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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Zebra/linux device production networking?
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Nick Burke wrote: > How many of you have actually use(d) Zebra/Linux as a routing device > (core and/or regional, I'd be interested in both) in a production (read: > 99.999% required, hsrp, bgp, dot1q, other goodies) environment? Sure - I've done this before. We ran 7200s on the border (DS-3 interfaces for Linux didn't make sense at the time) and Linux boxes running all these features (plus some others) on the core. Worked flawlessly and the only downtime encountered over the two years it was running was during failover which took <5sec. Of course, the time invested in building it totally offset any savings, but that particular employer considered your time to be 'free', even though you could be billing instead, but that's a whole other argument. However, if I've got a Cisco router, in my city I can easily find 20 people in half an hour who I'd trust to get into my gear and work on it. I'd find another 50 if I went out 200miles. Linux on the other hand - Maybe three, including me. State wide, probably not even 20. I'm not talking RHCE people - I'm talking about people who can really troubleshoot kernel networking issues, device driver problems and so forth. Not easily accessible (or cheap) resources. Right now I've got a pair of Linux boxes (Debian based, 2.6 kernels) running Quagga (Zebra fork - I'd recommend it over Zebra) for BGP and OSPF, pulling two full loads. HSRP is provided with LinuxVirtualServer (aka heartbeat) and I'm doing dot1q with STP. No PVST support on Linux though. It all just works. Had a memory problem on one box, which killed it, but I've had that on plenty of Cisco gear too. None of the problems have really been 'Linux' related. 99% of them are user related, in that, I set an IP wrong, or I screw up a netmask - Usual kind of junk. Basically, if you're not comfortable with the idea of it, you're not comfortable supporting it. It'll cost leaps and bounds more supporting the environment compared to Cisco hardware. I have specific Linux expertise and experience which makes me go "I can do that on Linux" and have it work without problems, but also coming from a Cisco background I know where the line between being able to prove a point and making something that is manageable comes into play. Right now we're looking at building out a small POP in another building. I'm seriously considering a pair of Linux boxes running Quagga rather than 7200s that we'd normally go with. I can easily dump 3+ full loads on them, plus I can get gig connections on PCIe without having to fork out 10 grand on a NPE-G1. Am I going to do it? No idea. Technically, there is no issue. If I drop dead the day after it's built and someone new has to maintain it, then that's a potential problem. David -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFEhgdATIgPQWnLowkRAjPvAKDSoK/9kAZNjjQrix5aoMhM0v5fvACg7ilj 0fJYz8JLrH7iTjP49+XgmvE= =RAkO -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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