Cisco_NX-OS/IOS_BGP_(Advanced)_Comparison

Objective

This tech note outlines the main differences in advanced Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) support between
Cisco® NX-OS Software and Cisco IOS® Software. Sample configurations are included for Cisco NX-OS
and Cisco IOS Software for some common features to demonstrate the similarities and differences. Please
refer to the NX-OS documentation on Cisco.com for a complete list of supported features.

BGP Overview

BGPv4 is a standard exterior routing protocol defined in RFC 4271, commonly used to exchange network
reachability information between autonomous systems. This document discusses route reflectors,
confederations, peer templates, route-map policies and the prefix-list (route-filtering) feature.

Important Cisco NX-OS and Cisco IOS Software Differences

In Cisco NX-OS:

• When configuring route reflectors, the route-reflector-client command is assigned per neighbor
under the neighbor-specific address family.
• When configuring confederations, the confederation is configured under the autonomous system
without the leading bgp keyword.
• Cisco NX-OS uses a peer template instead of a peer group to reuse common BGP policies.
• Multiple policy templates can be applied to a single neighbor. Cisco IOS Software allows only one
policy template per neighbor.
• Cisco NX-OS does not require a manual reset for a neighbor when its routing policy is modified.
Cisco IOS Software requires a hard or soft reset depending on the neighbor capabilities exchanged.

Things You Should Know

The following list provides some additional facts about Cisco NX-OS that should be helpful when designing,
configuring, and maintaining an advanced BGP network configuration.

• Peer and session templates define neighbor attributes such as security passwords, timers, and
transport options.
• Peer templates and session templates have identical configuration capabilities with one exception:
peer templates can configure address families.
• Peer and session templates are inherited by a neighbor through the BGP neighbor configuration
mode.
• Only one peer template and session template can be inherited by a single BGP neighbor.
• Peer templates can inherit session templates.
• Session templates can inherit other session templates.
• Policy templates define address-family policies for inbound or outbound polices, including
default-route origination, filter lists, route-map polices, prefix lists, etc.
• Multiple policy templates can be assigned per neighbor. Policy templates are executed in order based
on the configured sequence number.
• Policy templates are inherited by a neighbor through the neighbor and address-family configuration
mode.

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• Route-map polices can configure BGP attributes such as as-path, community lists, community
attributes, dampening, local preference, metric type, origin, and weight.
• Route-map polices can be applied per neighbor for inbound and outbound routing policies.

Configuration Comparison

The following sample code shows the configuration similarities and differences between the Cisco NX-OS
and Cisco IOS Software CLIs. The configurations are very similar with the exception of the hierarchy used in
Cisco NX-OS.

Cisco IOS CLI Cisco NX-OS CLI

Configuring a Route-Reflector
router bgp 10 router bgp 10

no synchronization address-family ipv4 unicast

network 192.168.11.1 mask 255.255.255.255 network 192.168.11.1/32

neighbor 192.168.2.1 remote-as 10 neighbor 192.168.2.1 remote-as 10

neighbor 192.168.2.1 update-source Loopback0 update-source loopback0

neighbor 192.168.2.1 route-reflector-client address-family ipv4 unicast

no auto-summary route-reflector-client
Configuring Confederations
router bgp router bgp 65534

no synchronization confederation identifier 10

bgp confederation identifier 10 confederation peers 65535

bgp confederation peers 65535 address-family ipv4 unicast

network 192.168.11.1 mask 255.255.255.255 network 192.168.11.1/32

neighbor 192.168.10.2 remote-as 65535 neighbor 192.168.10.2 remote-as 65535

no auto-summary address-family ipv4 unicast

Configuring a Peer Template
router bgp 10 router bgp 10

no synchronization address-family ipv4 unicast

network 192.168.11.1 mask 255.255.255.255 network 192.168.11.1/32

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neighbor IBGP-Template peer-group template peer IBGP-Template

neighbor IBGP-Template password cisco123 password 3 a667d47acc18ea6b

neighbor IBGP-Template update-source Loopback0 update-source loopback0

neighbor 192.168.2.1 remote-as 10 address-family ipv4 unicast

neighbor 192.168.2.1 peer-group IBGP-Template neighbor 192.168.2.1 remote-as 10

no auto-summary inherit peer IBGP-Template

Configuring a Policy Template
router bgp 10

template peer-policy EBGP-Policy router bgp 10

default-originate address-family ipv4 unicast

send-community network 192.168.11.1/32

exit-peer-policy template peer-policy EBGP-Policy

send-community
no synchronization
default-originate
network 192.168.11.1 mask 255.255.255.255
neighbor 192.168.10.2 remote-as 20
neighbor 192.168.10.2 remote-as 20
address-family ipv4 unicast
neighbor 192.168.10.2 inherit peer-policy
EBGP-Policy inherit peer-policy EBGP-Policy 10

no auto-summary
Configuring an Outbound Neighbor Route-Map Policy
route-map EBGP-Policy permit 10 route-map EBGP-Policy permit 10

set as-path prepend 10 10 10 set as-path prepend 10 10 10

router bgp 10 router bgp 10

no synchronization address-family ipv4 unicast

network 192.168.11.1 mask 255.255.255.255 network 192.168.11.1/32

neighbor 192.168.10.2 remote-as 20 neighbor 192.168.10.2 remote-as 20

neighbor 192.168.10.2 route-map EBGP-Policy out address-family ipv4 unicast

no auto-summary route-map EBGP-Policy out

Configuring an Outbound Prefix-List

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ip prefix-list EBGP-Policy seq 5 permit

