Brocade MLX Feedback
We are looking at Brocade MLX routers to act as Internet edge routers. They will initially handle two to four full tables, plus peering on an IX. The price is certainly attractive. We are coming from Cisco 7600 series devices. Can anyone comment about their use of them? Are you happy with them? Any gotchas? Particularly we are interested in convergence time to full FIB population. Thanks, Graham Johnston Network Planner Westman Communications Group 204.717.2829 johnstong@westmancom.com<mailto:johnstong@westmancom.com> P think green; don't print this email.
These are great routers. I used the MLX16s in the same capacity, before the newer model MLXe with upgraded management card specs. Should work just fine for that. Thank you, Jordan Medlen Network Engineer Bisk Education, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-bounces@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Graham Johnston Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 2:10 PM To: 'nanog@nanog.org' Subject: Brocade MLX Feedback We are looking at Brocade MLX routers to act as Internet edge routers. They will initially handle two to four full tables, plus peering on an IX. The price is certainly attractive. We are coming from Cisco 7600 series devices. Can anyone comment about their use of them? Are you happy with them? Any gotchas? Particularly we are interested in convergence time to full FIB population. Thanks, Graham Johnston Network Planner Westman Communications Group 204.717.2829 johnstong@westmancom.com<mailto:johnstong@westmancom.com> P think green; don't print this email.
Hi Graham, Do you have any special features you need? MLX-e's are great and fulfill most standard environments fine. Full table convergence time is pretty fast on MLX-e's. Be sure to pick the right modules, switch fabrics and management blades (or contact a partner to do it for you) when you go for a mlx-e. You may want to consider the CER-RT (fixed 1U box) if you dont need a modular chassis. On 14 January 2015 at 20:10, Graham Johnston <johnstong@westmancom.com> wrote:
We are looking at Brocade MLX routers to act as Internet edge routers. They will initially handle two to four full tables, plus peering on an IX. The price is certainly attractive. We are coming from Cisco 7600 series devices. Can anyone comment about their use of them? Are you happy with them? Any gotchas? Particularly we are interested in convergence time to full FIB population.
Thanks, Graham Johnston Network Planner Westman Communications Group 204.717.2829 johnstong@westmancom.com<mailto:johnstong@westmancom.com> P think green; don't print this email.
-- Wouter Prins wp@null0.nl
Hi, the devices are good. Just read up about gen 1, gen1.1 and gen 2 modules in regard to backplane mode. Afaik Gen1 Modules are discontinued now so all modules should work in turbo mode. I don't know which cam profile is the current default so that needs repartitioning and default values adjusted if you run full table IPv4. SNMP for IPv6 BGP neighbors is still missing in software version 5.6 so monitoring these sessions is not possible. Best regards Karsten 2015-01-14 20:10 GMT+01:00 Graham Johnston <johnstong@westmancom.com>:
We are looking at Brocade MLX routers to act as Internet edge routers. They will initially handle two to four full tables, plus peering on an IX. The price is certainly attractive. We are coming from Cisco 7600 series devices. Can anyone comment about their use of them? Are you happy with them? Any gotchas? Particularly we are interested in convergence time to full FIB population.
Thanks, Graham Johnston Network Planner Westman Communications Group 204.717.2829 johnstong@westmancom.com<mailto:johnstong@westmancom.com> P think green; don't print this email.
Graham, We have several Brocades - including XMR, CER, and CES devices. Their convergence is excellent, even with several full v4 and v6 tables, and was much faster than other platforms (I'm looking at you MXs...). In terms of TCAM and convergence, best bang for the buck as they say. One 'gotcha' we discovered: Brocade does not have, as per our last discussion with them, BGP FlowSpec on the road map. That was a problem for us, but YMMV. Cheers, Jeff On 1/14/2015 1:10 PM, Graham Johnston wrote:
We are looking at Brocade MLX routers to act as Internet edge routers. They will initially handle two to four full tables, plus peering on an IX. The price is certainly attractive. We are coming from Cisco 7600 series devices. Can anyone comment about their use of them? Are you happy with them? Any gotchas? Particularly we are interested in convergence time to full FIB population.
Thanks, Graham Johnston Network Planner Westman Communications Group 204.717.2829 johnstong@westmancom.com<mailto:johnstong@westmancom.com> P think green; don't print this email.
-- Jeff Sorrels Network Administrator KanREN, Inc jlsorrels@kanren.net 785-856-9820, #2
Hi, I've been running NetIron (MLXe + CER-RT) for quite some time, mostly happy with the products. Of course, there are always some unforseen / silly / nasty things that still turn one's mind upside down. What we noticed so far : - ISSU / hitless protocols upgrades : we have been pounding them to get it right, an RFE has been submitted for quite some time now but it's not there yet, - Support of route reflection for VPLS auto discovery : same as above, - Adding packet capture (PCAP) capabilities : newly submitted RFE, - Adding BGP flowspec support : same as above, Also, BFD is always a little sensitive when the routers' CPU spike even if it's supported in hardware. All in all, and from a price/performance perspective, I would still recommend them if they match your business case (especially CER-RT for small colo / IP transit / IXP PEs and/or BGP route reflection). HTH. 2015-01-14 21:17 GMT+01:00 Jeff Sorrels <jlsorrels@kanren.net>:
Graham,
We have several Brocades - including XMR, CER, and CES devices. Their convergence is excellent, even with several full v4 and v6 tables, and was much faster than other platforms (I'm looking at you MXs...). In terms of TCAM and convergence, best bang for the buck as they say.
One 'gotcha' we discovered: Brocade does not have, as per our last discussion with them, BGP FlowSpec on the road map. That was a problem for us, but YMMV.
Cheers, Jeff
On 1/14/2015 1:10 PM, Graham Johnston wrote:
We are looking at Brocade MLX routers to act as Internet edge routers. They will initially handle two to four full tables, plus peering on an IX. The price is certainly attractive. We are coming from Cisco 7600 series devices. Can anyone comment about their use of them? Are you happy with them? Any gotchas? Particularly we are interested in convergence time to full FIB population.
Thanks, Graham Johnston Network Planner Westman Communications Group 204.717.2829 johnstong@westmancom.com<mailto:johnstong@westmancom.com> P think green; don't print this email.
-- Jeff Sorrels Network Administrator KanREN, Inc jlsorrels@kanren.net 785-856-9820, #2
-- Youssef BENGELLOUN-ZAHR
I got a few CERs and 7600's You will not notice the CPU lag anymore like in the 7600's Extremely fast and puts the 7600's to shame -----Original Message----- From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-bounces@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Graham Johnston Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 2:10 PM To: 'nanog@nanog.org' Subject: Brocade MLX Feedback We are looking at Brocade MLX routers to act as Internet edge routers. They will initially handle two to four full tables, plus peering on an IX. The price is certainly attractive. We are coming from Cisco 7600 series devices. Can anyone comment about their use of them? Are you happy with them? Any gotchas? Particularly we are interested in convergence time to full FIB population. Thanks, Graham Johnston Network Planner Westman Communications Group 204.717.2829 johnstong@westmancom.com<mailto:johnstong@westmancom.com> P think green; don't print this email.
participants (7)
-
Graham Johnston -
Jeff Sorrels -
Jordan Medlen -
Karsten Elfenbein -
Romeo Czumbil -
Wouter Prins -
Youssef Bengelloun-Zahr