mikrotik core router to do direct routing and switching for servers
- Thread starter uberguru
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i agree with 2 x devices yup am good, challenge to make just 1 x device
but yeah will decide which route to take
i have a very good question
a router like this one MikroTik is known to be a router but why does it that many ports if it is not meant for switching? I get confused what switching is sometimes because if you connect devices to those ports, wont there be switching or traffic moving around?
Another question is what exactly will go wrong using that router as one single device for servers in a colocation for example? servers wont be able to communicate with each other because it is a router and not a switch?
yeah seriously looking at that, i might go with it for a start and see how things go
The difference between a router and a switch is that a router has to actively do something to route traffic around to various hosts, and a switch has to switch packets between ports. Routing is generally done in software, Switching is generally done in hardware. If you have low-end hardware and try to do switching in software, it will be slow, limited in options or both, especially at higher speeds (bandwidth and packet count).
Personally I don't like MikroTik (I don't like the software) but I think you made a good choice, both devices seem to be solid options for the work that they need to do for you
As a bonus, if you ever need to upgrade routing capabilities or switching capabilities, you can do that in smaller parts.
Personally I don't like MikroTik (I don't like the software) but I think you made a good choice, both devices seem to be solid options for the work that they need to do for you
As a bonus, if you ever need to upgrade routing capabilities or switching capabilities, you can do that in smaller parts.A lot of mid to high end routers have fairly high port counts to support a lot of configurations that would not necessarily apply to home or small office/business use (routing to physically separate networks with their own switching cores; multiple ingress/egress links)
As far as switching on routers, some have actual switching ASICs and some do not, so when you bond multiple ports into a virtual switch, it's hitting the CPU with a massive penalty if it doesn't have that extra hardware. I would expect anything in this bracket to have some sort of ASIC or accelerator for virtual switching. Most switches that can do routing may not have the full suite of routing tools/protocols or have them behind a license that makes buying a dedicated router a more attractive option, if one does not need the port density that switches can offer. Switches that can route often have less RAM than you might find in a router that's expected to handle full BGP tables from multiple peers.
The whitebox switches running SoNIC or other SDN OSs blur the line on this quite a bit, since they often have quite a bit of RAM and fairly powerful CPUs, alongside things like the Trident II switching ASIC.
Yup i agree, so i have deiced to go 1 router + 1 switch setup, that way i get them to do their jobs rightThe difference between a router and a switch is that a router has to actively do something to route traffic around to various hosts, and a switch has to switch packets between ports. Routing is generally done in software, Switching is generally done in hardware. If you have low-end hardware and try to do switching in software, it will be slow, limited in options or both, especially at higher speeds (bandwidth and packet count).
Personally I don't like MikroTik (I don't like the software) but I think you made a good choice, both devices seem to be solid options for the work that they need to do for you
And true, easier to upgrade the networking stack, i can upgrade just router only or just switch only
What don't you like about mikrotik?