AS Groups

AS groups enable users to designate a set of Autonomous Systems (ASes) whose traffic will be evaluated as a group (summed) for the purpose of top-X evaluations and filtering in queries. Implementation of AS groups in Kentik Detect is covered in the following topics:

• About AS Groups
• AS Groups Page
• Add Group Dialog
• Add AS Dialog
• Manage AS Groups

Autonomous systems represent the networks that collectively make up the Internet (see IETF RFC 1930), enabling the use of BGP to compute routes for the delivery of traffic. The AS Groups feature in Kentik Detect enables you to refer to a set of ASes collectively by assigning one or more ASes to a group that you name.

The use of AS groups has the following effect on Kentik Detect queries:

• Group-by: If the Use AS Groups switch is on (see Query Advanced Options), the results from all ASes in each AS group will be summed for top-X evaluation, graph plotting, and display in the results table. As shown below, if a table row represents a group it will include a group icon at the left of the group name; click the icon or name to pop up a list of the ASes in the group.
  Notes:
  - The Use AS Groups switch is visible only if at least one AS group exists in your organization (see Add an AS Group). When visible, the switch is enabled by default.
  - When a Data Explorer view is saved to a dashboard panel or saved view, the setting of the switch at the time the view is saved will determine whether the panel or saved view will use AS Groups.

• Filtering: Inclusion or exclusion of traffic from a given AS group may be achieved by setting that group as the value of a filter on the AS Group dimension, as shown below.

There are several scenarios in which the ability to control how ASes are represented in query results may be useful to the operator of a network:

• Logical grouping of ASes: ISPs that are part of a broader consortium may have multiple ASes spanning multiple countries. AS grouping gives you the ability to assess the traffic from a multi-AS organization as a single entity, which is particularly important for interconnection/capacity planners in the context of peering.
• Mapping of existing AS labels: Many organizations refer to ASes with labels that are distinct from the official name of the AS. An AS group may be used to associate an existing label with one or more ASes, so that the AS naming by which ASes are represented in Kentik Detect can be made consistent with the AS naming that you already use in other systems.
• Naming by internal topology: It’s now common in modern, large-scale data centers to deploy Clos architecture, which relies on BGP to the rack, with each rack corresponding to its own private ASN (shown below). AS groups enable you to reference and visualize groups of private ASes in a way that reflects this Clos-based datacenter topology.

The AS Groups page (Admin » AS Groups), is used to build and manage AS groups. The page is covered in the following topics:

• AS Groups Page UI
• Groups List
• Group Pane

The AS Groups page is made up of the following UI elements:

• Sidebar: Hover over the white strip at the left of the page, indicated with the » icon, to pop out the sidebar containing the Admin menu, which allows you to go directly to any Admin page.
• Filter field: Filters the Groups List to show only groups whose name contains the entered text.
• Add Group button: Opens the Add Group Dialog, where you can define a new group.
• Groups list: A list of your organization’s AS groups (see Groups List).
• Group Pane: Information and controls for the group that is currently selected in the Groups List (see Group Pane), including a list of the ASes that belong to that group.

The Groups List is a table that lists all AS groups in your organization. When you click on a row in the list, the Group Pane will display information about the corresponding AS group, including the individual ASes in the group.

The table provides the following information for each AS group:

• Group: The name that was specified for the group when it was created.
• ASNs: The number of ASes assigned to the group. Hover over the number to display a popup listing the ASNs assigned to the group.

To sort the table (ascending or descending), click on a column heading.

The Group Pane includes information and controls for the group that is currently selected in the Groups List, including a table that lists all of the individual ASes that your organization has assigned to that group.

The Group Pane includes the following UI elements:

• Group name field: A read-only field showing the name of group. To edit the name, click the pencil icon.
• Edit name button (pencil icon): Makes the Group name field editable:
  - To rename the group, enter a different name in the field, then click the Save button.
  - To keep the existing name, click the Cancel button.
• Add AS button: Open the Add AS dialog to add one or more ASes to the current AS group.
• Remove Group: Opens a confirmation dialog that enables you to remove the current group from your organization’s collection of AS groups.
• AS List: A table containing information about the ASes in the current AS group (see AS List).

