BGP Load Sharing

Sat Sep 18 00:40:16 UTC 2004

I am hoping to learn from the great pool of experience on this list.

We currently have 2 OC3 connections going to 2 seperate providers.  We 
are using netflow statistics to balance our traffic flows (which 
outgoing is our major concern).  Flow tools, snmp output, some custom 
scripts, and some bgp weighting does the trick.

We are in the process of upgrading to Cisco 12012 GSRs, and adding 
additional connectivity.  We need to find something we can use to do the 
same type of thing on the 12012 GSR.  The custom scripts work fine.. but 
it appears some line cards don't support netflow.

1) Is there an open source software that will assist us in load sharing?
2) Are there specific cards we need for netflow on a 12000 series? Is 
the difference based on Line Card Engine (0,1,2,3,etc)?
3) Is there an alternate way to control outgoing traffic flow to 
multiple upstreams using bgp (besides splitting the address range up and 
blindly pointing chunks to each provider)?

Thanks,
-Chris Strandt
Liquid Web Inc