Configuration steps

Using the following figure, assume PE6 was previously configured with VPLS 100 as indicated by the configurations lines in the upper right. The BGP AD process will commence after PE134 is configured with the VPLS 100 instance as shown in the upper left. This shows a very basic and simple BGP AD configuration. The minimum requirement for enabling BGP AD on a VPLS instance is configuring the VPLS-ID and point to a pseudowire template.

Figure: BGP AD configuration example

In many cases, VPLS connectivity is based on a pseudowire mesh. To reduce the configuration requirement, the BGP values can be automatically generated using the VPLS-ID and the MPLS router-ID. By default, the lower six bytes of the VPLS-ID are used to generate the RD and the RT values. The VSI-ID value is generated from the MPLS router-ID. All of these parameters are configurable and can be coded to suit requirements and build different topologies.

The following CLI example shows the BGP AD CLI command tree.

config>service>vpls>bgp-ad
[no] pw-template-bind
[no] route-target
[no] shutdown
vpls-id
[no] vsi-export
vsi-id
[no] vsi-import

A helpful command displays the service information, the BGP parameters and the SDP bindings in use. When the discovery process is completed successfully each endpoint will have an entry for the service.

*A:H-SASK# show service l2-route-table 

========================================================================
Services: L2 Route Information - Summary
========================================================================
Svc Id     L2-Routes (RD-Prefix)                 Next Hop        Origin
               Sdp Bind Id                           PW Temp Id  
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
No. of L2 Route Entries: 0
========================================================================

===============================================================================
Services: L2 Multi-Homing Route Information - Summary
===============================================================================
Svc Id     L2-Routes (RD-Prefix)        Next Hop        SiteId     State  DF
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No. of L2 Multi-Homing Route Entries: 0
===============================================================================

========================================================
Services: L2 Bgp-Vpls Route Information - Summary
========================================================
Svc Id     L2-Routes (RD)        Next Hop        Ve-Id
               Sdp Bind Id           PW Temp Id  
--------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------
No. of L2 Bgp-Vpls Route Entries: 0
========================================================

========================================================
Services: L2 Bgp-Vpws Route Information - Summary
========================================================
Svc Id     L2-Routes (RD)        Next Hop        Ve-Id
               Sdp Bind Id           PW Temp Id  
--------------------------------- 


When only one of the endpoints has an entry for the service in the l2-routing-table, it is most likely a problem with the RT values used for import and export. This would most likely happen when different import and export RT values are configured using a router policy or the route-target command.

Service specific commands continue to be available to display service specific information, including status.

*A:H-SASK# show service sdp-using 

===============================================================================
SDP Using
===============================================================================
SvcId      SdpId              Type   Far End              Opr   I.Label E.Label
                                      :GlobalId           State         
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1          1:1                Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130769  130872
2          2:2                Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130770  130873
3          3:3                Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130771  130874
4          4:4                Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130772  130875
5          5:5                Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130773  130876
6          6:6                Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130774  130877
7          7:7                Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130775  130878
8          8:8                Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130776  130879
9          9:9                Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130777  130880
10         10:10              Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130778  130881
11         11:11              Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130779  130882
12         12:12              Spok   4.4.4.4              Up    130780  130883 

BGP AD advertises the VPLS-ID in the extended community attribute, VSI-ID in the NLRI and the local PE ID in the BGP next hop. At the receiving PE, the VPLS-ID is compared against locally provisioned information to determine whether the two PEs share a common VPLS. If it is found that they do, the BGP information is used in the signaling phase.