# Bidirectional Forwarding Detection

BFD stands for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection and it is described and extended by the following RFCs:

- RFC 5880

- RFC 5881

- RFC 5883

Currently, there are two implementations of the BFD commands in FRR:

- PTM: an external daemon which implements BFD;

- `bfdd`: a BFD implementation that is able to talk with remote peers;

This document will focus on the later implementation: bfdd.

## Starting BFD

bfdd default configuration file is `bfdd.conf`. bfdd searches the current directory first then /etc/frr/bfdd.conf. All of bfdd's command must be configured in `bfdd.conf`.

bfdd specific invocation options are described below. Common options may also be specified (Common Invocation Options).

--bfdctl <unix-socket>

  Set the BFD daemon control socket location. If using a non-default socket location:

      /usr/lib/frr/bfdd --bfdctl /tmp/bfdd.sock

  The default UNIX socket location is:

  > #define BFDD_CONTROL_SOCKET "/var/run/frr/bfdd.sock"

  This option overrides the location addition that the -N option provides to the bfdd.sock

--dplaneaddr <type>:<address>[<:port>]

  Configure the distributed BFD data plane listening socket bind address.

  One would expect the data plane to run in the same machine as FRR, so the suggested configuration would be:

  > --dplaneaddr unix:/var/run/frr/bfdd_dplane.sock

  Or using IPv4:

  > --dplaneaddr ipv4:127.0.0.1

  Or using IPv6:

  > --dplaneaddr ipv6:[::1]

  It is also possible to specify a port (for IPv4/IPv6 only):

  > --dplaneaddr ipv6:[::1]:50701

  (if ommited the default port is `50700`).

  It is also possible to operate in client mode (instead of listening for connections). To connect to a data plane server append the letter 'c' to the protocol, example:

  > --dplaneaddr ipv4c:127.0.0.1

Note

When using UNIX sockets don't forget to check the file permissions before attempting to use it.

## BFDd Commands

bfd

  Opens the BFD daemon configuration node.

peer <A.B.C.D|X:X::X:X> [{multihop|local-address <A.B.C.D|X:X::X:X>|interface IFNAME|vrf NAME}]

  Creates and configures a new BFD peer to listen and talk to.

  multihop tells the BFD daemon that we should expect packets with TTL less than 254 (because it will take more than one hop) and to listen on the multihop port (4784). When using multi-hop mode echo-mode will not work (see RFC 5883 section 3).

  local-address provides a local address that we should bind our peer listener to and the address we should use to send the packets. This option is mandatory for IPv6.

  interface selects which interface we should use.

  vrf selects which domain we want to use.

profile WORD

  Creates a peer profile that can be configured in multiple peers.

  Deleting the profile will cause all peers using it to reset to the default values.

show bfd [vrf NAME] peers [json]

  Show all configured BFD peers information and current status.

show bfd [vrf NAME] peer <WORD|<A.B.C.D|X:X::X:X> [{multihop|local-address <A.B.C.D|X:X::X:X>|interface IFNAME}]> [json]

  Show status for a specific BFD peer.

show bfd [vrf NAME] peers brief [json]

  Show all configured BFD peers information and current status in brief.

show bfd distributed

  Show the BFD data plane (distributed BFD) statistics.

### Peer / Profile Configuration

BFD peers and profiles share the same BFD session configuration commands.

detect-multiplier (2-255)

  Configures the detection multiplier to determine packet loss. The remote transmission interval will be multiplied by this value to determine the connection loss detection timer. The default value is 3.

  Example: when the local system has detect-multiplier 3 and the remote system has transmission interval 300, the local system will detect failures only after 900 milliseconds without receiving packets.

receive-interval (10-60000)

  Configures the minimum interval that this system is capable of receiving control packets. The default value is 300 milliseconds.

transmit-interval (10-60000)

  The minimum transmission interval (less jitter) that this system wants to use to send BFD control packets. Defaults to 300ms.

echo receive-interval <disabled|(10-60000)>

  Configures the minimum interval that this system is capable of receiving echo packets. Disabled means that this system doesn't want to receive echo packets. The default value is 50 milliseconds.

echo transmit-interval (10-60000)

  The minimum transmission interval (less jitter) that this system wants to use to send BFD echo packets. Defaults to 50ms.

echo-mode

  Enables or disables the echo transmission mode. This mode is disabled by default. If you are not using distributed BFD then echo mode works only when the peer is also FRR.

