OpenBGPD is a daemon that implements BGP. To install it, navigate to System | Packages, click on the Add icon next to the OpenBGPD entry, and click on the Confirm button on the next page.

You can begin OpenBGPD configuration by navigating to Services | OpenBGPD. You should see several configuration tabs. The first one is Settings. The Autonomous Systems (AS) Number edit box allows you to set the local autonomous system number. The Holdtime edit box allows you to define the time (in seconds) a session with a neighboring OpenBGPD router is kept active without receiving either a KEEPALIVE or UPDATE message from the neighbor. The fib-update drop-down box allows you to choose whether to update the Forwarding Information Base (the kernel routing table).

In the Listen on IP edit box, you can specify the local IP address the BGP daemon should listen on. Leaving this field blank causes the daemon to bind to all IPs. In the Router IP edit box, you can set the router IP (it must be local to pfSense). In the CARP Status IP edit box, you can specify the IP address for determining the CARP status. If your router is in BACKUP status for the interface to which the IP address corresponds, then the BGP daemon will not start. Finally, in the Networks edit box, you can specify a network to be announced as belonging to the AS. You can set this field to (inet | inet6) connected to announce all IPv4 or IPv6 directly attached networks, or (inet | inet6) static to announce all IPv4 or IPv6 static routes.

The next tab, Neighbors, allows you to add neighboring routers. Clicking on the Add button below the table to the right allows you to add another router. On the configuration page, you can enter a description in the Description edit box. The Neighbor edit box is where you enter the neighbor's IP address. In the TCP-MD5 key edit box, enter the MD5 key for communicating with the peer. This does not work with Cisco routers, however; for Cisco routers, enter a value in the TCP-MD5 password edit box. The Group drop-down box allows you to add the neighbor to a BGP group; such a group must be defined by adding a group at the Group tab. Finally, the Neighbor parameters setting drop-down box allows you to set parameters on the neighbor router. Some of the parameters have associated numeric values that can be set; if they do, the Value edit box will become enabled when they are selected. To add a parameter to set, click on the Add button; you can add more than one parameter this way. When you have finished making changes, click on the Save button.

On the Groups tab, you can define groups into which neighboring routers can be placed. To add a group, click on the Add button below the table to the right. On the group configuration page, you must enter a name in the Name edit box. In the Remote AS edit box, you must enter an AS for the group. You can enter a brief non-parsed description in the Description edit box. Finally, there is a Save button for saving changes and a Cancel button for discarding changes.

The Raw config tab allows you to manually edit the bgpd.conf file. But be warned: whatever changes you make to bgpd.conf here will override any changes you make on the Settings, Neighbors and Groups tabs. At the bottom of the page, there are two buttons: the Save button saves bgpd.conf, while Cancel discards any changes. Finally, the Status tab provides information about the OpenBGP daemon as it runs.