Peering

The Peering tab displays allows you to add and manage exchanges, routers, sessions, and peers. Admin users may view and manage recent emails for a company peering email address, and associate email communications with ProVision peers. 

ProVision's Peering tab has five subtabs to manage various peering functions: IXs (Exchanges), Routers, Sessions, Peers, AS Set, and Emails. 

• The IXs tab shows the exchange list. From here, you can edit exchange settings and view, manage, and mark peer status and communications via the exchange details page.

• The Routers tab shows the list of routers in ProVision. From here, you can add new routers or manage existing routers.

• The Sessions tab lists the current sessions in ProVision. You may also add new sessions, or click on a session name to show session details, from which you may configure and manage each session. 

• On the Peers tab, you can view and manage session peers.

• The AS Set tab lets you view, import, and update Autonomous Set inbound prefix filters per peer.

• In the Email tab (Global Admins only), recent email communications to and from a company peering email account may be managed. 

Peering Overview

In ProVision's Peering tab, you can add multiple exchanges, routers, sessions, view peer details, as well as send and receive peering requests.  

ProVision directly interfaces with PeeringDB's API to update exchange and peering data to ensure up to date information, which is automatically managed for cloud installations.

Local installations of ProVision that use Peering need to have a PeeringDB account and for the Database URL and API Key to be set up in ProVision.

Set up ProVision Peering

In order to perform common peering tasks, one or more ASNs need to be added in ProVision. 

Local instances will also need to provide a PeeringDB Database URL/API key, or self-manage a PeeringDB database. For cloud instances, the PeeringDB database is managed automatically. 

Add Peering Settings (ASN and PeeringDB Information)

Go to ProVision’s Admin area → Admin Settings page, and click on the Peering subtab.

Review the Peering Settings module, and enter the following information:

Required:

• ASN: Enter the BASN(s) that will be used for Peering. For multiple ASNs, separate each ASN with a comma (e.g. "1234, 5678").

• PeeringDB API URL and Key: Enter the PeeringDB database url, required to retrieve and update ProVision's peering information.

  • Local installations need to enter and save a valid PeeringDB API Key.

  • For cloud instances, the PeeringDB database is automatically managed and synced.

  • Click Test to verify the PeeringDB connection.

Optional:

• VRF Support: Check to enable adding the VRF gadget to the router Section. Currently only supports Cisco routers. 

• Update Session State: Automatically creates a scheduled task that connects to each router, once per day, to update the session state in Provision.

• Update AS Set Prefixes:: Automatically creates a scheduled task that executes bgpq4, once per day, to update the AS prefix list in Provision.

• PeeringDB Cache: PeeringDB API responses are cached for 48 hours, avoiding rate limiting on the public API - this is not needed on a local Peering DB instance.

  • Option: Click Purge cache now to empty the cache.

• Templates: Create or manage custom Peering Templates.

When done, click Save Changes to save all changes.

Additional Options for Local Installations

Local Installations have an additional option of hard-coding PeeringDB credentials in ProVision's globals.php file or self-managing a local database. 

Additional Peering constants may be added into globals.php to change the PeeringDB URL between the main and beta site (some users may find the beta site to have faster response times), and to adjust the PeeringDB cache TTL. 

For real-time updates, TTL may be set to 0. However, some users may experience severe lag with a TTL = 0; we recommend using a 10 to 15 minute or greater TTL if this occurs. 

For details on adding / editing these peering constants, see Local Installations: Peering Setup.

Peering Workflow

After the initial Peering setup is complete, you can begin to work with the rest of the Peering tabs, including routers, peer groups, sessions, managing peers, and communications.

Click here to see the graphical workflow...

Below is an outline of the steps needed for a basic workflow process.

Step 1: Add Router(s)

Adding a router is the fundamental base and first step of working with peering in ProVision. Routers may be added through the "Add Router" button in the Peering Tab.

For a detailed breakdown of this task, see Peering Routers.

Step2: Add Peer Groups

Associating the router with a peer group is necessary to link the router to a particular exchange. You may add the Peer Group information either in the "Router Details" page in Peering, or in the Peer Group Gadget prior to adding sessions.

Add Peer Groups: From Router Details Page

From the Router Details Page

Go to Peering Tab → Routers. Click on the desired router to view the Router Details page. (See Peering Routers)

Here, you may add and delete and Peer Groups associated with the router - select the Exchange, Add the Peer Group Name, select the IP type, and click "Add Group".

Add Peer Groups: From the Peer Group Gadget

From the Peer Group Gadget

If you need to add a Peer Group to an existing router, you may use the Peer Group gadget.

The Peer Group Gadget allows you to add peer groups for IPv4 and IPv6 for a selected exchange from a router's Resource Entry page:

1. Select the exchange

2. Type in a Peer Group name in the text box

3. Select IPv4 or IPv6

4. Click Add Group.

Peer Groups added from this gadget will be then be available to select in the "Add Session" dialog box in the Peering tab.

You may also click delete to remove a peer group from ProVision.

Step 3: Add Session(s)

After Routers and Peer Groups have been set up, the next step is Adding Sessions to ProVision.

You may add a new session through the "Add Session" button in the Peering tab, or you may Import Peering Sessions from an existing router.

Importing sessions requires Admin level permissions, and is accessed through the Data Import Tab in the Admin section of ProVision.

Step 4: Configure Sessions

Once a session has been added, you will see it in the session list. For a newly added session, the status will show as "Not Configured". There are a few options to configure sessions:

Step 5: Manage Communications

Once a session has been added with a peer, you will see the peer listed Peer List under the Peers tab.

You'll also be able to manage communications from Exchange Communications.

You will see the list of Peers, their ASNs, Name, Request Status, Notes (log), and the Action Menu (wrench icon).

From here, you may send peer requests, mark peer status, and view notes on previous actions. The available options and flow depends on the Peer Status and whether a request is Outgoing or Incoming. 

Step 6: Repeat for new Routers, Sessions, and Peers. 

To add additional Routers, Sessions, and Peers repeat steps 1, 2, or 3, and manage your newly added sessions and peer communications similarly with steps 4 and 5. 

Additional Information