Vultr's Public ASN - AS20473

Updated on 24 June, 2025

Vultr offers Public ASN (AS20473) for managing network routing and peering with external networks. This ASN is essential for advertising IP prefixes and enabling effective routing policies for your network.

Follow this guide to configure and use AS20473 for your peering setup, focusing on its use within Vultr's network infrastructure.

Understanding Vultr Public ASN - AS20473

Public ASN: Vultr's Public ASN (AS20473) is used for external BGP peering and managing routing policies with networks outside of Vultr's infrastructure.

  • AS20473 is assigned to customers who need to establish public peering, typically for Bare Metal instances. It allows for advertising IP address space and establishing routing relationships with external peers or transit providers.
Note
Public ASN (AS20473) can only be used for peering with Vultr's Bare Metal instances. Private ASN (AS64515) is not available for Vultr Bare Metal instances. Customers who want to peer with Vultr's Bare Metal instances must use AS20473 or their own public ASN.

Peering with Vultr Using AS20473

When you peer with Vultr's Bare Metal instances using AS20473 (public ASN) or your own ASN, you can advertise your IP prefixes. Your ASN will be used to advertise these prefixes and manage the routing to external peers or transit providers.

Public ASN Peering:

Peering with AS20473 allows you to control your routing policies and advertise your IP space to the broader internet. This includes the ability to prepend your ASN in the AS_PATH when advertising your IP prefixes.

  • Example of ASN Prepending: If your primary ASN is AS64500 and you also use AS64501 and AS64502 as secondary ASNs, your advertised prefixes to Vultr's network could look like this:

    • 64500
    • 64500_64501
    • 64500_64502
    • 64500_64501_64502

    When Vultr advertises these prefixes to its transit providers, it will prepend AS20473 (Vultr's public ASN), resulting in the following AS_PATHs on the public internet:

    • 20473_64500
    • 20473_64500_64501
    • 20473_64500_64502
    • 20473_64500_64501_64502

    In this case, AS64500 will always appear before AS64501 and AS64502, indicating the customer's primary ASN.

    Note
    For more information about AS20473 BGP policies, including AS20473 Action Communities and Informational Communities, such as Prefix Type and Locations, visit the AS20473 BGP Customer Guide.

RPKI and Prefix Validation

Vultr uses Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) to validate BGP announcements and ensure the integrity of network prefixes. When configuring AS20473, it’s important to ensure that only valid RPKI prefixes are advertised to external networks. This helps mitigate the risks of hijacking or misrouting.