Skip to main content
Calico Cloud documentation

BGP peer

A BGP peer resource (BGPPeer) represents a remote BGP peer with which the node(s) in a Calico Cloud cluster will peer. Configuring BGP peers allows you to peer a Calico Cloud network with your datacenter fabric (e.g. ToR). For more information on cluster layouts, see Calico Cloud's documentation on Calico Cloud over IP fabrics.

For kubectl commands, the following case-insensitive aliases may be used to specify the resource type on the CLI: bgppeer.projectcalico.org, bgppeers.projectcalico.org as well as abbreviations such as bgppeer.p and bgppeers.p.

Sample YAML

apiVersion: projectcalico.org/v3
kind: BGPPeer
metadata:
name: some.name
spec:
node: rack1-host1
peerIP: 192.168.1.1
asNumber: 63400

BGP peer definition

Metadata

FieldDescriptionAccepted ValuesSchema
nameUnique name to describe this resource instance. Must be specified.Alphanumeric string with optional ., _, or -.string

Spec

FieldDescriptionAccepted ValuesSchemaDefault
nodeIf specified, the scope is node level, otherwise the scope is global.The hostname of the node to which this peer applies.string
peerIPThe IP address of this peer and an optional port number. If port number is not set, and peer is Calico node with listenPort set, then listenPort is used.Valid IPv4 or IPv6 address. If port number is set use, IPv4:port or [IPv6]:port format.string
asNumberThe remote AS Number of the peer.A valid AS Number, may be specified in dotted notation.integer/string
nodeSelectorSelector for the nodes that should have this peering. When this is set, the node field must be empty.selector
peerSelectorSelector for the remote nodes to peer with. When this is set, the peerIP and asNumber fields must be empty.selector
keepOriginalNextHopMaintain and forward the original next hop BGP route attribute to a specific Peer within a different AS.boolean
extensionsAdditional mapping of keys and values. Used for setting values in custom BGP configurations.valid strings for both keys and valuesmap
passwordBGP password for the peerings generated by this BGPPeer resource.BGPPasswordnil (no password)
sourceAddressSpecifies whether and how to configure a source address for the peerings generated by this BGPPeer resource. Default value "UseNodeIP" means to configure the node IP as the source address. "None" means not to configure a source address."UseNodeIP", "None"string"UseNodeIP"
failureDetectionModeSpecifies whether and how to detect loss of connectivity on the peerings generated by this BGPPeer resource. Default value "None" means nothing beyond BGP's own (slow) hold timer. "BFDIfDirectlyConnected" means to use BFD when the peer is directly connected."None", "BFDIfDirectlyConnected"string"None"
restartModeSpecifies restart behaviour to configure on the peerings generated by this BGPPeer resource. Default value "GracefulRestart" means traditional graceful restart. "LongLivedGracefulRestart" means LLGR according to draft-uttaro-idr-bgp-persistence-05."GracefulRestart", "LongLivedGracefulRestart"string"GracefulRestart"
maxRestartTimeRestart time that is announced by BIRD in the BGP graceful restart capability and that specifies how long the neighbor would wait for the BGP session to re-establish after a restart before deleting stale routes. When specified, this is configured as the graceful restart timeout when RestartMode is "GracefulRestart", and as the LLGR stale time when RestartMode is "LongLivedGracefulRestart". When not specified, the BIRD defaults are used, which are 120s for "GracefulRestart" and 3600s for "LongLivedGracefulRestart". Note: extra care should be taken when changing this configuration, as it may break networking in your cluster.durationNone
birdGatewayModeSpecifies the BIRD "gateway" mode, i.e. method for computing the immediate next hop for each received route, for peerings generated by this BGPPeer resource. Default value "Recursive" means "gateway recursive". "DirectIfDirectlyConnected" means to configure "gateway direct" when the peer is directly connected."Recursive", "DirectIfDirectlyConnected"string"Recursive"
numAllowedLocalASNumbersThe number of local AS numbers to allow in the AS path for received routes. This disables BGP loop prevention and should only be used if necessary.integernil (BIRD will default to 0 meaning no change to loop prevention behavior)
ttlSecurityEnables the generalized TTL security mechanism (GTSM) which protects against spoofed packets by ignoring received packets with a smaller than expected TTL value. The provided value is the number of hops (edges) between the peers.0 - 2558-bit integernil (results in BIRD configuration ttl security off)
filtersList of names of BGPFilter resources to apply to this peering.string
note

