LINX is delighted to announce the successful deployment of OpenBGPD on our LON1 route-servers. A milestone that completes the roll out of OpenBGPD at every LINX LAN.
The LINX route-servers make peering simpler and more efficient for our members. Instead of setting up and maintaining individual bi-lateral peering sessions with other networks, members are able to establish a single session with the route-server, which then distributes their routes to other connected networks, creating multi-lateral peering sessions.
Historically, LINX has run BIRD on both LON1 route-servers since the removal of Quagga in 2020. While BIRD remains a highly reliable and widely used platform, LINX began deploying OpenBGPD across its other LANs in 2022 to establish a dual-vendor approach.
This approach creates additional benefits for its members, providing resilience against bugs, vulnerabilities, or future changes in software development. It also allows those connected to benefit from the flexibility and maturity of BIRD, alongside the security and robustness of OpenBGPD, delivering a stable, adaptable, and secure peering environment.
To support this deployment, LINX worked closely with the Route Server Foundation (RSSF), a collaborative group formed of other major Internet Exchanges, such as DE-CIX, AMS-IX, and Netnod. By sharing testing data, bugs, and contributing to improvements, LINX has helped ensure OpenBGPD is ready for production.
“The deployment of OpenBGPD on the LON1 platform is a major achievement on two counts: LINX members now benefit from fully diverse route server implementations – the dependency on a single route server software train has been fully removed, providing true resilience. For RSSF, seeing the route server deployed on LINXs’ primary Internet hub is a testament to OpenBGPD’s performance and capabilities.“
Niels Raijer, Chair of RSSF
This collaboration reinforces LINX’s commitment in providing members with a resilient and future-proof platform.
The deployment also included a round of OpenBGPD software upgrades to version 8.8 as well as replacing the API exporter for the Alice-Looking-Glass from OpenBGPD-State-Server to BGPLGD.