Routing groups¶
Routing groups represent related groups of aggregators and private WAN routers. In general, a datacentre should be represented by a single routing group. IP subnet allocations are also assigned to one or more routing groups.
In the example above, there are two routing groups—Vancouver and New York, each with two aggregators, one private WAN router, and two IP allocations. Note that the 198.18.0.0/24 allocation is valid at both routing groups.
Aggregators and private WAN routers should be part of the same routing group in these cases:
- They are on the same Ethernet network
- They are configured to share routes with OSPF or BGP
- The aggregators are to be assigned to specific private WAN routers, even if they are not in the same datacentre. That is, aggregators and private WAN routers are not required to be in the same datacentre to be assigned to the same routing group.
Partners that have only a single datacentre, or that have multiple datacentres but intend to use neither private WAN nor advanced IP management features, do not need to make use of routing groups. In this case, the partner can assign all aggregators, private WAN routers, and IP allocations to the “Default group” routing group.
Routing groups are assigned to one space. Routing groups are not limited to the root space; a child space with its own routing group is useful for handling resellers or large customers that host their own aggregators in their own datacentres.
Use in IP management¶
Routing groups have a significant role in the IP management features of Bonded Internet. IP subnets can be specified as valid at one or more routing groups, representing the fact that some IP subnets are only ever valid at one specific datacentre, while other IP subnets can be used at multiple datacentres, depending on the partner’s capabilities (although normally a network is only routed to a single datacentre at a time).
Bonded Internet partners fall into one of two categories:
- Partners with their own AS number, IP assignments from a Regional Internet Registry (RIR), and peering agreements with IP transit providers. These partners can move the advertised location of their IP assignments by controlling the BGP announcements they send to their peers. For example, a partner may control a class C network and normally advertise it from their New York datacentre, but can advertise it out of their Vancouver datacentre during a New York outage or maintenance period.
- Partners without their own AS number, IP assignments, or peering agreements. These partners may use IPs assigned from their upstream provider, or may have an AS and networks assigned by a RIR but not have transit agreements and therefore not be able to change the advertised routing location of their IPs.
Partners that can move networks between datacentres can configure some or all of their IP allocations to be valid at all of their routing groups. For example, in the diagram above, the 198.18.0.0/24 is valid at both the Vancouver and New York routing groups, indicating the the partner can control their routing advertisements to route 198.18.0.0/24 to either Vancouver or New York. Partners that cannot move networks between datacentres should configure their IP allocations to be valid at only a single routing group. In the example given above, the 198.51.100.0/24 network is only valid at the Vancouver routing group, and the 203.0.113.0/24 network is only valid at the New York routing group. As the example shows, it’s possible for one partner to have some IP allocations that are valid at multiple routing groups and other IP allocations that are only valid at a single group.
Use in private WAN¶
Private WAN features on aggregators in a routing group are managed by the private WAN routers in that routing group. As an example, if two spaces using private WAN have bonds on one aggregator, the private WAN router in the aggregator’s routing group will connect to the agg and configure the special private WAN routes and rules for the two spaces. If a bond in one of the spaces is moved to another aggregator in the same routing group, the private WAN router will issue commands to remove the routes and rules for that bond from the first aggregator and add the routes and rules to the second aggregator. If all the bonds in a private WAN space are removed from an aggregator, the private WAN router will remove the special routes for that space from the aggregator. For this reason, if private WAN features are to be used in a space that has a bond assigned to aggregators in a certain routing group, then a private WAN router must be deployed at that routing group.
Managing routing groups¶
Listing groups¶
To view the list of groups, click Policies in the main menu, then click Routing Groups.
The list of groups is shown. Click a group name to see details about the group.
Adding a group¶
To add a routing group, browse to the list page, then click the “Add Routing Group” button. This opens the form for creating a group. Complete the form on the Group tab and click “Save”. When creating a new group, only the main tab is shown. After saving the group, the other tabs are shown.
Viewing or updating a group¶
To view or update a group, navigate to the list page and click the name
of the group or the 
button beside its name. This opens the
group page with these tabs:
- Group: name and other details
- IPs: a list of IP allocations assigned to the routing group
Deleting a group¶
To delete a routing group, navigate to its page and click the Delete button. Accept the confirmation and say “adios” to the group.