I haven't seen much traffic on this list about Mikrotik or RouterOS,
but I thought it was worth a shot as a last ditch effort to get this
going.
Does anyone know of a solution to connect a POS OC-3 to a router
running Mikrotik's RouterOS? I have searched google extensively with
varying phrases and nothing helpful comes out of it.
Alan Bryant wrote:
I haven't seen much traffic on this list about Mikrotik or RouterOS,
but I thought it was worth a shot as a last ditch effort to get this
going.Does anyone know of a solution to connect a POS OC-3 to a router
running Mikrotik's RouterOS? I have searched google extensively with
varying phrases and nothing helpful comes out of it.
Mikrotik is great at lower end stuff where you have ethernet interfaces. Real POS OC-3 however, ain't in it's repertory and would not be what I would choose to route at those interfaces/speeds. However, if you must 'connect mikrotik to oc-3', you might as well find yourself a cisco router of some kind with a PA-POS-OC3 card and use it as a simple modem. Of course, for the price, you might as well just let the cisco do what you're planning on doing with the Mikrotik and get orders of magnitude of functionality and stability out of it in the process.
That's what I was going to say. 
Once you reach SONET land you're no longer playing in the "everything is
Ethernet" playground that they specializes in. I would say that you've
outgrown your Mikrotik routers if you need SONET interfaces and it's
time to forklift into a Cisco or Juniper.
~Seth
Thanks for the responses guys. Unfortunately, we just don't have it in
the budget for Cisco or Juniper hardware at this time. I was hoping
there would be something available for Mikrotik, but I pretty much
already knew the answer.
While I know a lot of you guys would recommend Cisco or Juniper over
anything else, and I also know that you guys probably think if you're
needing an OC-3, it's time to invest in the big boys. However, I'm not
the one who makes the final say on purchases. So, with all that being
said, is there anyone who has any thoughts on ImageStream's products?
They have a POS OC-3 card, and the price appears to be considerably
lower for the router anyway, not necessarily the card, though.
I'm just trying to see what options there are and make the decision
off of that. If Cisco or Juniper is the only way, then so be it. I
just want to be sure.
Alan Bryant wrote:
I'm just trying to see what options there are and make the decision
off of that. If Cisco or Juniper is the only way, then so be it. I
just want to be sure.
The real issue is that these legacy telco interfaces are just expensive, straight up, and being forced to use these specialized interfaces for your IP connectivity just drives your costs up for no real gain. I bet what you would really love is just a simple ethernet handoff but of course no provider in your area probabbly makes that available. So you get collared into these expensive interfaces that force you to just buy more when you need more connectivity, as opposed to ethernet which could easilly grow to 1000mbps without needing $$$ I/O cards every 155mbps along the way (and loop charges and hassle and pain, etc). On the good news front, there's lots of capable cisco hardware out there you can take multiple interfaces types on, for pretty cheap especially if you look at "refurbished" gear. Before you run off and make a purchase decision, most of these cisco resellers can really help you decide on the right platform (thats their value add), so if you think you might wind up with an OC3 and 8t1s for example they can help you figure out what NPE (cpu) you need and ram and ios version and such.
Mikrotik is great at lower end stuff where you have ethernet
interfaces.
> Real POS OC-3 however, ain't in it's repertory and would not
be what I
> would choose to route at those interfaces/speeds.
While I agree that Mikrotik and OC-3 don't go together, I don't
know why
you would suppose that it can't route at that speed. It's a
Linux
kernel and given the right hardware, can easily handle that much
speed.
> However, if you must
> 'connect mikrotik to oc-3', you might as well find yourself a
cisco
> router of some kind with a PA-POS-OC3 card and use it as a
simple modem.
Or ImageStream for about 1/2 (or better) of the price.
> Of course, for the price, you might as well just let the cisco
do what
> you're planning on doing with the Mikrotik and get orders of
magnitude
> of functionality and stability out of it in the process.
More functionality from a Cisco? You MUST be joking. MT (and
ImageStream for that matter) can do WAY more than Cisco for a
fraction
of the price. Both will offer a much better firewall option,
infinitely
better QOS capability and is easily as good with dynamic routing
(BGP,
OSPF, etc.). What's more, you can have a spare on the shelf and
STILL
not spend as much money as you would for a Cisco device.
I really wouldn't use the word legacy to describe SONET and OC-3's.
-Scott
It's around 25 years old (work started in 1985, first standards
published in 1988) and we now have a ratified 100G Ethernet standard.
Much of it is being used to transport subrate links, some of
which are derived from even older transport standards.
If not legacy, what word WOULD you use?
--msa
I'd start calling it legacy when it's as easy to order from your telco
as X.25 would be. I still see Ethernet circuits delivered via OC-3/STM-1
today with an Overture. If you're throwing OC-3 into the legacy bin you
might as well call OC-192 and OC-768 legacy as well. Big deal if the
standard is old, apparently it's still useful enough that there isn't a
replacement yet.
