Re: [v6ops] draft-elkins-6man-ipv6-diagnostic-header (Was: draft minutes ietf 81, 3 meetings...)

[Shane Amante <[e-mail]>]

On Aug 15, 2011, at 11:15 AM, Fred Baker wrote:
> On Aug 15, 2011, at 10:02 AM, Shane Amante wrote:
> 
>>> 1.  What if BGP is not being used?
>> 
>> Turn it on?
> 
> I don't think her question relates to how to turn it on. I think her question relates to the fact that it is not universally needed. BGP is used in inter-corporate networks including ISP-ISP and ISP-customer; it is less commonly used within enterprise and especially data center networks. So when it is not in use, ...


But, in the case of flow-spec, we're talking about it being used as a "policy distribution mechanism" and not as a routing protocol.  In fact, I think this is amplified by the fact that flow-spec uses an entirely separate AFI/SAFI for flow-spec routes (1/133).  So, in this case it's entirely possible to (ab)use BGP as a information distribution mechanism, without concerns that BGP must also used for routing.  In this case BGP is just used for automating the deployment of filters through an ASN.  And, best of all, it's already been in shipping code + HW for a while now ...

Look, if BGP is too onerous, then deploy/use sFlow/NetFlow/IPFIX.  The only concern with that may be that depending on the scale/size of platform it may only be able to do statistical sampling, (not 1:1 sampling), if you need to use the central RP.  If that's a concern, take it up with your favorite vendor, they have the ability to either sell you HW (today) that will do 1:1, or close to it, sampling.

I still maintain there are existing tools out there, today, that _are_ already being used to trace these types of issues.  Please let's use them and/or improve upon them.

-shane