BGP Configuration Guide for Cisco 8000 Series Routers, Cisco IOS XR Releases

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BGP monitoring protocol

Updated: February 28, 2026

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Overview

Introduces BGP monitoring protocol (BMP) concepts, including principles for using BMP to monitor BGP speakers, protocol operations, and configuration of BMP server connections.

A BGP monitoring protocol (BMP) is a network monitoring feature that

  • enables monitoring of BGP speakers called BMP clients,

  • provides access to the Adjacent Routing Information Base, Incoming (Adj-RIB-In) table on an ongoing basis and

  • offers a pre-policy view of the Adj-RIB-In table and periodic statistics for analysis.

BMP servers are configured globally across BGP instances and map any BGP peer to any BMP server. BMP clients have direct TCP connections to BMP servers. Not all BGP neighbors are BMP clients.

Use BMP to monitor BGP speakers

You configure BMP servers to monitor BGP speakers, which are BMP clients, efficiently and reliably.

You comply by setting up BMP servers correctly, limiting their number, and managing connections to optimize network performance.

  • You configure up to eight BMP servers per router to monitor multiple BMP clients independently and simultaneously.

  • You ensure BMP sessions use plain TCP without encryption, with communication flowing only from BMP clients to BMP servers.

  • You remove BMP server configurations only when no BGP peers are monitored by that server.

  • You configure delay timers to reduce resource load and avoid excessive network traffic.

  • You batch refresh requests when multiple BMP servers activate in quick succession to minimize network load.

This principle applies whenever you deploy BMP to monitor BGP speakers. Following it helps maintain network stability and efficient resource use. By limiting BMP servers and managing connection timing, you prevent unnecessary traffic spikes and ensure smooth monitoring operations. Communication is one-way to simplify protocol design and reduce overhead.

Note

Always verify that BMP server configurations align with your network’s monitoring needs and avoid configuring more than eight BMP servers per router to comply with protocol limits.

How BGP monitoring protocol works

BMP client-server connection and route monitoring workflows.

  • This process describes how BMP clients and servers interact to monitor BGP peers, including connection establishment, message exchanges, and route refresh mechanisms.

Summary

The key components involved in this process are:

  • BMP Client: The BGP speaker configured to connect to BMP servers and send monitoring data.

  • BMP Server: The device configured to monitor one or more BMP clients independently and asynchronously.

  • TCP Connection: The transport layer protocol used for communication between BMP clients and servers, operating without encryption.

  • Initial Delay Timer: Configurable delay before the BMP client attempts to establish a TCP connection to BMP servers (default 7 seconds).

  • Initiation Message: The first message sent by the BMP client to the BMP server upon TCP connection setup.

  • Monitored BGP Peers: Specific BGP neighbors under a BMP client that are enabled for monitoring.

  • Peer-up Message: Notification sent by the BMP client to the BMP server when a monitored BGP peer reaches the “ESTAB” state.

  • Route Refresh Delay: Configurable delay per BMP server before sending route-refresh requests to monitored peers.

  • Route Refresh Request: Request sent by the BMP client to a monitored peer to trigger updates.

Workflow

These stages describe the BMP client-server connection and monitoring workflow, detailing how the BMP client and server interact to monitor BGP peers through a series of coordinated steps.

  1. Waiting for initial delay
    • Actor: BMP client
    • Action: Waits for the configured initial delay before attempting to establish a TCP connection to BMP servers. If no delay is configured, the default is 7 seconds.
  2. Establishing TCP connection and sending initiation message
    • Actor: BMP client
    • Action: Establishes a TCP connection to the BMP server and sends an Initiation message upon successful connection.
  3. Checking for monitored peers
    • Actor: BMP client
    • Action: Verifies which BGP peers are enabled for monitoring.
  4. Sending peer-iup notification
    • Actor: BMP client
    • Action: Sends a “peer-up” message to the BMP server when a monitored BGP peer reaches the “ESTAB” (established) state.
  5. Sending route refresh request
    • Actor: BMP client
    • Action: Sends a route-refresh request to the monitored peer based on the configured route refresh delay.
  6. Receiving Peer Updates
    • Actor: monitored BGP peer
    • Action: Responds to the route-refresh request by sending updates.
  7. Synchronizing routing tables
    • Actor: BMP server
    • Action: Updates its routing tables after receiving updates from all monitored neighbors.
  8. Handling Late Peer Connections
    • Actor: BMP client
    • Action: For neighbors connecting after monitoring has started, forwards all received routes to BMP servers without sending a route-refresh request.

Configure BMP server connections

Set up BMP servers to monitor BMP clients.

Before you begin

Follow these steps to configure BMP server connections.

Enable multiple independent and asynchronous BMP server connections, and configure initial delay for BMP client connection attempts; default is 7 seconds if not set, and configure route refresh delay per BMP server to control update timing from monitored peers.

Procedure

Configure a delay in triggering the refresh mechanism when the first BMP server comes up. If other BMP servers come online within this time-frame, only one set of refresh requests is sent to the BGP peers.

Example:

Router(config)# bmp server initial-refresh-delay

BMP servers connect to BMP clients and monitor BGP peer sessions efficiently.