[AusNOG] Mikrotik routers in HA environments

[Darren Moss]

Thanks everyone for the feedback and input on this.

I won’t push ahead with Mikrotik for this new deployment, however I have ordered a pair of Cloud Routers to run up in our test environment with a view to doing something down the track.

Cheers


Darren.

From: AusNOG [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of Philip Loenneker
Sent: Thursday, 28 June 2018 3:49 PM
To: Ausnog
Subject: Re: [AusNOG] Mikrotik routers in HA environments

I can also vouch for VRRP working really well on Mikrotik gear.

For those that are concerned about the BGP processing time, consider the virtual version, the CHR. The licenses are dirt cheap ($250 USD for a perpetual license that allows unlimited throughput), and because the Mikrotik BGP process is single-threaded, the higher clock speed you can throw at it compared to the Tilera chipset makes a huge difference. You also remove some concerns about hardware failure, as long as you have a resilient hypervisor platform.

Take a look at this recent Mikrotik User Meeting Presentation where they compare BGP and routing performance for the CHR on different hypervisors:
https://youtu.be/xcgdGA1W_0o
The slides are here, including the comparison tables:
https://mum.mikrotik.com/presentations/EU18/presentation_5188_1524562405.pdf


From: AusNOG [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of Alex Samad
Sent: Thursday, 28 June 2018 3:01 PM
To: Mike Everest <mike at duxtel.com>
Cc: Ausnog <ausnog at lists.ausnog.net>
Subject: Re: [AusNOG] Mikrotik routers in HA environments

Hi

Like them cheap and have been reliable - noted about the power supplies.

I have 4 upstream full feeds . takes a very very long time to process.

also the ccr's have a limitation not really mention 1 tcp stream can only go 1Gbs, the box can do more, its around the driver and the cpu setup - this is a long long wish list request.


But I like them..  did i mean they are cheap :)






On 26 June 2018 at 13:08, Mike Everest <mike at duxtel.com<mailto:mike at duxtel.com>> wrote:
Darren,

As others have already confirmed, RouterOS is suitable for that kind of application, but since you mentioned ‘Cisco’, I wanted to point out a very significant difference from what you might be used to:  MikroTik do not offer any kind of support contract

Now for some, that may be a good thing ;) but for others, it can constitute what is essentially a total deal breaker.  The reason for that is that with a Cisco support contract, if (or perhaps /when/) you encounter a software bug that causes you some serious problem, you a direct channel to the vendor engineering team.  In the MikroTik world, you need to either use your own internal resources or hire a suitable consultant to run full packet level diagnostics, develop repeatability steps and then go through MikroTik level 1 support channels to try to escalate it to their software engineering team.

Please don’t take this as encouragement to NOT deploy MikroTik! :-D  As the largest volume MikroTik distribution in our region, of course I think you *should* deploy MT, but only when you are aware of the full ‘TCO’ :-}

As the leading MikroTik vendor in Australia, we also offer engineering support in case your team does need some extra help when things go wrong, and we also have some inside contacts with MikroTik support team to get (sometimes slightly) faster escalation of unusual problems.

I’d be pleased to discuss further in more detail any time, if you’d like to! ;)

Cheers!  Mike Everest.

From: AusNOG [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net<mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net>] On Behalf Of Darren Moss
Sent: Tuesday, 26 June 2018 11:58 AM
To: ausnog at lists.ausnog.net<mailto:ausnog at lists.ausnog.net>
Subject: [AusNOG] Mikrotik routers in HA environments

Hi All,

We are about to deploy a new location, which we normally do with our SOE around Cisco router kit (2 of them for redundancy).

I was talking with another DC customer and they swear by Mikrotik router gear over Cisco.

I’ve played with Mikrotik in a domestic/home fibre connection scenario, but not in a DC environment.

What’s the consensus from others?

Can a pair of Mikrotik routers be configured for a *reliable* HA scenario ?

Happy to chat offlist or share if this is of interest to others.

Cheers


Darren.

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