BGP Announcements
BGP announcements let you advertise IP addresses and network routes from your machines into the mesh network using the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). This is how you set up virtual IPs (VIPs) for high availability, or announce routes to external networks that your machines can reach.
Overview
BGP announcements can be managed in two places:
- Per-machine — On the BGP Announcements tab of a machine's detail page.
- Global — From the top-level BGP Announcements page (accessible via the main menu if configured).
When no announcements exist, the page displays an empty state: "No BGP announcements — No BGP announcements are configured for this machine."
The table displays these columns:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | A descriptive name for the announcement |
| Type | VIP (virtual IP) or Route (network prefix) |
| Address | The IP address being announced |
| Prefixes | Network prefixes included in the announcement |
| Health Check | The protocol used for health checking (TCP, HTTP, gRPC, Exec, or None) |
| Consecutive Successes | Number of consecutive successful health checks before the route is announced |
| Consecutive Failures | Number of consecutive failed health checks before the route is withdrawn |
Creating a BGP Announcement
Click Create to open the creation form.
Basic Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | A unique name for this announcement. |
| Machines | Select which machines should originate this announcement. For a VIP, you typically select multiple machines so the IP fails over if one goes down. |
| Enabled | Toggle to activate or deactivate the announcement without deleting it. |
Type
Choose the announcement type:
- VIP (Virtual IP) — Announces a single IP address. Used for high availability. The IP is active on whichever machine passes its health check. If multiple machines are healthy, traffic is distributed.
- Route — Announces a network prefix. Used to make an external network reachable through the mesh.
Address and Prefixes
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Address | The IP address to announce (for VIP) or the next-hop address (for Route). |
| Prefixes | One or more network prefixes in CIDR notation to include in the announcement. |
Health Check
Health checks determine whether a machine should actively announce the route. If the health check fails, the announcement is withdrawn from that machine.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Protocol | The health check method: TCP, HTTP, gRPC, or Exec. |
| Target | The address or command to check. For TCP/HTTP/gRPC, this is a host:port or URL. For Exec, this is a command to run on the machine. |
| Interval | How often the health check runs (in seconds). |
| Timeout | Maximum time to wait for a health check response (in seconds). |
| Healthy Threshold | Number of consecutive successes before the route is announced. |
| Unhealthy Threshold | Number of consecutive failures before the route is withdrawn. |
If you do not need health checking, leave the health check protocol unset. The announcement will always be active on the selected machines.