The AS List is a table providing the following information for each autonomous system in the current AS group:

• ASN: The number of the AS.
• Name: The name of the AS.
• Type: One of the following:
  - Public: A public AS whose number has been assigned by IANA.
  - Private: An AS used only internally within a single organization (enabling the use of BGP to compute routes between internal systems).
  - Reserved: An AS whose number is reserved by IANA (not available for assignment).
• Remove button (trash icon): Removes the AS from the current AS group (without a confirmation dialog).

To sort the table (ascending or descending), click on a column heading.

The Add Group dialog is used to add an AS group and assign ASes to that group. The dialog is made up of the following UI elements:

• Close button: Click the X in the upper right corner to close the dialog.
• Group Name: Enter a name for the new group.
• ASes field: Start entering an AS number or name to show the AS list below.
• AS list: A list of all ASes whose name or number is a match with the text entered in the AS field. To select ASes from the list to add to the group, do one of the following:
  - Click the checkbox to the left of an individual AS.
  - Click Select All.
• Select All (visible only when AS list is populated):
  - If no checkboxes are checked in the AS list, click this to check all of the checkboxes.
  - If any checkboxes are checked in the AS list, click this to uncheck all of the checkboxes.
• Cancel button: Cancel the add group operation and exit the dialog.
• Add Group button: Close the dialog and add the new group to your organization’s collection of AS groups.

The Add AS dialog is used to add an AS to the current AS group (the group selected in the Groups List. The dialog is made up of the following UI elements:

• Close button: Click the X in the upper right corner to close the dialog.
• ASes field: Start entering an AS number or name to show the AS list below.
• AS list: A list of all ASes whose name or number is a match with the text entered in the AS field. To select ASes from the list to add to the group, do one of the following:
  - Click the checkbox to the left of an individual AS.
  - Click Select All.
• Select All (visible only when AS list is populated):
  - If no checkboxes are checked in the AS list, click this to check all of the checkboxes.
  - If any checkboxes are checked in the AS list, click this to uncheck all of the checkboxes.
• Cancel button: Cancel the add AS operation and exit the dialog.
• Save button: Close the dialog and add the selected ASes to the current AS group.

Configuration of AS groups on the AS Groups page (Admin » AS Groups) is covered in the following topics:

• Add an AS Group
• Edit an AS Group
• Remove an AS Group

To add an AS group:

1. On the AS Groups page, click the Add Group button to open the Add Group Dialog.
2. In the Group Name field, enter a name for the new group.
3. Click in the AS field and start entering an AS number or name to show a list of all matching ASes. Click on the checkmark next to an AS in the list to add that AS to the group.
4. Repeat step 3 as needed to add more ASes to the group.
5. When you’ve added all ASes that you want to add to this group, click the Add Group button. The dialog will close and the new group will appear in the Groups List.

AS groups are edited directly on the AS Groups page; there is no Edit Group dialog. To choose a group to edit, click in the Groups List on the row of the group that you want to edit. The group will appear in the Group Pane.

Once a group is listed the Group Pane you can do one of the following:

• Change name of current group:
  - Click the Edit name button (pencil icon) to make the Group name field editable.
  - Enter a different name in the field.
  - Click the Save button.
• Assign a new AS:
  - Click the Add AS button to open the Add AS Dialog.
  - In the dialog’s AS field, start entering an AS number or name to show a list of all matching ASes.
  - In the list, click on the checkmark of an AS that you want to add to the group.
  - When you’ve selected all ASes that you wish to add to the group, click the Save button to close the dialog and add the selected ASes to the current group.
• Remove an existing AS:
  - Click the Remove button (trash icon) at the right of the row corresponding to the AS that you want to remove.
  - The AS will be removed from the current group (without a confirmation dialog).

To remove a group from your organization’s collection of AS groups:

1. In the Groups List, click in the row of the group that you want to remove. The group will appear in the Group Pane.
2. Click Remove Group at the top right of the Group Pane, which will open a confirmation dialog that enables you to remove the group.
3. In the dialog, click the Remove button. The dialog will close, the group will be removed, and a notification will confirm the removal.