192.168.11.1/32 ip prefix-list EBGP-Policy seq 5 permit
192.168.11.1/32

router bgp 10
router bgp 10
no synchronization
neighbor 192.168.10.2 remote-as 20
neighbor 192.168.10.2 remote-as 20
address-family ipv4 unicast
neighbor 192.168.10.2 prefix-list EBGP-Policy out
prefix-list EBGP-Policy out
no auto-summary

Verification Command Comparison

The following table compares some useful show commands for verifying and troubleshooting a BGP
network configuration.

Cisco NX-OS BGP Cisco IOS Software BGP Command Description

show bgp convergence - Displays global convergence information
show bgp process - Displays global BGP process information
show bgp sessions - Displays information for all neighbors
show bgp statistics - Displays global BGP process statistics
- - -
show ip bgp <option> show ip bgp Displays BGP Process and BGP table entries
show ip bgp x.x.x.x show ip bgp x.x.x.x Displays a specific network in the BGP table
Displays a network in a specified VRF BGP
show ip bgp x.x.x.x vrf -
table
show ip bgp x.x.x.x/len show ip bgp x.x.x.x mask Displays a specific prefix in the BGP table
show ip bgp x.x.x.x/len show ip bgp x.x.x.x mask Displays a prefix in the table with longer
longer-prefix longer-prefix prefixes
Displays the BGP table for all protocol
show ip bgp all show ip bgp all
families
show ip bgp community Displays routes with a specific regular
show ip bgp community <#>
<word> expression
show ip bgp community Displays routes with a specific community
-
<aa:nn> value
show ip bgp community Displays BGP routes advertised to the
-
internet Internet
show ip bgp community show ip bgp community
Displays BGP routes not advertised to peers
no-advertise no-advertise

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show ip bgp community show ip bgp community

Displays BGP routes not exported to next AS
no-export no-export
show ip bgp community Displays BGP routes not sent to outside local
-
no-export-spoofed AS
show ip bgp community-list show ip bgp community-list
Displays a specific BGP community list
<name> <name>
show ip bgp dampening show ip bgp dampening
Displays all Dampened paths
dampened-paths dampened-paths
show ip bgp dampening show ip bgp dampening
Displays flap statistics for BGP routes
flap-statistics flap-statistics
show ip bgp dampening
- Displays all history paths
history-paths
show ip bgp dampening show ip bgp dampening
Displays all of the Dampening parameters
parameters parameters
show ip bgp extcommunity Displays routes with a specific regular
-
<word> expression for extended communities
show ip bgp Displays a specific BGP extended
-
extcommunity-list <name> community list
Displays all routes matching a specified filter
show ip bgp filter-list show ip bgp filter-list
list
show ip bgp flap-statistics - Displays all BGP route flap statistics
show ip bgp ipv4 multicast show ip bgp ipv4 multicast Displays BGP IPv4 multicast address
<option> <option> families
show ip bgp ipv4 unicast show ip bgp ipv4 unicast
Displays BGP IPv4 unicast address families
<option> <option>
show ip bgp neighbors show ip bgp neighbors Displays detailed neighbor information
show ip bgp neighbors x.x.x.x show ip bgp neighbors x.x.x.x Displays detailed information for a neighbor
Displays all routes matching a specified
show ip bgp nexthop x.x.x.x -
next-hop
show ip bgp
- Displays the next-hop database
nexthop-database
show ip bgp paths show ip bgp paths Displays all BGP paths
show ip bgp peer-policy - Displays BGP peer policy by specified name
show ip bgp peer-session - Displays information about a peer session
show ip bgp unicast ipv4
show ip bgp peer-template Displays information about a peer template
template
Displays routes matching a specified
show ip bgp prefix-list show ip bgp prefix-list
prefix-list
Displays routes matching a
show ip bgp regexp show ip bgp regexp
regular-expression
Displays the paths stored for soft
show ip bgp received-paths -
reconfiguration
show ip bgp route-map show ip bgp route-map Displays BGP routes matching a route-map
Displays a summary list of neighbors and
show ip bgp summary show ip bgp summary
statistics

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Displays information for a specified BGP

show ip bgp vrf show ip bgp vpnv4 vrf
VRF