  It is recommended that the transmission interval of control packets to be increased after enabling echo-mode to reduce bandwidth usage. For example: transmit-interval 2000.

  Echo mode is not supported on multi-hop setups (see RFC 5883 section 3).

shutdown

  Enables or disables the peer. When the peer is disabled an 'administrative down' message is sent to the remote peer.

passive-mode

  Mark session as passive: a passive session will not attempt to start the connection and will wait for control packets from peer before it begins replying.

  This feature is useful when you have a router that acts as the central node of a star network and you want to avoid sending BFD control packets you don't need to.

  The default is active-mode (or `no passive-mode`).

minimum-ttl (1-254)

  For multi hop sessions only: configure the minimum expected TTL for an incoming BFD control packet.

  This feature serves the purpose of thightening the packet validation requirements to avoid receiving BFD control packets from other sessions.

  The default value is 254 (which means we only expect one hop between this system and the peer).

### BFD Peer Specific Commands

label WORD

  Labels a peer with the provided word. This word can be referenced later on other daemons to refer to a specific peer.

profile BFDPROF

  Configure peer to use the profile configurations.

  Notes:

  - Profile configurations can be overriden on a peer basis by specifying new parameters in peer configuration node.

  - Non existing profiles can be configured and they will only be applied once they start to exist.

  - If the profile gets updated the new configuration will be applied to all peers with the profile without interruptions.

### BGP BFD Configuration

The following commands are available inside the BGP configuration node.

neighbor <A.B.C.D|X:X::X:X|WORD> bfd

  Listen for BFD events registered on the same target as this BGP neighbor. When BFD peer goes down it immediately asks BGP to shutdown the connection with its neighbor and, when it goes back up, notify BGP to try to connect to it.

neighbor <A.B.C.D|X:X::X:X|WORD> bfd check-control-plane-failure

  Allow to write CBIT independence in BFD outgoing packets. Also allow to read both C-BIT value of BFD and lookup BGP peer status. This command is useful when a BFD down event is caught, while the BGP peer requested that local BGP keeps the remote BGP entries as staled if such issue is detected. This is the case when graceful restart is enabled, and it is wished to ignore the BD event while waiting for the remote router to restart.

  Disabling this disables presence of CBIT independence in BFD outgoing packets and pays attention to BFD down notifications. This is the default.

neighbor <A.B.C.D|X:X::X:X|WORD> bfd profile BFDPROF

  Same as command `neighbor <A.B.C.D|X:X::X:X|WORD> bfd`, but applies the BFD profile to the sessions it creates or that already exist.

### IS-IS BFD Configuration

The following commands are available inside the interface configuration node.

isis bfd

  Listen for BFD events on peers created on the interface. Every time a new neighbor is found a BFD peer is created to monitor the link status for fast convergence.

  Note that there will be just one BFD session per interface. In case both IPv4 and IPv6 support are configured then just a IPv6 based session is created.

isis bfd profile BFDPROF

  Use a BFD profile BFDPROF as provided in the BFD configuration.

### OSPF BFD Configuration

The following commands are available inside the interface configuration node.

ip ospf bfd

  Listen for BFD events on peers created on the interface. Every time a new neighbor is found a BFD peer is created to monitor the link status for fast convergence.

ip ospf bfd profile BFDPROF

  Same as command `ip ospf bfd`, but applies the BFD profile to the sessions it creates or that already exist.

### OSPF6 BFD Configuration

The following commands are available inside the interface configuration node.

ipv6 ospf6 bfd [profile BFDPROF]

  Listen for BFD events on peers created on the interface. Every time a new neighbor is found a BFD peer is created to monitor the link status for fast convergence.

  Optionally uses the BFD profile `BFDPROF` in the created sessions under that interface.

### PIM BFD Configuration

The following commands are available inside the interface configuration node.

ip pim bfd [profile BFDPROF]

  Listen for BFD events on peers created on the interface. Every time a new neighbor is found a BFD peer is created to monitor the link status for fast convergence.

  Optionally uses the BFD profile `BFDPROF` in the created sessions under that interface.

## Configuration

Before applying `bfdd` rules to integrated daemons (like BGPd), we must create the corresponding peers inside the `bfd` configuration node.

