Network & Infrastructure / BGP Policy & Internet Edge
Route-reflector path hiding and unexpected exit selection
Clients behind the same route reflector choose a distant egress even though a nearer usable exit exists. The reflector may be advertising only its own selected path to those clients.
Environment and inputs: BGP speakers and route reflectors; policy syntax, RPKI integration and address-family behavior depend on the implementation. Diagnostic/design example; not tested on production equipment.
Collect the evidence
Compare all paths visible at the reflector with paths received at each client. Record IGP costs to next hops, cluster topology and whether additional-path capabilities are configured and negotiated.
Explain the result
The reflector's best path can reflect its own topology rather than each client's optimum. Route reflection reduces session count but does not guarantee every client sees all alternative exits.
Plan the fix
Evaluate reflector placement, policy and supported additional-path or optimal-reflection mechanisms against the actual scale requirement. Do not assume adding another reflector alone changes the selection rule.
Check the result and rollback
Model loss of each exit and compare selected paths, convergence and FIB growth. Keep the existing reflector policy available if extra advertisements exceed memory or create unexpected traffic shifts.