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BGPalerter watches public BGP and RPKI data for your autonomous system (AS) and prefixes, then reports visibility loss, possible hijacks, route leaks, invalid announcements and other routing changes. On Ubuntu, the reliable setup is a Linux binary with config.yml, an ASN-generated prefixes.yml, and a dedicated systemd service. Budget at least 4 GB of RAM and enable swap before you start, particularly on a small cloud VM.

What BGPalerter monitors—and what it does not

BGPalerter is an application-level monitor. It connects directly to public BGP data repositories and evaluates the updates locally; the project states that no NTT servers are involved in the monitoring path. This means you can observe how the Internet sees your announcements without placing a BGP session on the Ubuntu host.

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It is therefore different from inspecting a router’s local BGP session with commands such as show bgp. A router tells you what its configured neighbors and local RIB contain. BGPalerter tells you what public collectors report, which can reveal a propagation failure or an announcement that your own router does not recognize.

Detection What an alert means Why it matters
Prefix visibility loss A monitored prefix is no longer seen in the public data sources. It can indicate an outage, withdrawal, filtering or a collector-path problem.
Hijack or unexpected origin Another origin AS appears to announce your prefix, or an announcement conflicts with the expected origin. Investigate immediately; the event may be a malicious hijack or an operational mistake.
RPKI-invalid announcement An announcement does not satisfy the applicable Route Origin Authorization (ROA). RPKI-validating networks may reject it.
Prefix not covered by a ROA A monitored route has no matching authorization. The route lacks origin-validation protection until a correct ROA is published.
ROA expiry or reachability problem A ROA is expiring, unreachable or otherwise unavailable to validators. Validation results can change when the authorization disappears.
Trust-anchor malfunction or ROA change The RPKI validation chain or an authorization changed unexpectedly. It can explain sudden validity changes even when your BGP configuration is unchanged.
Newly announced prefix A prefix appears that is not in the expected monitored set. Useful for catching accidental announcements and inventory drift.
Unexpected upstream or downstream AS A path contains an AS relationship outside your expected topology. Can expose leaks, routing-policy changes or an incorrect transit relationship.
User-defined AS-path condition A custom path expression matched an update. Lets you encode organization-specific routing rules.

Notifications can be written to files, email, Kafka, Slack, syslog, chat systems, HTTP push endpoints and REST consumers. Select a channel that is independent of the host where possible, so a disk failure does not hide the alert.

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Prerequisites for an Ubuntu installation

  • Memory: the official guide specifies 4 GB of RAM.
  • Swap: enable swap before starting, especially on a small cloud instance. Swap protects the process from an abrupt out-of-memory kill; it does not replace adequate RAM.
  • Outbound connectivity: the process must reach the public BGP repositories it uses. Restrictive egress firewalls, DNS failures and TLS interception can prevent updates.
  • Persistent storage: keep the binary, config.yml, prefixes.yml, logs and (when enabled) the .cache/ directory on durable storage.
  • Privileges: use an unprivileged service account for production. Only the initial directory setup and service installation need administrative privileges.

Check the host before installation:

free -h
swapon --show
df -h

If swapon --show is empty, create and enable swap using your distribution’s documented method before proceeding. Verify that the filesystem has room for rotated logs and the cache.

Install the current Linux binary

The binary method is the shortest Ubuntu path and avoids maintaining a Node.js build environment. The following commands keep all runtime files in one directory:

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  1. Create the application directory and enter it:

    mkdir -p ~/bgpalerter
    cd ~/bgpalerter
  2. Download the current x64 Linux asset and the example configuration:

    wget https://github.com/nttgin/BGPalerter/releases/latest/download/bgpalerter-linux-x64
    wget -O config.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nttgin/BGPalerter/main/config.yml.example

    The first URL tracks the latest published x64 binary. Review release notes before replacing an existing production binary.

  3. Make the binary executable:

    chmod +x bgpalerter-linux-x64
  4. Generate the initial monitored-prefix list from your ASN:

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    ./bgpalerter-linux-x64 generate -a YOUR_ASN -o prefixes.yml -i -m

    Replace YOUR_ASN with the numeric AS number you operate. The command discovers prefixes announced by that ASN and writes them to prefixes.yml. The -i and -m options enable the interactive parts of auto-configuration.

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  5. Start the monitor:

    ./bgpalerter-linux-x64

    On the first normal launch, BGPalerter completes auto-configuration if it still needs to do so. Keep the terminal open while you confirm that updates are arriving and alerts are being written.

