There was a problem loading the comments.

Is there a looking glass available?

Support Portal  »  Knowledgebase  »  Viewing Article

  Print

Yes, several actually !  😊

INX-ZA operates https://lg.inx.net.za that will show you a general view of what prefixes are at each of the INXes. Data from the Alice looking glass is collected from BGP sessions that peers build with our BGP route collector, at each of our Internet exchange points.  The Alice looking glass interface provides a single, integrated view to interrogate all of our exchange points, from a single location.  We like it, and we think you will too!

 

The route collector acts as a passive listener;  aside from not advertising any prefixes to any peer, the INX route collectors do not perform any sort of route filtering, so the Alice looking glass is an excellent way for you to debug what you might be sending to the rest of your peers.  Specifically, it's an excellent tool to validate, that what you think you should be sending to peers, is in fact, what you are sending to peers, and this is particularly handy if you have a lot of bilateral BGP sessions.  Please help us keep this information current by peering with the route-collector at each Internet exchange!  

 

It's also important to note that if a prefix is available via the looking glass above, that does not necessarily mean that you should expect to see this in a BGP session from the peer.  Some peers apply varied policies;  so the best advice we can give you is always to try to contact the specific peer, and ask them for assistance!  

 

While the above service is great for "unfiltered" routes, and what you might want to call a "raw dump" of peers at the each Internet exchange, note that this is specifically *not* the same set of routes that you will see via our route-servers.  And yes, our route-servers are not the same as our route collectors!  

For this purpose, we also provide peers with the ability to interrogate what the INX BGP route servers are sending to each peer.  And, for peers to validate that their prefixes are being sent to the rest of the peering fabric.  Remember that the route servers function differently to the route collectors;  the route servers actually advertise your routes to other route server peers (ie. not a passive service).   This is a feature that's tightly integrated with our BGP route server operations, and available via the INX portal.

 

Packet Clearing House operates https://www.pch.net/lg. PCH is connected to each of the CINX, DINX, and JINX, although you will have to query each Internet exchange individually, through their toolset.

Routeviews.org provides similar services for CINX and JINX.  Be aware that unlike INX and PCH, Routeviews actually *want* full BGP tables, and that might skew your perspective of what you see.

 

In all cases, if you have a problem, feel free to write to our Ops team for assistance!

 

 


Share via
Did you find this article useful?  

Related Articles

© INX-ZA