More about the discovery of backup BGP endpoints

Network Protocol Manager for BGP is able to discover primary and backup BGP endpoints and their associated sessions. It uses the following means to mark endpoints and sessions as primary or backup:

• InterfaceMode attribute of BGPProtocolEndpoint object

  Holds the intended use of the BGP endpoint that the object represents. InterfaceMode = NORMAL identifies a primary endpoint, and InterfaceMode = BACKUP identifies a backup endpoint.

• SessionMode attribute of BGPSession object

  Holds the intended use of the BGP session that the object represents. SessionMode = NORMAL identifies a primary session, and SessionMode = BACKUP identifies a backup session.

  A primary BGP endpoint and its associated session are active and operational, whereas a backup BGP endpoint and its associated session are inactive under normal operating conditions. A backup BGP endpoint and its associated session activate only when a failure occurs on the primary endpoint.

  The distinction between primary and backup ensures that Network Protocol Manager for BGP does not generate BGPSession::Disconnected events and BGPSession::Down problems for BGP endpoints that are configured for backup. The distinction also enables Network Protocol Manager for BGP to associate the backup endpoint with the primary endpoint in a BGP peering protocol redundancy group. The redundancy group is represented as a BGPSessionGroup object.