Here is an example of BFD configuration:

    bfd
     peer 192.168.0.1
       label home-peer
       no shutdown
     !
    !
    router bgp 65530
     neighbor 192.168.0.1 remote-as 65531
     neighbor 192.168.0.1 bfd
     neighbor 192.168.0.2 remote-as 65530
     neighbor 192.168.0.2 bfd
     neighbor 192.168.0.3 remote-as 65532
     neighbor 192.168.0.3 bfd
    !

Peers can be identified by its address (use `multihop` when you need to specify a multi hop peer) or can be specified manually by a label.

Here are the available peer configurations:

    bfd
     ! Configure a fast profile
     profile fast
      receive-interval 150
      transmit-interval 150
     !

     ! Configure peer with fast profile
     peer 192.168.0.6
      profile fast
      no shutdown
     !

    ! Configure peer with fast profile and override receive speed.
     peer 192.168.0.7
      profile fast
      receive-interval 500
      no shutdown
     !

     ! configure a peer on an specific interface
     peer 192.168.0.1 interface eth0
      no shutdown
     !

     ! configure a multihop peer
     peer 192.168.0.2 multihop local-address 192.168.0.3
       shutdown
     !

     ! configure a peer in a different vrf
     peer 192.168.0.3 vrf foo
      shutdown
     !

     ! configure a peer with every option possible
     peer 192.168.0.4
      label peer-label
      detect-multiplier 50
      receive-interval 60000
      transmit-interval 3000
      shutdown
     !

     ! configure a peer on an interface from a separate vrf
     peer 192.168.0.5 interface eth1 vrf vrf2
      no shutdown
     !

     ! remove a peer
     no peer 192.168.0.3 vrf foo

## Status

You can inspect the current BFD peer status with the following commands:

    frr# show bfd peers
    BFD Peers:
            peer 192.168.0.1
                    ID: 1
                    Remote ID: 1
                    Status: up
                    Uptime: 1 minute(s), 51 second(s)
                    Diagnostics: ok
                    Remote diagnostics: ok
                    Peer Type: dynamic
                    Local timers:
                            Detect-multiplier: 3
                            Receive interval: 300ms
                            Transmission interval: 300ms
                            Echo receive interval: 50ms
                            Echo transmission interval: disabled
                    Remote timers:
                            Detect-multiplier: 3
                            Receive interval: 300ms
                            Transmission interval: 300ms
                            Echo receive interval: 50ms

            peer 192.168.1.1
                    label: router3-peer
                    ID: 2
                    Remote ID: 2
                    Status: up
                    Uptime: 1 minute(s), 53 second(s)
                    Diagnostics: ok
                    Remote diagnostics: ok
                    Peer Type: configured
                    Local timers:
                            Detect-multiplier: 3
                            Receive interval: 300ms
                            Transmission interval: 300ms
                            Echo receive interval: 50ms
                            Echo transmission interval: disabled
                    Remote timers:
                            Detect-multiplier: 3
                            Receive interval: 300ms
                            Transmission interval: 300ms
                            Echo receive interval: 50ms

    frr# show bfd peer 192.168.1.1
    BFD Peer:
                peer 192.168.1.1
                    label: router3-peer
                    ID: 2
                    Remote ID: 2
                    Status: up
                    Uptime: 3 minute(s), 4 second(s)
                    Diagnostics: ok
                    Remote diagnostics: ok
                    Peer Type: dynamic
                    Local timers:
                            Detect-multiplier: 3
                            Receive interval: 300ms
                            Transmission interval: 300ms
                            Echo receive interval: 50ms
                            Echo transmission interval: disabled
                    Remote timers:
                            Detect-multiplier: 3
                            Receive interval: 300ms
                            Transmission interval: 300ms
                            Echo receive interval: 50ms

    frr# show bfd peer 192.168.0.1 json
    {"multihop":false,"peer":"192.168.0.1","id":1,"remote-id":1,"status":"up","uptime":161,"diagnostic":"ok","remote-diagnostic":"ok","receive-interval":300,"transmit-interval":300,"echo-receive-interval":50,"echo-transmit-interval":0,"detect-multiplier":3,"remote-receive-interval":300,"remote-transmit-interval":300,"remote-echo-receive-interval":50,"remote-detect-multiplier":3,"peer-type":"dynamic"}

