Just received an RB5009 and while the hardware looks good and it seems well made, I am surprised to find that it does not really appear to have a properly supported, complete, stable version of RouterOS.
It appears to require RouterOS 7, which is not - as a series - stable. It's shipped with a 7.0.5 "stable". Checking for stable updates suggests 6.49. However, apparently this doesn't work, and Mikrotik support says it can only be updated to higher versions of 7, in particular 7.1rc4 (now 5) - RB5009 support - MikroTik.
In other words, the only upgrade path from the built-in version (presumably, even in the case of security issues) is onto a non-stable version. The download page for RouterOS doesn't even mention the RB5009.
It's also worth pointing out that the built-in version does not include additional packages or Dude server. There is, as far as I can see, no way of running Dude on this router at this point in time, as there is no Dude package even for 7.1rc4.
It rather looks like Mikrotik started making the hardware which is dependent on RouterOS 7 (I'm guessing due to requiring a modern kernel for hardware support), but then the RouterOS 7 release process slipped. So, rather than holding the hardware until the software was ready, they appear to have slapped a "stable" label on an early v7 and shipped - without any intent of properly supporting it other than by pushing people onto the development channel. Which, if it is the case, is pretty shoddy.
Just wanted to flag this for anyone considering purchasing - if you prefer running stable software, you might want to hold off a little while until there's a proper v7 release and it's settled down.
It appears to require RouterOS 7, which is not - as a series - stable. It's shipped with a 7.0.5 "stable". Checking for stable updates suggests 6.49. However, apparently this doesn't work, and Mikrotik support says it can only be updated to higher versions of 7, in particular 7.1rc4 (now 5) - RB5009 support - MikroTik.
In other words, the only upgrade path from the built-in version (presumably, even in the case of security issues) is onto a non-stable version. The download page for RouterOS doesn't even mention the RB5009.
It's also worth pointing out that the built-in version does not include additional packages or Dude server. There is, as far as I can see, no way of running Dude on this router at this point in time, as there is no Dude package even for 7.1rc4.
It rather looks like Mikrotik started making the hardware which is dependent on RouterOS 7 (I'm guessing due to requiring a modern kernel for hardware support), but then the RouterOS 7 release process slipped. So, rather than holding the hardware until the software was ready, they appear to have slapped a "stable" label on an early v7 and shipped - without any intent of properly supporting it other than by pushing people onto the development channel. Which, if it is the case, is pretty shoddy.
Just wanted to flag this for anyone considering purchasing - if you prefer running stable software, you might want to hold off a little while until there's a proper v7 release and it's settled down.
