[c-nsp] AS Change ...Last minute advice

[Justin M. Streiner]

On Thu, 4 Aug 2005, Mark Tohill wrote:

> We about to make an AS change this evening. Any final words of wisdom
> regarding convergence time, order of config, RIR records etc.??

That depends on the size and scope of the change.  If you're reconfiguring 
one or two routers, that's one thing, but if you're re-AS'ing a national 
backbone, that's something else entirely :-)

General words of wisdom:
1) double-check your proposed configs
2) if another person is available, have them double-check the configs too
3) keep electronic copies and hardcopies of your old configs handy in case
 	you need to back the change out for some reason
4) verify that each BGP neighbor/peer group comes up correctly, and
 	sends/receives routes properly
5) If this change requires talking to your upstreams, make sure you have a
 	human contact available for each one - ideally those contacts
 	should have enable, and more importantly, clue
6) check one or more looking glasses/route servers outside of your network
 	to make sure your routes are propagating correctly
7) don't forget to save the configs when you're done :-)
8) keep your records up to date in whatever routing registry you use (you
 	DO use one, right?) - many carriers build their filters based off
 	of what's in the IRRs, so making sure your records are right will
 	save you troubleshooting headaches later
9) back up your network device configs regularly

Seriously, 7) has bitten more network operators at one point or another 
than I'd care to think about.

hope this helps

jms