Vultr’s BGP feature allows you to bring your own IP space and use it across any of our locations, with an OpenBSD instance no additional software is needed!
Getting started
In order to use BGP, you would need your own IP space (either v4 or v6). If you have your own ASN, you can use that or we can assign a private one.
Open a ticket with the following information:
- Your IP ranges
- Your ASN (if you have one)
- A LOA for your IP ranges (only if you don’t have your own ASN)
Once BGP has been configured on your account, you can proceed with configuring BGP.
Our examples are going to use the following:
- ASN: 64512
- Instance’s IPv4 address: 203.0.113.123
- Instance’s IPv6 address: 2001:DB8:1000::1/64
- IPv4 Block: 198.51.100.0/24
- IPv6 Block: 2001:0db8::/32
- BGP Password: hunter2
BGP Setup
OpenBSD ships with bgpd(8) already installed and only requires a few configuration file changes to start.
Edit rc.conf.local(8) to add the following line to allow the bgpd(8) daemon to start via rc.d(8)
bgpd_flags=
A complete example of bgpd.conf(8) can be found at /etc/examples/bgpd.conf and contains lots of extra configuration options you may need.
Adjust the example configuration below as required and write to /etc/bgpd.conf (ensure that the permissions for this file are 600)
AS 64512
router-id 203.0.113.123
listen on 127.0.0.1
listen on ::1
log updates
network 198.51.100.0/24
network 2001:0db8::/32
neighbor 169.254.169.254 {
remote-as 64515
descr "Vultr IPv4"
announce IPv4 unicast
announce IPv6 none
tcp md5sig password hunter2
multihop 2
local-address 203.0.113.123
}
neighbor 2001:19f0:ffff::1 {
remote-as 64515
descr "Vultr IPv6"
announce IPv4 none
announce IPv6 unicast
tcp md5sig password hunter2
multihop 2
local-address 2001:DB8:1000::1
}
To make sure everything is in order, you can issue the command bgpd -f /etc/bgpd.conf -n. If bgpd(ok) is returned, you can start the daemon.
# rcctl enable bgpd
# rcctl start bgpd
bgpd(ok)
To check the status of your BGP sessions, you will need to use bgpctl(8). For example, to see a basic overview you can use bgpctl show summary
# bgpctl show summary
Neighbor AS MsgRcvd MsgSent OutQ Up/Down State/PrfRcvd
Vultr IPv6 64515 230 207 0 01:41:40 0
Vultr IPv4 64515 244 220 0 01:48:09 0
To see detailed information about a BPG neighbor use bgpctl show neighbor
BGP neighbor is 2001:19f0:ffff::1, remote AS 64515, Multihop (2)
Description: Vultr IPv6
BGP version 4, remote router-id 45.63.102.186, using md5sig
BGP state = Established, up for 01:46:45
Last read 00:00:08, holdtime 90s, keepalive interval 30s
Neighbor capabilities:
Multiprotocol extensions: IPv6 unicast
Route Refresh
Graceful Restart: Timeout: 120, IPv6 unicast
4-byte AS numbers
Message statistics:
Sent Received
Opens 1 1
Notifications 0 0
Updates 2 1
Keepalives 214 240
Route Refresh 0 0
Total 217 242
Update statistics:
Sent Received
Updates 4 0
Withdraws 0 0
End-of-Rib 1 1
Local host: 2001:DB8:1000::1, Local port: 38298
Remote host: 2001:19f0:ffff::1, Remote port: 179
BGP neighbor is 169.254.169.254, remote AS 64515, Multihop (2)
Description: Vultr IPv4
BGP version 4, remote router-id 45.63.102.186, using md5sig
BGP state = Established, up for 01:53:14
Last read 00:00:14, holdtime 90s, keepalive interval 30s
Neighbor capabilities:
Multiprotocol extensions: IPv4 unicast
Route Refresh
Graceful Restart: Timeout: 120, IPv4 unicast
4-byte AS numbers
Message statistics:
Sent Received
Opens 1 1
Notifications 0 0
Updates 2 1
Keepalives 227 253
Route Refresh 0 0
Total 230 255
Update statistics:
Sent Received
Updates 4 0
Withdraws 0 0
End-of-Rib 1 1
Local host: 203.0.113.123, Local port: 19824
Remote host: 169.254.169.254, Remote port: 179
At this point we can start assigning our IP addresses to interfaces (e.g. by configuring /etc/hostname.lo1 ) so applications can be configured to listen on these IPs.
If you intend to use your IP addresses on multiple instances you will need to adjust the network statements on each instance to announce a more specific route for those IPs.
Instance A
AS 64512
router-id 203.0.113.123
listen on 127.0.0.1
listen on ::1
log updates
network 198.51.100.0/24
network 198.51.100.1/32
network 2001:0db8::/32
network 2001:0db8::/64
neighbor 169.254.169.254 {
remote-as 64515
descr "Vultr IPv4"
announce IPv4 unicast
announce IPv6 none
tcp md5sig password hunter2
multihop 2
local-address 203.0.113.123
}
neighbor 2001:19f0:ffff::1 {
remote-as 64515
descr "Vultr IPv6"
announce IPv4 none
announce IPv6 unicast
tcp md5sig password hunter2
multihop 2
local-address 2001:DB8:1000::1
}
Instance B
AS 64512
router-id 203.0.113.124
listen on 127.0.0.1
listen on ::1
log updates
network 198.51.100.0/24
network 198.51.100.2/32
network 2001:0db8::/32
network 2001:0db8:0001::/64
neighbor 169.254.169.254 {
remote-as 64515
descr "Vultr IPv4"
announce IPv4 unicast
announce IPv6 none
tcp md5sig password hunter2
multihop 2
local-address 203.0.113.124
}
neighbor 2001:19f0:ffff::1 {
remote-as 64515
descr "Vultr IPv6"
announce IPv4 none
announce IPv6 unicast
tcp md5sig password hunter2
multihop 2
local-address 2001:DB8:1000::2
}
Note: Do not forget to use a different password from what is referenced in this article.
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