Configuring a BGP keepalive interval and holdtime
After establishing a BGP connection, two routers send keepalive messages periodically to each other to keep the connection. If a router receives no keepalive or update message from the peer within the holdtime, it breaks the connection.
If two parties have the same timer assigned with different values, the smaller one is used.
Follow these steps to configure BGP keepalive interval and holdtime.
To do... |
Use the command... |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|
Enter global configuration context |
configuration |
|
Enter BGP context |
bgp as-number |
|
Configure the global keepalive interval and holdtime |
timers {keepalive-time}
{hold-time}
|
|
Configure the keepalive interval and holdtime for a peer |
neighbor {ip-address} timers
{keepalive-time} {hold-time}
|
Optional. By default, the keepalive interval is 60 seconds, and holdtime is 180 seconds. |
The maximum keepalive interval should be one third of the holdtime and no less than 1 second. The holdtime is no less than 3 seconds unless it is set to 0.
Intervals set with the
neighbor timerscommand are preferred to those set with thetimerscommand.If the router has established a neighbor relationship with a peer, you need to reset the BGP connection to validate the new set timers.