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Routing & Switching · Intermediate

BGP Neighbor States

The BGP finite state machine: Idle, Connect, Active, OpenSent, OpenConfirm and Established.

Definition

Idle waits to start; Connect attempts the TCP session; Active retries TCP after failure; OpenSent sends an OPEN; OpenConfirm awaits KEEPALIVE; Established exchanges UPDATEs. A peer oscillating between Idle and Active usually indicates TCP connectivity or configuration problems (wrong AS, wrong address, missing update-source).

Example

show ip bgp summary shows State/PfxRcd; a number means Established.

Exam tip

'Active' in BGP is a bad state meaning TCP is not establishing, despite the name.

Related terms