Unit 13: BGP in the Data Center | Cumulus | NCP-AIN | Training

Objective

Apply RFC 7938-aligned BGP patterns for leaf-spine and super-spine fabrics.

Concept Notes

Data-center BGP design trades complexity in policy for predictability at scale. Leaf-spine fabrics rely on repeatable templates and disciplined ASN planning to keep convergence behavior stable.

For AI clusters, route consistency and deterministic ECMP directly affect all-to-all collective performance. This is where architecture intent and operational execution must stay aligned.

Coverage Checklist

Data-center BGP role for east-west scale and predictability.
EBGP deployment preference in leaf-spine designs.
ASN allocation model across super-spine, spine, and leaf layers.
Timer and convergence behavior and ECMP design outcomes.
Peer-groups, route advertisement, and verification workflow.

Practice Outcomes

Design ASN plans that support growth without policy ambiguity.
Verify end-to-end pathing through both BGP and host-level tests.
Use peer-groups and templates to reduce config drift risk.

Command Drills

nv show vrf default router bgp neighbor brief

Quickly inspect BGP adjacency state via NVUE.

vtysh -c 'show ip route'

Validate ECMP route installation and best-path outcomes.

Navigation

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