Unless you deliberately use the Docker volume option, keep config.yml, prefixes.yml, the binary and the logs/ directory together. Relative paths in the configuration are resolved from the working directory, so moving only the executable commonly produces missing-file errors.

Choose and maintain the prefix inventory

Generated inventory

The ASN-based generate command is useful when the public view of your announcements is the source of truth. BGPalerter can regenerate an automatically generated list on a schedule through generatePrefixListEveryDays. Automatic regeneration applies only when one generated list is in use and that file has not been manually edited. Once you edit the generated file, treat it as a deliberate inventory and manage changes yourself.

Hand-maintained inventory

For a tightly controlled environment, create a YAML prefix file containing only the networks you intend to monitor and point monitoredPrefixesFiles in config.yml to it. This avoids silently adding a newly announced network, but it creates an operational duty: every approved allocation, deallocation and more-specific announcement must be reflected in the file.

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After changing a monitored file, restart the service or follow the reload behavior documented by the configuration version you installed. Confirm in the logs that the file was parsed and that the expected prefix count is loaded.

Configure alerts, logging and state in config.yml

config.yml is the central file for runtime behavior. Keep a copy under your normal configuration-management process and restrict write access to the service account.

Setting or area Operational effect Practical choice
monitoredPrefixesFiles Lists the YAML files containing monitored prefixes. Use one generated file for hands-off discovery, or explicit files for controlled inventory.
Logging options Define the log directory, rotation pattern, compression, maximum file size and retained-file count. Set limits that fit the disk and forward important events to a central log system.
logging.useUTC: true Writes log-entry timestamps in UTC. Use UTC on multi-region operations; event and alert data are always reported in UTC.
notificationIntervalSeconds Controls how soon a repeat notification may be sent. Choose a value that avoids alert storms without hiding a continuing incident.
alertOnlyOnce Suppresses repeats and caches alert signatures. Enable it when one actionable notification per event is preferred.
persistStatus Restores previously sent alerts after restart when .cache/ is writable. Keep the cache on persistent storage if deduplication must survive reboots.
generatePrefixListEveryDays Regenerates an automatically generated prefix list under the restrictions described above. Set a reviewable interval and monitor the resulting file for unexpected additions.

Configure at least one delivery path before relying on the monitor. A local file is useful for troubleshooting, but email, syslog, HTTP push or another external destination gives you a signal when the Ubuntu host itself is unavailable. Test the selected channel with the synthetic update procedure described below.

Expose the uptime API safely

The optional REST server listens on localhost port 8011 by default. Leaving the host set to localhost keeps the API reachable only from the Ubuntu machine. If an external monitor must query it, explicitly change the host, restrict the listening address with firewall rules, and place authentication or a protected reverse proxy in front of it as appropriate for your environment.

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Enable the uptime API in the configuration, then probe:

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curl -i http://127.0.0.1:8011/status

Use the response as a health signal rather than as proof that every alert destination works. A negative status can indicate misconfiguration or failure to connect to the BGP data repository. Do not expose port 8011 to the Internet merely because the process is running.

Run BGPalerter as a systemd service

An interactive shell is suitable for initial validation, not for production. The documented Linux service uses a dedicated bgpalerter user and /home/bgpalerter as the working directory.

  1. Create the account and place the binary, configuration, prefix list and log directory under its home directory. Ensure the account owns the files and that the binary is executable.

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  2. Create /etc/systemd/system/bgpalerter.service with:

    [Unit]
    Description=BGPalerter
    After=network.target
    
    [Service]
    Type=simple
    Restart=on-failure
    RestartSec=30s
    User=bgpalerter
    WorkingDirectory=/home/bgpalerter
    ExecStart=/home/bgpalerter/bgpalerter-linux-x64
    
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
  3. Load, enable and start the unit:

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    sudo systemctl enable bgpalerter
    sudo systemctl start bgpalerter
    sudo systemctl status bgpalerter
  4. Inspect runtime output and recent failures:

    sudo journalctl -u bgpalerter -f
    sudo journalctl -u bgpalerter --since "1 hour ago"

Restart=on-failure with a 30-second delay handles crashes but does not repair a bad configuration, a full disk or blocked network access. Check ownership after every upgrade and verify that the service’s working directory still contains the files named by the configuration.

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Validate detection before waiting for a real incident

BGPalerter provides a test option that generates fake BGP updates. Run it with -t and exercise reports listening on the hijack channel. This validates report wiring and notification delivery without announcing anything on the Internet.

