Messages in this thread | | | From | "George Bonser" <> | Subject | RE: Linux 2.4 as a router, when is it appropriate? | Date | Fri, 3 May 2002 10:51:01 -0700 |
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I have used Linux/Zebra in production as a route reflector. That machine was simply a BGP peer of the others and not directly in the traffic path. That configuration had several commercial border routers (actually L2/3 switches) collecting full Internet routes from their upstream peers. These border routers fed their routing table via BGP to the Linux route reflector. The Linux/Zebra box aggregated the table, applied various policy to the routes received, and sent the resulting table on to the core routers.
The reason for using Linux in this case was the large amount of memory required for handling all the peers. Zebra handled it just fine and you can just keep adding RAM to a PC. To get the same capability in a commercial unit you have to get some very expensive iron. This allowed the border units to be relatively inexpensive with only enough RAM to handle 1 Internet peer with full routes and kept the core router CPU free to handle traffic rather than process routes so it could also be a lower cost unit than would otherwise be required.
The unit was in production for over a year without a single reboot.
> -----Original Message----- > From: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org > [mailto:linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org]On Behalf Of > Russell Leighton > Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 6:25 AM > To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > Subject: Linux 2.4 as a router, when is it appropriate? > > > > Could someone please tell me (or refer me to docs) on when > using the Linux on PC hardware as a router is an appropriate > solution and when one should consider a "real" router (e.g., Cisco)? > > I have heard that performance wise, if you have a fast CPU, > much memory and good NICs that Linux can be as good > all but the high end routers. Are there important missing > features or realiability issues that make using Linux not > suitable for "enterprise" use? > > Thanks. > > Russ > > > > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe > linux-kernel" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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