~Seth
Ok, scenario time.
I've found a 7206VXR\NPE-G1 w/ 256MB RAM.
It has the 3 onboard GigE ports and a PA-POS-1OC3 card in it that
should be fine for our OC-3 connection.
We need a total of 5 Ethernet ports, not necessarily all GigE. I found
this card, PA-2FE-TX that would give us 2 10/100 ports. Everything
that I have seen says this should work with the above router. Can
anyone confirm this for me?
We plan on doing BGP on the WAN side and BGP or OSPF on the LAN side.
I'm assuming that I will need to upgrade the RAM on this router. Would
I need to upgrade it all the way to the 1GB that it can take? From
what i can tell it is not that expensive for the RAM, so we might as
well.
Will the following IOS version allow us to do all of the above?
Cisco IOS Software, 7200 Software (C7200-IS-M), Version 12.4(12),
RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
I'm finding it difficult to figure out the IOS versions and what is
compatible from Cisco's website. Is this the highest IOS that this
router can run?
Thank you all for all the incredible help. Hopefully I will be able to
repay the community at some point.
Do you plan on getting full BGP routes from your upstream? If so, go with 1Gb of ram on the NPE G1.
I believe that IOS 12.4.25c is the latest version for the 7200VXR series. It's stable, been running it for quite some time. Depending on what you will be doing with this router, will depend on what feature set you'll want. I typically use the Service Provider IOS with IPSEC, 3DES and Lawful Intercept.
I believe that IOS 12.4.25c is the latest version for the 7200VXR
series. It's stable, been running it for quite some time. Depending
on
what you will be doing with this router, will depend on what feature
set
you'll want. I typically use the Service Provider IOS with IPSEC, 3DES
and Lawful Intercept.>
> We plan on doing BGP on the WAN side and BGP or OSPF on the LAN side.
> I'm assuming that I will need to upgrade the RAM on this router.
Would
The 15.0 series is available for the 7200VXR. However, unless I'm missing
something, note that the Service Provider version doesn't have OSPFv3 for
IPv6. You have to go with the Advanced IP series for that.
Ray
Legacy (adj.): A pejorative term used in the computer industry meaning "it
works".
- Matt
12.4 Service provider has IPv6 and OSPFv3.
Butch Evans wrote:
More functionality from a Cisco? You MUST be joking. MT (and
ImageStream for that matter) can do WAY more than Cisco for a
fraction
of the price. Both will offer a much better firewall option,
infinitely
better QOS capability and is easily as good with dynamic routing
(BGP,
OSPF, etc.). What's more, you can have a spare on the shelf and
STILL
not spend as much money as you would for a Cisco device.
Yeah, that's what the brochure says anyways, but I don't know of many highly scaled networks using 'mikrotic' and some of the reasons come down to management, software stability and a readily available pool of knowledgeable admins ready to build the next google with it. Don't get me wrong - I believe in linux and am a network operator as well as embedded systems software developer who makes network appliances with it (linux) that do all of the above for use in my network of a 1000+ subscribers, and I sleep very well at night. However, that sleep comes with the price of having to be a linux guru in order to do most network config operations, and in the 8 years I have been eating my own dog food and running in my network now, I've not encountered many who I could successfully pass off network admin duties too for these boxes (quagga, iproute2, ebtables, iptables for instance) and centralized management and configuration control is non-existent. These commercial systems you scoff at also support advanced and important features such as online insertion/removal - which lets you take a card like a gigE switch module, or a fiber/sonet interface, or a ds3, and just plug it in and immediately without a reboot or driver searching/updating/missing dance, start working. Another important difference is that these commercial units are NOT hosts and don't have silly host/desktop type stuff going on within them, like periodic flash writes, file systems filling with junk that causes system hangs, or hundeds of other possible reasons and causes that create 'system down' on host type machines that DON'T affect the commercial boxes, and contribute (in theory anyways) to the continued prospect of very long uptimes and reliable operation. Also basic hardware features like dual and triple redundant power supplies, good fans and overall rugged design that further contribute to long lives (again in theory), that PC/x86 and other COTS SBC type hardware does not have.
So in summary, for small jobs, yeah you're right, but once your jobs aren't small anymore and you need more of these features or business continuity becomes really critical, these commercial solutions are far more likely to take you there today.
$0.02
Mike-
I really wouldn't use the word legacy to describe SONET and OC-3's.
If not legacy, what word WOULD you use?
widely deployed and used, and if your device can't deal then it's no
deal.
i am not overly fond of sonet, but i can't always choose the media over
which i have to run packets.
randy
The 15.0 series is available for the 7200VXR. However, unless I'm missing
something, note that the Service Provider version doesn't have OSPFv3 for
IPv6.
is-is
The word "legacy" is applied to any product that has actually shipped