# Configuring BGP peers

Use this procedure to configure BGP peers to connect two routers to each other for the purpose of exchanging routing information.

## About this task

BGP peers exchange complete routing information only after they establish the peer connection.

## Procedure

1. In the navigation tree, open the following folders: Configuration > IP.
2. Click BGP.
3. Click the Peers tab.
4. Click Insert.
5. Configure the peer as required.
6. Click Insert.
7. In the Enable column, double-click the value, and then select true.

   By default, new peer configuration parameters are disabled.

8. Click Apply.
9. To modify a peer configuration, double-click the value, and then select a new value.

## Peers field descriptions

Use the data in the following table to use the Peers tab.

Name | Description
--- | ---
RemoteAddr | Specifies the remote IP address of the entered BGP peer.
GroupName | Specifies the peer group name to which the peer belongs (optional).
RemoteAs | Configures a remote AS number for the peer or peer-group in the range 0–65535.
Enable | Controls whether the peer connection is enabled or disabled. The default is disabled.
RoutePolicyIn | Specifies the policy (by name) that applies to all routes learned from this peer.
RoutePolicyOut | Specifies the policy (by name) that applies to all outgoing route updates.
UpdateSourceInterface | Specifies the source IP address to use when the switch sends BGP packets to this peer or peer group.
ConnectRetryInterval | Specifies the time interval, in seconds, for the connect retry timer. The suggested value for this timer is 120 seconds. The range is 1 to 65535.
HoldTimeConfigured | Specifies the time interval, in seconds, for the hold time for this BGP speaker with this peer. This value is in an open message sent to this peer by this BGP speaker. To determine the hold time with the peer, the switch compares this value with the HoldTime value in an open message received from the peer. The HoldTime must be at least three seconds. If the value is zero, the hold time does not establish with the peer. The suggested value for this timer is 180 seconds. The range is 0 to 65535.
KeepAliveConfigured | Specifies the time interval, in seconds, for the KeepAlive timer configured for this BGP speaker with this peer. KeepAliveConfigured determines the keep alive message frequency relative to HoldTimeConfigured; KeepAlive indicates the actual time interval for the keep alive messages. The recommended maximum value for this timer is one-third of HoldTimeConfigured. If KeepAliveConfigured is zero, no periodic keep alive messages are sent to the peer after the peers establish a BGP connection. Avaya recommends that you configure a value of 60 seconds. The range is 0 to 21845.
MD5Authentication | Enables and disables MD5 authentication.
DefaultOriginate | This parameter enables or disables sending the default route information to the specified neighbor or peer. The default value is false.
Weight | Specifies the peer or peer group weight, or the priority of updates the system can receive from this BGP peer. The default value is 100 and the range is 0–65535.
MaxPrefix | Configures a limit on the number of routes accepted from a neighbor. The default value is 4000 routes and the range is 0–4000. A value of 0 means no limit exists.
DebugMask | Displays the specified debug information for the BGP peer. The default value is none. none disables all debug messages. event enables the display of debug event messages. state enables display of debug state transition messages. update enables display of debug messages related to updates transmission and reception. error enables the display of debug error messages. trace enables the display of debug trace messages. init enables the display of debug initialization messages. all enables all debug messages. packet enables the display of debug packet messages. warning enables the display of debug warning messages. filter enables the display of debug messages related to filtering.
NextHopSelf | Specifies that the next-hop attribute in an IBGP update is the address of the local router or the router that generates the IBGP update. The default is disable.
RouteReflectorClient | Specifies that this peer is a route reflector client.
SoftReconfigurationIn | When enabled, the router relearns routes from the specified neighbor or group of neighbors without restarting the connection after the policy changes in the inbound direction. The default value is disable. Enabling SoftReconfigurationIn stores all BGP routes in local memory (even non-best routes).
SendCommunity | Enables or disables sending the community attribute of the update message to the specified peer. The default value is disable.