Re: FRR for BGP route reflectors?

[Saku Ytti via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

I'm not protesting the count of BGP implementations, the more the merrier.
I'm protesting the lack of BGP libraries.

On Fri, 5 Jun 2026 at 16:25, Douglas Fischer <fischerdouglas () gmail com> wrote:
> Regarding the multiplicity of daemons for BGP.
>
> I believe it's only necessary to say that there are daemons with different purposes.
> - FRR, for instance, most of the time doesn't allow you to break what the protocol proposes. To do that, you have to 
> go down several layers, which isn't simple.
> - ExaBGP, for example, is designed so that you can do "anything you want" with the routes, regardless of whether they 
> respect basic BGP criteria.
>
> And both are necessary.
>
> Em qui., 4 de jun. de 2026 às 05:00, Saku Ytti via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org> escreveu:
> > On Wed, 3 Jun 2026 at 18:05, André Dias via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org> wrote:
> >
> > > I use FRR a lot in ISPs that I work for, but in cases of RR I prefer to use GoBGP or BIRD. I prefer GoBGP or Bird 
> > > instead FRR because they are easier to automate.
> >
> > It boggles my mind that someone goes 'I'm going to write this very
> > complex daemon' and then they proceed to write monolithic tightly
> > coupled CLI+daemon+logic.
> >
> > So we have a huge collection of BGP implementations, as mentioned just
> > here, frr, gobgp, bird, rustybgp, openbgp, exabgp and many many
> > others. But we don't really have any BGP library approaching a similar
> > maturity level. While to me it seems it should have been an obvious
> > win for any project, to start day1 with decoupled library, cli and
> > daemon as separate libraries, i see it reducing work day1 due to
> > forcing more maintainability in design.
> >
> > Then instead of using low performance, lacking or non-existing APIs in
> > your automation, you could write your own BGP worker using the library
> > to have superior flexibility and performance, and exactly the
> > behaviour you want. Many things you cannot do at all, because you
> > don't have a library, like fuzzing, the daemon won't allow you to do
> > wrong/bad things.
> >
> > So please, the next person planning to write BGP or whatever project
> > they're thinking of, separate the logic and daemon. Thank you.
> >
> >
> > --
> >   ++ytti
> > _______________________________________________
> > NANOG mailing list
> > https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/nanog () lists nanog org/message/OPAVVROPAXNFN5VTGB5RDLYQ4HPQGGGT/
>
>
>
> --
> Douglas Fernando Fischer
> Engº de Controle e Automação



-- 
  ++ytti
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