How to set up a BGP session with BIRD

Announcing your own IP space turns your server into a real piece of the internet: traffic for your prefixes routes straight to your machine, and you keep your addresses if you ever move. You will find below the steps required to set up your BGP session using the BIRD daemon, for both IPv4 and IPv6.

Prerequisites

An active BGP Session service (you will receive the neighbor IP and the Melbicom ASN with your activation)
Your own ASN and the IPv4 and/or IPv6 prefix registered to it
A Melbicom server with root access, running Ubuntu, Debian, or a RHEL-family distribution

Step 1: Install BIRD for IPv4 and IPv6

sudo apt update && sudo apt install bird bird6

sudo dnf install bird bird6

Step 2: Create the configuration files

BIRD uses one configuration file per address family:

/etc/bird/bird.conf     # IPv4
/etc/bird/bird6.conf    # IPv6

Replace every UPPERCASE placeholder with your own values: your ASN, your prefix, and the neighbor details from your activation email.

router id X.X.X.X;                    # VPS IPv4
protocol static { route YOUR.PREFIX.IP/MASK via "eth0"; }
protocol bgp provider {
    local as YOUR_ASN;
    neighbor x.x.x.x as MELBICOM_ASN;
    import all; export where net ~ [ YOUR.PREFIX.IP/MASK ];
    next hop self;
}

router id X.X.X.X;                    # still IPv4
protocol static { route YOUR:V6::/MASK via "eth0"; }
protocol bgp provider {
    local as YOUR_ASN;
    neighbor xxxx:xxxx::1 as MELBICOM_ASN;
    import all; export where net ~ [ YOUR:V6::/MASK ];
    next hop self;
}

Step 3: Enable and start the services

sudo systemctl enable --now bird
sudo systemctl enable --now bird6

Make sure TCP port 179 is open on your firewall, or the session cannot establish:

sudo ufw allow 179/tcp

Step 4: Verify the session

sudo birdc show protocols all provider

Look for Established in the BGP state. Repeat with birdc6 for the IPv6 session.

What you’ve built

Your prefixes are now announced to the world through Melbicom’s network. Traffic for your own IP space lands directly on your server, over both IPv4 and IPv6, and your addressing stays yours: if you ever migrate, renumber nothing. From here you can grow the setup the same way networks do, adding prefixes to the export filter or bringing up additional sessions as your infrastructure spreads.