Mikrotik ‎CRS328-24P-4S+RM

[whiskytangofoxconn]

I'm thinking about jumping ship from Cisco to MikroTik.

Looking for feedback, thoughts, opinions, etc. from people with Cisco experience who have used MT. Saying I have a

backgrounds who have used MT gear. I can't justify spending $5k on Cisco (which would be extremely overkill for our needs) when I can accomplish the same for literally 1/10th of the price ($500). I'm looking at the MikroTik CRS328-24P-4S+RM switch for PoE. Two of the SFP+ ports would go to PfSense, one would go to the NAS and the fourth to the MT CRS305-1G-4S+IN (which we have owned for a while) for ESXi and the backup/archive NAS.


The CRS328-24P-4S+RM switch would be used for PoE and L2 switching only. No L3 routing functions. My new PfSense hardware is an i5-8400t (6c/6t cpu) with 16gb ram which may not get me 10G routing --but all I really need is 1.25 or maybe 2.5gbe, not even 5gbe.

Any thoughts? Am I going to hate myself by going MT? Any feedback on the Netgear 12-port XS712Tv2 switch? (10-port 10gbe rj45, 4-ports combo sfp+/rj45)

Thanks.

 

[Dave Corder]

I use couple of the non-PoE models: a CSS326-24G-2S+ in my office, and I just bought a CSS610-8G-2S+IN for my living room/home theater setup. No complaints at this time - they don't have to do much other than manage some VLANs (and uplink to my core switch, an ICX6610-48P), and for that they do just fine for me. I really like that they're both fanless.

I did previously have serious issues with IGMP snooping on the CS326 a couple years ago and IIRC there were several firmware updates that attempted to fix the issue but never quite got it right. I'm not sure if recent firmware updates have finally fixed that issue or not, though, as I no longer have any IPTV services at my home (I ended up just isolating my two IPTV STBs on a separate VLAN so as not to flood my main VLAN with the multicast traffic).

 

[whiskytangofoxconn]

I use couple of the non-PoE models: a CSS326-24G-2S+ in my office, and I just bought a CSS610-8G-2S+IN for my living room/home theater setup. No complaints at this time - they don't have to do much other than manage some VLANs (and uplink to my core switch, an ICX6610-48P), and for that they do just fine for me. I really like that they're both fanless.

I did previously have serious issues with IGMP snooping on the CS326 a couple years ago and IIRC there were several firmware updates that attempted to fix the issue but never quite got it right. I'm not sure if recent firmware updates have finally fixed that issue or not, though, as I no longer have any IPTV services at my home (I ended up just isolating my two IPTV STBs on a separate VLAN so as not to flood my main VLAN with the multicast traffic).

Thanks that's a help. It's not great news but good feedback so thanks. The devices on that switch would be most of our house: 6-8 (cheap Chinese) PoE IP cameras, WAP's (and therefore firestick TV, other related media stuff, etc.), IoT devices/hubs, etc. The cameras are terrible about spamming garbage all over the network but I should probably have all that stuff on their own vlans anyway. (I made the vlans, then laziness.)

As long as MT isn't too painful to manage then I guess I'll bite the bullet and do it. My setup would be ISP >> pfSense >> CRS328-24P-4S+RM. I could get away with the CRS328-24P-4S+RM being the house/core switch with the little MT 4-port SFP+ switch for ESXi and NAS connectivity. I'm willing to accept "get what you pay for" understanding that it's not really a L3 switch and that management might not always be intuitive or easy, but if I'm always going to be having problems with igmp, qos, udp multicast, etc. then it might be a deal breaker.

Thanks.

 

[j_h_o]

Just curious, did you consider a used Brocade? What are your requirements, exactly?
ICX6450-24P or something newer like ICX7450-24P if you want more 40Gbps or 10Gbps uplinks via modules.

Mikrotik: I had lots of firmware issues, got tired of waiting or reapplying updates. Got rid of my switches.
Netgear: WebUI is limiting/frustrating at times, but gets the job done. I did some of these recently where I needed N-BaseT PoE and didn't want to pay for brand-new Brocade gear to get this.

 

[whiskytangofoxconn]

Just curious, did you consider a used Brocade? What are your requirements, exactly?
ICX6450-24P or something newer like ICX7450-24P if you want more 40Gbps or 10Gbps uplinks via modules.

Mikrotik: I had lots of firmware issues, got tired of waiting or reapplying updates. Got rid of my switches.
Netgear: WebUI is limiting/frustrating at times, but gets the job done. I did some of these recently where I needed N-BaseT PoE and didn't want to pay for brand-new Brocade gear to get this.

Brocade: No I haven't considered it. Should I?
Requirements: I honestly don't know what my requirements are. I'm not saying that to be witty, just being honest that I've never done 10gbe before. In my racks I've always had infiniband so I don't have a ton of 10gbe experience. I currently have pfsense as a router-on-a-stick with a little Cisco SG300-10 L3 switch in L3 mode as the top/core switch. Our internet connection is 300/300 and the home is wired with cat5e. I wired it and I ran smurf tubes so running 6a/7/8 or fiber is no big deal.

Everything is either single gigabit or gigabit LACP links. I don't need 10gbe. I don't even need 2.5gbe. I'm maxing out the gigabit connection (actually about 800mbps) a couple times per day. Being able to push 1.25gbe would probably solve the bottleneck and save me about 30-ish minutes every time I run that job. But, if I'm maxing out gigabit and saying 2.5GbE would fix it, then at a minimum I should be looking at 5GbE and since 2.5 and 5 are cat5e band aids, just go 10gbe.

I don't need to internally route more than maybe 400mbps (through pfsense). Outbound through pfsense to wan, maybe 25-30mbps. 50 max. That said, my new pfsense hardware is an i5-8400t with 16gb ddr4 so should be plenty for the short term. I was looking to mirror my same setup with faster/bigger hardware: 10gbe, bigger/faster pfsense router-on-a-stick, bigger/faster core/top L3 10gbe switch and then instead of the small Cisco SG300-10 switches, get something in the 24port PoE range to deal with most of the house, the WAP's and IP cameras on one switch.

I have a Cisco background so it would be nice to stay Cisco, but again, for the prices it's just not worth it. I want a Cisco CBS350-24MGP-4X-NA or CBS350-24NGP-4X-NA in a little smaller chassis and for $1,000 or less. I think it's nuts to pay ~$5k for switch hardware but it seems that there is no alternative. The two Cisco switches I listed are ~$2k each and then I'd probably need 1-2 more with 10gbe ports so in the end it would be closer to $5k all-in.

I've never used MT so zero experience. I bought the little 4-port sfp+ switch a few months ago, factory reset it, saw that it looked like a confusing mess when I logged into it and it's sat there (powered on via PoE) since being unused. The netgear was just something I had found listed on Amazon warehouse open-box but looks like someone bought it or the listing is gone. If I were to pay $1,000 for a switch I'd rather have it be a Cisco brand, not a Netgear.

Does that explain the requirements? The only other requirement is heat and size. This needs to go in my front hall coat closet so as shallow depth as possible and somewhat cool.