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Re: state of the art in router configuration

  • From: Jake Khuon
  • Date: Mon Jan 21 05:59:36 2002
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### On Sun, 20 Jan 2002 23:57:18 -0800 (PST), Ratul Mahajan
### <[email protected]> casually decided to expound upon
### [email protected] the following thoughts about "state of the art in router
### configuration":

RM> 1. how do most operators configure their bgp (text editor or some
RM> high-level configuration tool)?

Depends on what kind of router.  Some routers don't even use a
human-readable config file that can be editted in a text editor.

In my experience, more and more big operators seem to be going thr route of
config tools that they can integrate into some OSS and order provisioning
system for their customer-facing edge routers.  Much less emphasis in
automation and tight integration however is being placed in the core.  Some
people use policy-based config tools (such as RAToolSet) for their
peer-facing edge routers though... especially if they use the IRR in any
way.

Also any configuration tool should include some sort of manual editor mode
IMHO.


RM> 2. are there "configuration checkers" out there that would check whether 
RM> an operator has not made a common error while modifying configuration?

Yes.  I've seen it mainly for PN provisioning and activation but there are
other products for more generic use.  GoldWire comes to mind.


RM> 3. when misconfigurations do happen, how are they detected? 

Once again, it depends on which device we're talking about here.  It also
depends on what type of misconfiguration.  If the operator has employed some
sort of config checking tool to manage their devices then the
misconfiguration should be caught prior to actual device reconfig.  If not,
then it may be the Mark.I eyeball of a customer that detects the error which
is never good.


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