i

Step 8

show bgp vpnv4 flowspec all detail

This command displays the VPNv4 flowspec details.

Example:

Device# show bgp vpnv4 flowspec all detail 

Route Distinguisher: 200:200
BGP routing table entry for 200:200:Dest:10.0.1.0/24, version 2
  Paths: (1 available, best #1, table VPNv4-Flowspec-BGP-Table)
  Advertised to update-groups:
     3         
  Refresh Epoch 1
  Local
    10.0.101.1 (via default) from 10.0.101.1 (10.0.101.1)
      Origin IGP, localpref 100, valid, internal, best
      Extended Community: RT:100:100
      rx pathid: 0, tx pathid: 0x0

Step 9

show bgp vpnv6 flowspec

This command displays the VPNv6 flowspec neighbors.

Example:

Device# show bgp vpnv6 flowspec 

BGP table version is 2, local router ID is 10.10.10.2 Status codes: s suppressed, d damped, h history, * valid, > best, i - internal, 
              r RIB-failure, S Stale, m multipath, b backup-path, f RT-Filter, 
              x best-external, a additional-path, c RIB-compressed, Origin codes: i - IGP, e - EGP, ? - incomplete RPKI validation codes: V valid, I invalid, N Not found

     Network          Next Hop            Metric LocPrf Weight Path
Route Distinguisher: 200:200
 *>i SPort:=20640     FEC0::1001                    100      0 i

Step 10

show bgp vpnv6 flowspec all detail

This command displays the VPNv6 flowspec details.

Example:

Device# show bgp vpnv6 flowspec all detail 

Route Distinguisher: 200:200
BGP routing table entry for 200:200:SPort:=20640, version 2
  Paths: (1 available, best #1, table VPNv6-Flowspec-BGP-Table)
  Advertised to update-groups:
     3         
  Refresh Epoch 1
  Local
    FEC0::1001 (via default) from FEC0::1001 (10.0.101.2)
      Origin IGP, localpref 100, valid, internal, best
      Extended Community: RT:100:100
      rx pathid: 0, tx pathid: 0x0


Configuration Examples for BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

Example: BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

Example: Configuring BGP FlowSpec on Route Reflector

Configure BGP route reflector and inject flowspec in the route reflector.

Figure 1. BGP Route Reflector Topology
! Configure the topology

!Configure the interfaces on RR

RR> enable
RR# configure terminal
RR(config)# interface E0/0
RR(config-if)# ip address 10.0.0.1 255.224.0.0
RR(config-if)# no shutdown
RR(config-if)# exit
RR(config)# interface S2/0
RR(config-if)# ip address 10.32.0.1 255.224.0.0
RR(config-if)# no shutdown
RR(config-if)# exit
RR(config)# interface S3/0
RR(config-if)# ip address 10.64.0.1 255.224.0.0
RR(config-if)# no shutdown

!Configure RR as the route reflector with S2/0(R1) and S2/0 (R2) as the neighbors

RR(config)# router bgp 333
RR(config-router)# no synchronization
RR(config-router)# network 10.0.0.0 mask 255.224.0.0
RR(config-router)# network 10.64.0.0 mask 255.224.0.0
RR(config-router)# network 10.32.0.0 mask 255.224.0.0
RR(config-router)# neighbor 10.64.0.2 remote-as 333
RR(config-router)# neighbor 10.32.0.2 remote-as  333


!Configure flowspec on route reflector

RR(config-router)# address-family ipv4 flowspec
RR(configure-router-af)# neighbor 10.64.0.2 activate
RR(config-router)# neighbor 10.64.0.2 route-reflector-client
RR(configure-router-af)# neighbor 10.32.0.2 activate
RR(config-router)# neighbor 10.32.0.2 route-reflector-client

!Verify the configuration

RR> show bgp ipv4 flowspec 

Additional References for BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

Related Documents

Related Topic

Document Title

Cisco IOS commands

Cisco IOS Master Command List, All Releases

BGP commands

Cisco IOS IP Routing: BGP Command Reference

Standards and RFCs

Standard/RFC

Title

RFC 5575

Dissemination of Flow Specification Rules

Technical Assistance

Description

Link

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Feature Information for BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

The following table provides release information about the feature or features described in this module. This table lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Table 1. Feature Information for BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

Feature Name

Releases

Feature Information

BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support

15.5(1)S

The BGP FlowSpec Route-reflector Support feature enables services providers to control traffic flows in their network and mitigate DDoS attack.

The following command was introduced by this feature: address-family {ipv4 | ipv6 | vpnv4 | vpnv6} flowspec .