Cisco Cisco IOS Software Release 12.0(22)S

Because support for the soft reset using the route refresh capability is included in this release of the Cisco IOS 
software, no further router configuration is required. You can initiate a soft inbound reset using only the 
clear ip bgp in command. 

Unlike a soft reset using the stored inbound routing table updates provided by the neighbor 
soft-reconfiguration command, when both BGP peers support the route refresh capability inbound 
routing table updates are not stored in the local BGP router. The soft reset requests are exchanged 
dynamically, and no additional memory is required. 

There are now two available methods for inbound soft reset; the older method using stored inbound 
routing table updates, and the method provided by this feature using dynamic exchange of update 
information.

BGP peers must support the route refresh capability to use dynamic inbound soft reset capability. If a peer 
does not support the route refresh capability, then the only soft reconfiguration option is to use the neighbor 
soft-reconfiguration command, which initiates the storage of inbound routing table updates and requires 
additional memory.

The dynamic inbound soft reset and inbound soft reset using stored information functions are mutually 
exclusive and cannot be configured together. If the inbound soft reset using stored routing table updates 
is configured for a neighbor, the dynamic inbound soft update method cannot be used. 

The BGP Soft Reset feature is an extension of the BGP routing protocol. For more information about 
configuring BGP, refer to the “BGP chapter” of the Cisco IOS Release 12.0 Network Protocols 
Configuration Guide, Part 1 and Cisco IOS Release 12.0 Network Protocols Command Reference, Part 1.

The BGP Soft Reset feature is supported by the following platforms in Cisco IOS Release 12.0(22)S:

Cisco 7200 series 

Cisco 7500 series