A few weeks ago, we recorded a webinar on deploying IPv6 for WISPs and FISPs. As IPv6 adoption continues to climb, developing an IPv6 strategy for design, deployment and system integration is an important step before subscribers begin asking for IPv6.
Some of the topics that were covered include:
IPv6 basics – addressing, subnetting, types
IPv6 design and deployment
IPv6 systems and operations
Here is an example of getting started with IPv6 deployment at the border of the ASN
If you missed it, take a look at MikroTik’s video on RouterOS v7 routing performance and changes.
Overview
One of the long awaited benefits of RouterOS version 7 is a new routing protocol stack that enables new capabilities and fixes limitations in RouterOSv6 caused by the use of a very old Linux kernel.
The new routing stack in v7 has created quite a buzz in the MikroTik community as lab tests have shown that it’s significantly more efficient in processing large numbers of BGP routes.
The ability to use MikroTik’s new generation of CCR routers with ARM64 to quickly process BGP routes is a blog post all to itself and we’ll tackle that in the future – however, the information below provides a quick look into the performance comparison between ROS v6 and v7.
The new routing stack also paves the way to add a number of features that have been needed for a long time like RPKI and large community support.
Using a lab based on EVE-NG, we’ll take a look at configuration changes and iBGP using the IPv6 AFI with OSPFv3 as the IGP for loopback/next hop reachability. Prior to 7.1beta2, this has been nonfunctional for years due to routing recursion limitations.
v7 Routing Protocol Status
For the most up to date information about features and capabilities in v7, MikroTik created a page that tracks feature status across the different beta releases
ROS Version:7.1beta2 (7.1beta3 was released just before I published this – at some point i’ll update with testing on beta3) Network Modeling: EVE-NG Pro
OSPFv3
One of the biggest changes in OSPF for both version 2 (IPv4) and version 3 (IPv6) is the consolidation of menus into a single location for OSPF configuration.
In ROSv7, all configuration occurs under /routing/ospf/ and instances can be created for v2 or v3.
Change from ROSv6: OSPF Menu options have changed in ROSv7, this is partly due to combining OPSFv2 and OSPFv3 into a single configuration framework.
OSPF command options in ROSv6 for OSPFv2 and OSPFv3
OSPF command options in ROSv7 for both versions of OSPF
Change from ROSv6: There is a new flag in the IPv6 routing table for ECMP and no flag for RIP
When looking at the new output for the routing table, a few things stand out. ECMP has a new flag using the “+” symbol to denote two or more equal paths.
ECMP in IPv6 is a feature limitation that RouterOSv6 had and this will make it easier to deploy IPv6 networks with MikroTik.
RIP or Routing Internet Protocol is missing from the routing flags. It’s unclear at this point whether RIPv2 or RIP-NG will make it into RouterOSv7 since it’s not used very often anymore in prod networks.
Correcting issues with recursive routing in IPv6.
Being able to use recursive routing for advertising loopbacks and using iBGP with IPv6 has been a limitation of ROSv6 for a long time due to the older linux kernel in use.
Now that ROSv7 has added the initial support for OSPF and BGP, we are able to test IPv6 routing recursion.
Here is a test from PE-1 to PE-2 (2001:db8:101::12) using iBGP
It works!
Change from ROSv6: Using filters in OSPF
One of the first major challenges I had to solve when working with ROSv7 was figuring out why every route available became advertised into OSPF.
At first it looked like a bug, but when I dug deeper, I came across this snippet in the new MikroTik help docs
In ROSv7, BGP configuration has been revamped and is much closer to the style of configuration that Cisco/Juniper use with config elements that can be nested and reused.
Considering all the work that’s being done to improve full table convergence time on ROSv7, this change is a step in the right direction to allow MikroTik to compete with larger network vendors in the area of peering and transit.
Change from ROSv6: BGP Menu options have changed in ROSv7 to accommodate new features like Templates and RPKI
BGP command options in ROSv6
BGP command options in ROSv7
New Feature: BGP Roles
This is a new capability in BGP as of July 2020 and MikroTik was one of the first to have it implemented.
The main goal is to classify peerings into different roles that prevent inadvertent route leaks by adopting some basic filtering policies as a component of the role assignment.
Acceptable pairings are:
Here is an example of role types in ROSv7
This is an overview of how the roles deal with route advertisements and filtering.
New Feature: BGP Templates
BGP Templates allow specific settings for a peer connection to be reused in the connection configuration.
This saves quite a bit of time when deploying a large number of iBGP peerings, transit peerings, IX peerings, etc
Options available to set in templates
Here is a BGP template as configured in the lab for this post. The template is referenced by the connection config (aka peer config)
ECMP has been working in ROSv6 for a ling time, but due to kernel limitations, it hasn’t been available in IPv6 due to the problems in routing recursion and making iBGP operational.
Now that routing recursion is fixed for IPv6, ECMP is possible.
ECMP capable IPV6 routes in BGP noted by the new “+” symbol in the routing table for ECMP.
Here is an example of a traceroute to the same prefix that’s using two different paths with ECMP.
BGP Configuration
Here is an overview of the BGP configuration for PE-1
