LINX 3 training course description

A detailed study of BGP, from the basics of how it works through to advanced issues such as route reflectors, policy, filtering, route selection and routing registries. The course culminates with a study of an industrial strength BGP template illustrating important issues such as bogon filtering. Practical hands on with routers follow the major sessions to reinforce the theory.

A multiple choice exam, leading to the LAIT III certification, is available after the course. The exam consists of 60 questions and lasts 2 hours.

What will you learn

• Connect enterprises to the Internet, and ISPs to each other.
• Describe how BGP works.
• List, describe and configure the main BGP attributes.
• Implement and troubleshoot BGP.
• Work with route aggregation and calculate CIDR prefixes in seconds.
• Influence traffic paths with BGP.

LINX 3 training course details

LINX 3 training course contents

• Basic BGP

IGPs, EGPs, What’s BGP? BGP RIB, in/out process, tables peers, adding routes.
Hands on Simple configuration and troubleshooting.

• The Internet and peering

ASs, AS numbers, Internet structure, ISP types, ISP network design, IXs, peering vs. transit, public/ private peering, bi/multi-lateral peering.
Hands on AS information gathering.

• How BGP works

Incremental updates, Path vector protocols, BGP protocol stack, the BGP header, message types, NLRI, withdrawn routes, route refresh, route dampening.
Hands on More troubleshooting, packet analysis.

• MBGP and IPv6

Multiprotocol routing, AFI, SAFI, MBGP and multicasts, IPv6, MPLS VPNs.
Hands on IPv6

• BGPv4 aggregation

CIDR, benefits, techniques, shortcuts, configuring BGP aggregation, leaking routes.
Hands on Reducing routing table size.

• BGP path selection

BGP attributes, attribute types, route selection order, Local preference, AS prepend, MEDs.
Hands on Influencing traffic with BGP.

• BGP routing policies

What is policy? Examples, route filtering, AS filtering, REs, applying preference selectively, peer groups.
Hands on Sophisticated policies.

• RIPE and routing registries

RIRs, Allocations, assignments, PI vs. PA. Objects, RPSL, routing registry,
Hands on The RIPE database.

• Automating BGP configuration

Automation tools, whois, IRRToolSet, Bogon lists, tracking bogon lists, HTTP, Peering, routing registries, DNS.

• Communities

What is a community? Community names, communities for: peer types and geography. RFC 1998, default communities.
Hands on Setting local preference on other routers.

• Route servers

What are route servers? LINX route servers, route server policy control, What are route collectors, Looking glasses.
Hands on Setting up and working with a route server.

• Peer relationships

IBGP, EBGP, next hop self, advertising routes into/out of BGP, synchronisation.
Hands on IBGP, troubleshooting a large BGP network.

• Route reflectors and confederations

Full mesh IBGP, Route reflectors, RR configuration and design, confederations, migration issues.
Hands on RR configuration.

• BGP architectures

Stub vs. transit AS, when to use BGP, multihoming strategies and issues, default routes. Multihop EBGP, load balancing.
Hands on Multihoming.

• BGP security

RFC 7454, security steps, BGP TTL security, filters, RPKI, ROAs, rsync, rrdp, validators. A secure BGP template.
Hands on RPKI prefix validation.

Learning path

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