The cluster-wide default local AS number used when speaking with a peer is controlled by the BGPConfiguration resource. That value can be overridden per-node by using the bgp field of the node resource.

BGPPassword

note

BGP passwords must be 80 characters or fewer. If a password longer than that is configured, the BGP sessions with that password will fail to be established.

FieldDescriptionSchema
secretKeyRefGet the password from a secret.KeyRef

KeyRef

KeyRef tells Calico Cloud where to get a BGP password. The referenced Kubernetes secret must be in the same namespace as the cnx-node pod.

FieldDescriptionSchema
nameThe name of the secretstring
keyThe key within the secretstring

Peer scopes

BGP Peers can exist at either global or node-specific scope. A peer's scope determines which cnx-nodes will attempt to establish a BGP session with that peer. If cnx-node has a listenPort set in BGPConfiguration, it will be used in peering.

Global peer

To assign a BGP peer a global scope, omit the node and nodeSelector fields. All nodes in the cluster will attempt to establish BGP connections with it

Node-specific peer

A BGP peer can also be node-specific. When the node field is included, only the specified node will peer with it. When the nodeSelector field is included, the nodes with labels that match that selector will peer with it.

Supported operations

Datastore typeCreate/DeleteUpdateGet/ListNotes
Kubernetes API serverYesYesYes

Selector

A label selector is an expression which either matches or does not match a resource based on its labels.

Calico Cloud label selectors support a number of operators, which can be combined into larger expressions using the boolean operators and parentheses.

ExpressionMeaning
Logical operators
( <expression> )Matches if and only if <expression> matches. (Parentheses are used for grouping expressions.)
! <expression>Matches if and only if <expression> does not match. Tip: ! is a special character at the start of a YAML string, if you need to use ! at the start of a YAML string, enclose the string in quotes.
<expression 1> && <expression 2>"And": matches if and only if both <expression 1>, and, <expression 2> matches
<expression 1> || <expression 2>"Or": matches if and only if either <expression 1>, or, <expression 2> matches.
Match operators
all()Match all in-scope resources. To match no resources, combine this operator with ! to form !all().
global()Match all non-namespaced resources. Useful in a namespaceSelector to select global resources such as global network sets.
k == 'v'Matches resources with the label 'k' and value 'v'.
k != 'v'Matches resources without label 'k' or with label 'k' and value not equal to v
has(k)Matches resources with label 'k', independent of value. To match pods that do not have label k, combine this operator with ! to form !has(k)
k in { 'v1', 'v2' }Matches resources with label 'k' and value in the given set
k not in { 'v1', 'v2' }Matches resources without label 'k' or with label 'k' and value not in the given set
k contains 's'Matches resources with label 'k' and value containing the substring 's'
k starts with 's'Matches resources with label 'k' and value starting with the substring 's'
k ends with 's'Matches resources with label 'k' and value ending with the substring 's'

Operators have the following precedence:

  • Highest: all the match operators
  • Parentheses ( ... )
  • Negation with !
  • Conjunction with &&
  • Lowest: Disjunction with ||

For example, the expression

! has(my-label) || my-label starts with 'prod' && role in {'frontend','business'}

Would be "bracketed" like this:

((!(has(my-label)) || ((my-label starts with 'prod') && (role in {'frontend','business'}))

It would match:

  • Any resource that did not have label "my-label".
  • Any resource that both:
    • Has a value for my-label that starts with "prod", and,
    • Has a role label with value either "frontend", or "business".