./bgpalerter-linux-x64 -t

When running under systemd, perform the test in a controlled maintenance window and check the service logs plus every configured destination. Confirm that a suppressed repeat behaves as intended when alertOnlyOnce is enabled.

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For ongoing assurance, combine three checks:

  • Process check: systemd status, an external process monitor or a heartbeat alert.
  • Application check: the REST /status endpoint, if enabled.
  • Data freshness check: recent log entries and successful repository connectivity.

A container restart alone is not evidence that monitoring has recovered. The process can restart repeatedly while remaining unable to fetch data or deliver reports.

Deployment choices for Ubuntu

Method Strengths Costs and cautions
Linux binary Few dependencies, simple directory layout and straightforward systemd integration. You must replace the executable during upgrades and track architecture compatibility.
Docker Encapsulates runtime dependencies and is convenient for container orchestration. Persist configuration, prefixes, logs and cache. Mount the persistent volume at /opt/bgpalerter/volume; generate configuration interactively first, then run detached with -d.
Source installation Fits environments that build and audit software internally. Requires Node.js and npm, a repeatable build process and responsibility for dependency updates.
Debian package build Can integrate with package-management workflows. You still own package creation, signing, repository distribution and upgrade testing.

For Docker uptime checks, expose port 8011 only within the monitoring network and query http://127.0.0.1:8011/status from the appropriate container or host context. In a container, “localhost” refers to that container, so an external checker may need the service host address or a sidecar arrangement.

Plan upgrades around release changes

The releases page currently displays v2.0.1 as the latest release. Download the current asset for a new installation, but review the release notes before upgrading an existing one.

The v2.0.0 release introduced breaking operational changes: Node.js was upgraded to 22; online RPKI validation and proxy support were removed; configuration version 3 became mandatory; the web server moved from Restify to Express; packaging moved to yao-pkg/pkg; and security patches were applied. A source build or an older configuration may therefore require changes even when the monitored ASN and prefixes are unchanged.

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A safe binary upgrade sequence is:

  1. Back up config.yml, prefix files and the .cache/ directory.
  2. Read the release notes and verify that the target architecture and configuration version are supported.
  3. Download the new executable beside the old one and compare its -v output with the version currently running.
  4. Stop the service, replace the executable, restore ownership and executable permissions, then start the service.
  5. Check systemctl status, logs, /status and a synthetic -t alert before declaring the upgrade complete.

The project documentation describes a weekly script that downloads the latest binary, compares -v output, replaces the executable when versions differ and restarts the process. Treat that as an operational pattern to review and test, not as an unattended guarantee: pin versions when change control requires it and ensure a failed download cannot overwrite a working binary.

Troubleshoot the common failure modes

Symptom Likely cause Checks and correction
Process exits immediately Missing executable permission, incompatible binary or invalid configuration. Run the binary manually, inspect the exact error, check chmod +x, architecture and configuration-version requirements.
Service loops every 30 seconds Restart=on-failure is working, but startup still fails. Read journalctl -u bgpalerter; correct paths, ownership, YAML syntax or network access before restarting.
No prefixes are monitored The generated file was not created, is outside the working directory or is not referenced. Run the ASN generate command again, verify prefixes.yml exists and inspect monitoredPrefixesFiles.
Alerts repeat too often Notification interval is too short or deduplication is disabled. Adjust notificationIntervalSeconds or enable alertOnlyOnce; verify that .cache/ is writable when persistence is required.
Alerts disappear after reboot Status cache is not persistent or persistStatus is disabled. Enable persistence and retain a writable .cache/ directory on durable storage.
Logs consume the disk Rotation, compression or retention limits are too permissive. Set maximum file size and retained-file count, then confirm old files are compressed or removed as expected.
/status is unreachable REST server is disabled, bound to localhost from the wrong network namespace or blocked by a firewall. Check the API configuration and listener locally first; expose it only with deliberate network controls.
Status is negative despite a running process Repository connectivity or configuration failure. Inspect DNS, egress, TLS errors and logs; a running PID alone is not a healthy monitor.

Operational checklist

  • Reserve 4 GB RAM and enable swap.
  • Keep the binary, config.yml, prefix files, logs and cache on persistent storage.
  • Decide whether generated or hand-maintained prefixes are the authoritative inventory.
  • Configure at least one external alert destination and test it with -t.
  • Run the production process under the dedicated systemd account.
  • Use UTC consistently when correlating alerts with router and provider logs.
  • Monitor both process liveness and application/data health through logs or /status.
  • Review release notes, especially configuration-version and runtime changes, before upgrades.

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