linux routing software suite

Quagga is a routing software suite, providing implementations of OSPFv2, OSPFv3, RIP v1 and v2, RIPng and BGP-4 for Unix platforms, particularly FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris and NetBSD. Quagga is a fork of GNU Zebra which was developed by Kunihiro Ishiguro. The Quagga tree aims to build a more involved community around Quagga than the current centralised model of GNU Zebra.

The Quagga architecture consists of a core daemon, zebra, which acts as an abstraction layer to the underlying Unix kernel and presents the Zserv API over a Unix or TCP stream to Quagga clients. It is these Zserv clients which typically implement a routing protocol and communicate routing updates to the zebra daemon. Existing Zserv implementations are:

IPv4	IPv6
zebra		- kernel interface, static routes, zserv server
ripd	ripngd	- RIPv1/RIPv2 for IPv4 and RIPng for IPv6
ospfd	ospf6d	- OSPFv2 and OSPFv3
bgpd		- BGPv4+ (including address family support for multicast and IPv6)
isisd		- IS-IS with support for IPv4 and IPv6
		externally, not part of Quagga package:
olsrd		- OLSR wireless mesh routing through a plugin for olsrd
ldpd		- MPLS Label Distribution Protocol (forked from OpenBSD ldpd)
bfdd		- Bidirectional Forwarding Detection

Support for OSPFv3 and IS-IS is various beta states currently; IS-IS for IPv4 is believed to be usable while OSPFv3 and IS-IS for IPv6 have known issues.

Additionally, the Quagga architecture has a rich development library to facilitate the implementation of protocol/client daemons, coherent in configuration and administrative behaviour.

Quagga daemons are each configurable via a network accessible CLI (called a 'vty'). The CLI follows a style similar to that of other routing software. There is an additional tool included with Quagga called 'vtysh', which acts as a single cohesive front-end to all the daemons, allowing one to administer nearly all aspects of the various Quagga daemons in one place.

Please see the Documentation for further detailed information. Community support is also available via the mailling lists.