On Thu, 23 May 2002, Daryl G. Jurbala wrote:
And that's MY real question. Who has actually done this in a production environment that can speak with some real experience on the topic? What can you replace with a linux box to route and run BGP for you in real life? A 7200? Bigger.
I ran a 100% PC router network for almost 2 years. I used them from everything from edge aggregation to core routers. You can make BGP do whatever you want in real life on a PC. I used modified GateD code and after some work became very happy with it.
I don't have the facilities to try these things out for real, and frankly would be worried about the uptime and finding the RIGHT PC hardware that isn't complete junk.
Yes, you need to build your own.
So I guess it's really two questions: what is a PC capable of replacing as far as throughput goes, and just how reliable can a clone (or pick your manufacturer) be compared to a unit that was designed by electronic engineers to function as a 24x7 mission critical box?
When you want to push over 30 meg you are better off looking at something other then a x86 to route packets.
<> Nathan Stratton CTO, Exario Networks, Inc. nathan at robotics.net nathan at exario.net http://www.robotics.net http://www.exario.net