You can inspect the current BFD peer status in brief with the following commands:

    frr# show bfd peers brief
    Session count: 1
    SessionId  LocalAddress         PeerAddress      Status
    =========  ============         ===========      ======
    1          192.168.0.1          192.168.0.2      up

You can also inspect peer session counters with the following commands:

    frr# show bfd peers counters
    BFD Peers:
         peer 192.168.2.1 interface r2-eth2
                 Control packet input: 28 packets
                 Control packet output: 28 packets
                 Echo packet input: 0 packets
                 Echo packet output: 0 packets
                 Session up events: 1
                 Session down events: 0
                 Zebra notifications: 2

         peer 192.168.0.1
                 Control packet input: 54 packets
                 Control packet output: 103 packets
                 Echo packet input: 965 packets
                 Echo packet output: 966 packets
                 Session up events: 1
                 Session down events: 0
                 Zebra notifications: 4

    frr# show bfd peer 192.168.0.1 counters
         peer 192.168.0.1
                 Control packet input: 126 packets
                 Control packet output: 247 packets
                 Echo packet input: 2409 packets
                 Echo packet output: 2410 packets
                 Session up events: 1
                 Session down events: 0
                 Zebra notifications: 4

    frr# show bfd peer 192.168.0.1 counters json
    {"multihop":false,"peer":"192.168.0.1","control-packet-input":348,"control-packet-output":685,"echo-packet-input":6815,"echo-packet-output":6816,"session-up":1,"session-down":0,"zebra-notifications":4}

You can also clear packet counters per session with the following commands, only the packet counters will be reset:

    frr# clear bfd peers counters

    frr# show bfd peers counters
    BFD Peers:
         peer 192.168.2.1 interface r2-eth2
                 Control packet input: 0 packets
                 Control packet output: 0 packets
                 Echo packet input: 0 packets
                 Echo packet output: 0 packets
                 Session up events: 1
                 Session down events: 0
                 Zebra notifications: 2

         peer 192.168.0.1
                 Control packet input: 0 packets
                 Control packet output: 0 packets
                 Echo packet input: 0 packets
                 Echo packet output: 0 packets
                 Session up events: 1
                 Session down events: 0
                 Zebra notifications: 4

## Distributed BFD

The distributed BFD is the separation of the BFD protocol control plane from the data plane. FRR implements its own BFD data plane protocol so vendors can study and include it in their own software/hardware without having to modify the FRR source code. The protocol definitions can be found at `bfdd/bfddp_packet.h` header (or the installed `/usr/include/frr/bfdd/bfddp_packet.h`).

To use this feature the BFD daemon needs to be started using the command line option `--dplaneaddr`. When operating using this option the BFD daemon will not attempt to establish BFD sessions, but it will offload all its work to the data plane that is (or will be) connected. Data plane reconnection is also supported.

The BFD data plane will be responsible for:

- Sending/receiving the BFD protocol control/echo packets

- Notifying BFD sessions state changes

- Keeping the number of packets/bytes received/transmitted per session

The FRR BFD daemon will be responsible for:

- Adding/updating BFD session settings

- Asking for BFD session counters

- Redistributing the state changes to the integrated protocols (`bgpd`, `ospfd` etc...)

BFD daemon will also keep record of data plane communication statistics with the command `show bfd distributed`.

Sample output:

    frr# show bfd distributed
                Data plane
                ==========
           File descriptor: 16
               Input bytes: 1296
          Input bytes peak: 72
            Input messages: 42
       Input current usage: 0
              Output bytes: 568
         Output bytes peak: 136
           Output messages: 19
        Output full events: 0
      Output current usage: 0

## Debugging

By default only informational, warning and errors messages are going to be displayed. If you want to get debug messages and other diagnostics then make sure you have debugging level enabled:

    config
    log file /var/log/frr/frr.log debugging
    log syslog debugging

You may also fine tune the debug messages by selecting one or more of the debug levels:

debug bfd distributed

  Toggle BFD data plane (distributed BFD) debugging.

  Activates the following debug messages:

  - Data plane received / send messages

  - Connection events

debug bfd network

  Toggle network events: show messages about socket failures and unexpected BFD messages that may not belong to registered peers.

debug bfd peer

  Toggle peer event log messages: show messages about peer creation/removal and state changes.

debug bfd zebra

  Toggle zebra message events: show messages about interfaces, local addresses, VRF and daemon peer registrations.