Tom, I agree that Linux works very well as a router, but it still doesn't compare to a dedicated hardware platform (like Cisco) that was built from the ground up to do nothing but routing. We purchased a used Cisco 12008 router about 1.5 years ago off ebay. They are very, very cheap... the only downside is they are BIG and require 240VAC. But it's way cool to pull the CPU card while the router is moving 500Mbps of traffic and have it not even miss a single ping (due to the redundant CPU card). Same goes for the route fabric card. ;)
We use Mikrotik for our inside "core" router and this big Cisco for our border router to our BGP upstreams. I have slept very well for the last 1.5 years knowing everything in the box is fully redundant (CPU, route, power, etc.). :) Travis Microserv On 11/2/2010 9:04 PM, Tom DeReggi wrote: > Note: Quagga has been very reliable for quite some time now. Imagestream and > Vyatta both use Quagga. Both are great choices for BGP routers. > > I personally use Mandrake (Mandriva) Linux with a slew of custom > modifications that we have made, loaded on SuperMicro, and then use latest > Quagga. > That has worked well for us, the last 5 years. (although, I dont recommend > that to someone, until they are vastly familiar with their distro of Linux. > Last thing you want to do is use your BGP router for a Guinee Pig Science > project, rebooting it all the time to test script changes.) But once you are > comfortable with your Distro, it works well. > > There are a million arguements "for" and "against" Cisco versus Linux, to be > used for the ISPs' average NOC/POP router/switch. I dont dispute any of the > arguements. But one area where I believe Linux stands tall, is as a CORE BGP > router. A core BGP router can be one of the more simplistic configured > routers because it only really needs to perform one function, BGP routing to > its connected peers. For BGP there are two critical needs.... Fast > processors and Lots of RAM. In todays world there is no excuse to not have > both of those. The problem with Cisco is that it lacks both, unless you pay > big bucks. Linux on the other hand has an abundance of both, when combined > with PC-Like hardware. > > I laugh at my competitors, when they say, "oh no, BGP reset, had to reload > BGP tables, now there is latency for like 3 minutes or compromised routing > for that period" or "got a route problem, the small prefixes aren't in my > tables". . On Linux, if you want to restart BGP, well thats like 1 second to > reload tables. And no need to drop any routes, unless you want to. You could > have Full routes with like 30 peers from a single router, if you wanted to. > You can load up Linux with like 32 NICs (qty8 4port GIG NICs) in a 2U case, > if you want to, and dont even need a Switch. (Although new will cost you > about $430 per 4port PCI-E Gig NIC). > > Tom DeReggi > RapidDSL& Wireless, Inc > IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Kristian Hoffmann"<kh...@fire2wire.com> > To: "WISPA General List"<wireless@wispa.org> > Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 8:37 PM > Subject: Re: [WISPA] Full BGP on RouterOS > > >> On Tue, 2010-11-02 at 18:52 -0500, Scott Lambert wrote: >> >>> I still need to try a Vyatta system. >> I loathe the idea of managing a *nix distro on a router (which is why we >> use RouterOS now). Apparently I've had too much Tik-aid, because I had >> completely forgotten about Vyatta and similar options. >> >> I have a SuperMicro 5015A-H (Atom 330 dual-core) coming in tomorrow. >> I'm going to try RouterOS and Vyatta and see how BGP responds on each >> with a single feed. If anyone else has an x86-based distro they'd like >> to see performance on, let me know. >> >> And thanks for all the responses. The information has been very >> helpful. Unfortunately, the conclusion I came to is "I have no idea >> what I'm going to do." Cisco = $$$ and MikroTik = coin flip. Hopefully >> Vyatta lands somewhere in the middle. >> >> Thanks, >> >> -Kristian >> >> >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >> http://signup.wispa.org/ >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org >> >> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >> >> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
