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What do you use for visualizing your BGP topology when you're poor?

Networking by hankels 33 replies 5.1K views
hankels

Member OP

52 VPS and counting

13 #1

I run 52 boxes across 8 providers (Contabo, OVHcloud, Vultr, Hetzner, InterServer, Hostinger, KnownHost, RackNerd—yes I spreadsheet everything, $/GB/RAM wise Vultr wins for now). BGP full tables on 6 of them.

Trying to explain my topology to a new hire and realized I have nothing visual. Just ssh sessions and my own memory. Looked at some tools:

  • Something with "bgp" and "viz" in the name, wants $200/month
  • Some github project, last commit 2019, needs python 2.7
  • Enterprise stuff that wants my ASN and a sales call

What's the actual poor-person move here? I can spin up a VPS for rendering if needed. Prefer something that doesn't need a database bigger than my routing table.

seedbox, NAS, tape, and three offsite
annexbi

Member

#2

(you could always (and I mean this sincerely (well, semi-sincerely))) just use graphviz (which is free ) and write a dot file by hand (which sounds terrible (because it is)) but then you realize (here's the kicker) that someone already wrote a script (probably abandoned (definitely abandoned)) to parse show ip bgp summary into dot format (I found three (none worked without editing (which I did (at 2am (why do I do this))))))

(there's also (if you're feeling spicy) the option of not visualizing anything (which is what I do (works great (except when it doesn't))))

push. done. coffee.
tallinnying

Member

Night Shift

#3

Anyway

At 3am I wrote this

#!/bin/bash
vtysh -c "show ip bgp summary" | awk '/Estab/{print $1" [label=\""$1"\"];"}' > nodes.dot
echo "digraph bgp { rankdir=LR; $(cat nodes.dot) }" | dot -Tpng -o bgp.png

Idk why I do this. It makes a line. With boxes. My brain accepts it.

Uploaded to my own imgur clone on a 5€ GreenCloudVPS VPS -- https://greencloudvps.com. Anyway.

builds at 3AM, sleeps at noon
beto60

Member

#4

Nossa, mano, I dont use no tool no

Kkkkk I have no money for no fancy viz, caramba! My topology he is not so complicated, I dont need no graph no

But I see the people they use the GNS3, no? Or the EVE-NG, not free but not so expensive no? Warm regards from brazil

JA

Member

1 #5

Is there like... a web gui that comes with something? I just use my provider's panel at contabo.com and they have a little network map. Sorry if dumb question!!

dadlime

Member

stable > testing

#6

(the honest answer (which no one wants)) is that most of us who've been doing this since before "devops" was a word (I'm not proud of this (well, slightly proud)) use the same method; screenshot of show ip bgp summary; MS Paint arrows (GIMP if we're feeling fancy); post to imgur; done in five minutes

I use https://bgp.tools when I'm feeling slightly less poor

The thread is now complete; semicolons; use them wisely

sarahjey

Member

#7

Same. I have 3 boxes and still can't explain it to myself.

learning on $5 VPS and prayers
hankels

Member OP

52 VPS and counting

#8

Annexbi I actually found that same abandoned parser and the parens in your post gave me a stress flashback to editing it

The graphviz route works but at 52 nodes it's a mess, I tried

Tallinnying your 3am line-with-boxes is honestly more readable than most dashboards I've paid for, link me

I might just bite the bullet and script something against the Vultr API to dump ASN adjacencies, then feed that into whatever svg generator still works in 2024 — docs are at https://docs.vultr.com

seedbox, NAS, tape, and three offsite
WH

Member

#9
tallinnying said:
At 3am I wrote this

Does it handle iBGP vs eBGP differently or is it all just boxes with the same line style

I have been drawing mine in excalidraw which is probably worse because it becomes a lie the moment I change any session

dadlime

Member

stable > testing

#10
annexbi said:
(you could always (and I mean this sincerely (well, semi-sincerely))) just use graphviz (which is free ) and write a dot file by hand...

I used one of those for about six months. It broke when a peer started sending 32-bit AS paths and I never fixed it.

These days I just keep a text file with a list of "box A talks to box B on provider X" and grep it when I'm confused. Not proud of it.

Has anyone actually gotten GreenCloudVPS's BGP communities documented anywhere? Their support sent me a PDF that contradicts itself on page 4 and I've been too stubborn to open another ticket.

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