Hi guys,
So it’s been a while since I’ve been back on these forums. I’ve now reached a new point where I now need to start routing more traffic across my network, rather, I’d like to route traffic faster.
So what I currently have in place, are a pair of Juniper MX5-T’s, they’re great, however for me to utilize the 10Gbe ports, I’m going to have to spend a lot of money on licensing. So that puts it out, I’m now looking at VyOS as a replacement, I considered a standard Linux OS with FRR, but why?
I currently have in place at each DC, a pair of Mikrotik CCR2004-1G-12S+2SX routers, however, as feature packed as the Mikrotik’s are, there are just a few things I don’t like about their methodology, etc. And there are a few niggly things that are kind of bugging me with it. I’d also love to move their usage as my broadband gateways rather than my edge router, seems more useful to have them there, since they can handle Q-in-Q a lot better etc.
So back to VyOS I’m drawn. So, here’s what I’m wanting to build, and recommendations from the community would be awesome!
I’m looking to build a pair of Edge Routers, I currently operate out of 2 separate Data Centers. Let’s just call them DC1 and DC2.
DC1 is the primary location, I have 4 Upstream transit providers, each providing with their full routing tables, around 1,266,000 routes in total are currently loaded. Additionally, DC1 is also connected to 2 local IX’s, and 2 international IX.
All 4 Upstream Transit providers are providing me with a 10Gbps. Local IX connections are 10Gbps, 2 international IX connections are 100Mbps
DC2 is the secondary location, here I have 2 Upstream Transit providers, again full routing table, similar number of routes. Here I also have 1 local IX connection and 2 international IX connections.
Both Upstream Transit provider connections are 10Gbps, local IX connection is 500Mbps, and 2 international IX connections are 100Mbps.
What would you guys recommend I look at, CPU and NIC wise? Obviously server will hopefully run on either a smallish SSD or NVMe drive, and will have 32GB of RAM, just cause, however, I know I’ll need to plan the NIC interfaces. What I was hoping to do, was install 4x Dual Port 10Gbe interface cards, offering a total of 80Gbps throughput. Or a Dual Port 40Gbe NIC with 2x 10Gbe breakout cable, and in both instances, bonding the connections into a single LAG port into the 10Gbe switch, which I’m planning for, in the new year to upgrade the core 10Gbe switches to 40Gbe.
Would love to hear about what others are doing when working with this sort of network traffic.
EDIT: I forgot to add. These routers will be performing pure BGP routing functions only. No NAT or anything fancy. Just BGP peering and traffic engineering.
