Looking Glass

With the UAE-IX looking glass service, it is possible to easily search for an AS number, a peer or a particular IP prefix. In addition, the looking glass service provides information on why a certain route is rejected by the route server (e.g. due to IRR filters). Below you can find a detailed explanation of how to use the looking glass, how to narrow down search results, what exactly you can see, some typical search examples, and more information about query strings and how to use the API in your own scripts.  
The UAE-IX Looking Glass utilizes the open source projects Alice-LG and birdwatcher. A big thank you to all who contributed to these projects!

How to use the UAE-IX Looking Glass

There are two basic ways to get information: 

  • The global search over all route servers (1) 
  • The neighbor overview (2) 

With the global search, you can search for IP prefixes, peer names, or ASNs. This is the fastest way if you need to get information about a specific network. 

With the neighbor overview, you can have a look at a specific route server. It shows you which networks are available at a specific route server, provides BGP session information (state, last state changed), and gives you a summary of received/accepted/filtered routes from each peer.

UAE-IX Looking Glass

The global search over all route servers 

With the global search, you can search across all UAE-IX route servers. You can directly search for: 

  • Prefixes 
  • Peers (by name, e.g. Packet Clearing House) 
  • ASNs (by prefixing AS, e.g. AS42) 

Just type in what you're looking for.

UAE-IX Looking Glass 2.0

The global search funktion

Narrow down the search results 

On the results page, it is possible to narrow down the search results with three drop-down menus on the right. You can refine your search by: 

  • Route server 
  • Neighbor (in case your search matches more than one route server peer) 
  • BGP Communities (multiple BGP Community values can be selected; the Communities are ordered by value) 

The selected filters appear above the drop-down field and can be removed easily by clicking the red 'X' icon. 

Please note: The database that is used to generate the search results in the global search contains data that may be up to 30 minutes old. The actual cache age is displayed in the upper right corner.

UAE-IX Looking Glass 3.0

Narrow down results of the global search

The neighbor overview

Using the neighbor overview, you can have a look at individual UAE-IX route servers and their BGP peers (and their current status, e.g. session up, down, or errors). 

To start the overview, select a UAE-IX route server. This will result in a view that contains all peers that are known to the selected route server. All table columns are sortable in ascending or descending order, and data in this view is cached for approximately three minutes. 

Narrow down the displayed data 

With the search bar at the top, you can narrow down the data displayed. You can search for: 

  • Neighbor IP 
  • Peers (e.g. Packet Clearing House) 
  • ASNs (e.g. 42)

Get information about specific route server neigbor 

You can see more information about a specific route server neighbor by clicking on its neighbor IP. Data in this view is cached for five minutes. All routes (filtered, accepted, and not exported) are shown. If the selected peer operates more than one router, you can switch between routers by clicking the tabs shown at the top. There are also quick links available to jump to sections with filtered, accepted and not exported routes directly. Routes that are the best path are marked with a star icon.  

If a route is rejected, the reason is displayed in text below the affected route. You can hover over the text to get a detailed explanation of what went wrong and how to fix it. You can also click on the reject reason to explore the route in question in the IRR Explorer

UAE-IX Looking Glass

Information on a specific route server neighbor

To get more detailed information about a route, just click on it. This will show you the BGP attributes: 

  • Origin of the route (IGP/EGP/unknown) 
  • Local Preference 
  • BGP next-hop 
  • MED 
  • AS Path 
  • BGP Standard, Extended and Large Communities in human readable format if known by the route server (i.e. UAE-IX Operational and Informational Communities and well-known BGP Communities)
UAE-IX Looking Glass

Detailed route information with BGP attributes

Typical search examples

Find out which prefixes are filtered on your session(s)

  • Enter your ASN in the global search field on the start page
  • A list of prefixes from your ASN on all route servers is shown
  • Filtered prefixes are shown at the top of the page (before accepted routes)
  • You can narrow down your search by using the dropdown menus on the right
  • You can click on the link in the description column to go the corresponding route server for the selected prefix

Find out which prefixes are blackholed by a peer, e.g. AS15169

  • Enter AS15169 in the global search field on the start page
  • A list of prefixes from AS15169 on all route servers is show
  • Look for prefixes with a blackhole icon or narrow down your search by selecting '(65535:666) BLACKHOLE (RFC7999)' from the BGP Communities dropdown on the right
  • Now you see all prefixes blackholed by AS15169
  • If '(65535:666) BLACKHOLE (RFC7999)' does not show up in the dropdown menu, the peer does not blackhole any prefixes.

Using query strings 

It is possible to use query strings in URLs, e.g. in bookmarks:

  • Search for a prefix (e.g. 8.8.8.0/24) in the global search (lookup on all route servers): https://lg.uae-ix.net/search?q=8.8.8.0/24
  • Search for AS15169 (Google) on route server rs1_dxb_ipv4*: https://lg.ue-ix.net/routeservers/rs1_dxb_ipv4?s=asn&o=asc&q=15169
  • Search for Google on route server rs1_dxb_ipv4*: https://lg.uae-ix.net/routeservers/rs1_dxb_ipv4?s=asn&o=asc&q=Google

* Just replace rs1_dxb1_ipv4 with the corresponding RS

Use the API in your own scripts

Alice provides a JSON API for all UAE-IX route servers. You can use the API in your own scripts. The following endpoints are available:

Endpoint/example queryDescription
/api/v1/statusQuery the status of Alice
/api/v1/routeservers/rs1_dxb_ipv4/statusQuery the status of route server rs1_dxb_ipv4
/api/v1/routeservers/rs1_dxb_ipv4/neighbors/R8_28/routes/receivedfor a list of received routes from peer R8_28 (185.1.8.28)
/api/v1/routeservers/rs1_dxb_ipv4/neighbors/R8_28/routes/not-exportedQuery route server rs1_dxb_ipv4 for a list of routes not exported to peer R8_28 (185.1.8.28)
/api/v1/routeservers/rs1_dxb_ipv4/neighbors/R8_28/routes/filteredQuery route server rs1_dxb_ipv4 for a list of filtered routes from peer R8_28 (185.1.8.28)
/api/v1/routeservers/rs1_dxb_ipv4/neighbors/R8_28/routesQuery route server rs1_dxb_ipv4 for a list of accepted routes from peer R8_28 (185.1.8.28)
/api/v1/routeservers/rs1_dxb_ipv4/neighborsQuery route server rs1_dxb_ipv4 for a list of its neighbors
/api/v1/routeserversQuery a list of route servers known to Alice
/api/v1/lookup/prefix?q=8.8.8.0/24Query Alice for prefix 8.8.8.0/24
/api/v1/configQuery the Alice configuration

Questions?

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us