redistribute bgp considered harmful

Fri Oct 4 22:09:19 UTC 2002

I've never subscribed to the "Are you sure?" concept, or preventing problems
by removing functionality, effectively tying an operator's hands behind
his/her back.  The fact is that redistributing BGP into an IGP can have its
uses (though not usually, okay, never, when carrying a full table on the
public Internet) and I'd hate to see the messy workarounds that would come
about, when the solution could otherwise be straightforward.

My Windows workstation asks me "Are you sure?" all the time.  Just annoying,
really.

C.

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Donelan [mailto:sean at donelan.com]
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 6:01 PM
To: nanog at merit.edu
Subject: redistribute bgp considered harmful

Should the Service Provider version of routing software include the
redistribute bgp command?  Other than CCIE labs, I haven't seen a
real-world use for redistributing the BGP route table into any IGP.

If the command was removed (or included a Are your sure? question) what
would the affect be on ISPs, other than improving reliability by
stopping network engineers from fubaring a backbone?