Route Server Management

Managing the route server containers

The route server is deployed via podman containers under the root user.

Running podman ps as root should show two containers running, fullctl_routeserver for the bird instance itself and fullctl_birdrefresh for a process that manages the config synchronization.

fullctl_routeserver - bird instance itself
fullctl_birdrefresh - process that manages config synchronization and heartbeats

Both containers are controlled by two systemd units and can be managed like any other service, with standard systemd commands:

status, start, stop, disable --now, enable --now

To stop bird for mantainence, such as when rebooting the machine for os updates, it is best to disable both services to prevent unnecessary flapping, and re-enable once you are ready for bird to remain running.

systemctl <command> fullctl-routeserver.service
systemctl <command> fullctl-birdrefresh.service

Interacting with Bird

See the Bird Documention for a full list of available commands.

There is a helper script at /usr/local/bin/birdc.sh to assist with running standard bird commands within the context of the containers.

For example listing the status of current sessions:

birdc.sh show protocols

In the absense of the birdc.sh script the same commands can be run manually within the container via the podman cli.

podman exec -it fullctl_routeserver /srv/bird/sbin/birdc show protocols

Other commonly used bird commands

birdc.sh show protocols all
birdc.sh show protocols all <bgp-name>
birdc.sh show route

View logs and the current configuration

The current bird config is available outside the container at /srv/fullctl/rs/bird/etc/bird.conf

Bird logs are also available directly at /srv/fullctl/rs/bird/var/log/bird.log

Additionally logs for both containers fullctl_routeserver and fullctl_birdrefresh are viewable via the system journal or directly through the podman cli.

journalctl -t fullctl_routeserver -f

podman logs -f fullctl_routeserver

The running log is rotated via the host /etc/logrotate.d service

/srv/fullctl/rs/bird/var/log/bird.log {
    weekly
    rotate 4
    nocompress
    copytruncate
}

Logging can be configured via /srv/fullctl/rs/bird/etc/logging.local

log "/srv/bird/var/log/bird.log" all;
log syslog all;