Equinix routeservers (MLPE) behavior c/f no_export

Hi guys (and others),

I couldn't find an official description/explanation of this (EQX docs only
mention that this should behave the same as their "set the no_export" TE
community.

We are using Equinix' IXP platform's routeserver service (MLPE) in a few
locations on the planet, and due to the nature of our anycast structure, we are
sending our prefixes with the well-known NO_EXPORT community attached.

It seems to me that, at least in some places (i.e. Warsaw, ex-PLIX), the
routeservers will not forward the routes further, being intransparent to the
NO_EXPORT setting.

My assumption was transparency, so the prefixes would be forwarded unchanged,
including the NO_EXPORT community attached.

It would be nice to hear directly from Equinix, of course, but if anybody on
this list has hard knowledge of this, please share, so that I can take the
appropriate measures...

Thanks in advance,
                Elmar.

Hi Elmar,

it seems to be a not completely agreed/standardised question.

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7947#section-2.2.4

    The BGP Communities [RFC1997] and Extended Communities [RFC4360]
    attributes are intended for labeling information carried in BGP
    UPDATE messages. Transitive as well as non-transitive Communities
    attributes applied to an NLRI UPDATE sent to a route server SHOULD
    NOT be modified, processed, or removed, except as defined by local
    policy. If a Communities attribute is intended for processing by the
    route server itself, as determined by local policy, it MAY be
    modified or removed.

and
https://docs.ixpmanager.org/features/route-servers/#rfc1997-passthru
has some more background.

Hi Nick!

Frank

Re Frank, thanks for the quickie,

geier@geier.ne.tz (Frank Habicht) wrote:

it seems to be a not completely agreed/standardised question.

RFC 7947: Internet Exchange BGP Route Server

[...]

Route Servers - IXP Manager Documentation

[...]

Yeah, I know... I just don't know what Equinix actually does.
As said before, I assumed transparency (==passthru).

Any hard experience info would be helpful here :slight_smile:

Thanks again,
        Elmar.