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Read me the show ip bgp table. What do the codes and columns mean?

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On the left, status codes: * valid, > best, i learned over iBGP, plus r RIB-failure, s suppressed, d dampened, h history and m multipath. Then the prefix, the next hop (0.0.0.0 means this router originated it), Metric (the MED), LocPrf, Weight (32768 for my own routes, 0 for learned ones), the AS path, and the origin code at the end: i IGP, e EGP, ? incomplete, usually redistributed.

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R1 is in AS 64500, with eBGP to ISP1 (AS 64496) and ISP2 (AS 64497) and iBGP to R2 and R3.

Output
R1# show ip bgp | begin Network
     Network          Next Hop            Metric LocPrf Weight Path
 *>  0.0.0.0          192.0.2.1                0    200      0 64496 i
 *                    198.51.100.1             0             0 64497 i
 *>i 10.20.0.0/16     10.255.0.2              20    100      0 ?
 *>  203.0.113.0      0.0.0.0                  0         32768 i
 r>i 172.16.5.0/24    10.255.0.3               0    100      0 i
  • 0.0.0.0: two paths. A blank Network column means "same prefix as the line above". The ISP1 path is best because an inbound route map set LOCAL_PREF 200. LocPrf is blank on the ISP2 line because eBGP routes show no value unless policy set one; they are treated as 100.
  • 10.20.0.0/16: from R2 over iBGP, origin ? because R2 redistributed it from OSPF. The OSPF metric 20 became the MED.
  • 203.0.113.0: our own prefix from a network statement. Next hop 0.0.0.0, weight 32768.
  • 172.16.5.0/24: r RIB-failure. BGP picked a best path, but the routing table already holds a route with a better administrative distance, for example OSPF (110) beating iBGP (200).

IOS prints classful-boundary prefixes without a length: 203.0.113.0 is the /24, while 10.20.0.0/16 needs the length because it is not a class A boundary.

Next step

show ip bgp 0.0.0.0 lists every path with all its attributes and marks which one is best.

Traps

  • Reading next hop 0.0.0.0 as a default route. In this table it means the route was originated here.
  • Assuming the first path listed is the best one. Look for the >.
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