Hardware redundancy, wire speed packet forwarding, support for more Interface types, and more widely tested & stable software.
I'll use a MikroTik, Linux, or BSD box as an aggregation router any day; terminate some VLANs, act as an MPLS CE, perform QoS marking, and participate in an OSPF area. Probably nothing more. The level of hardware redundancy & wire-speed forwarding isn't there for my needs. If you're just knocking IOS, I realize it isn't the wave of the future. Cisco does too & has developed IOS XR. Linux, MikroTik, and I'm sure Vyatta & ImageStream are great platforms. They compete well with Cisco in some areas...others not so much. Use what's appropriate. -- Blake Covarrubias On Nov 3, 2010, at 8:04, "Jeff Broadwick - Lists" <jeffl...@att.net> wrote: > I’m curious Travis…not looking for an argument. > > > > What specifically do you think is superior in IOS (Unix-based originally) to > a hardened, purpose-built Linux distro (us, Mikrotik, Vyatta, whatever)? > > > > Regards, > > > > Jeff > > ImageStream > > 800-813-5123 x106 > > > > From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On > Behalf Of Travis Johnson > Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 11:37 PM > To: WISPA General List > Subject: Re: [WISPA] Full BGP on RouterOS > > > > 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! 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