[LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[Sudheer Divakaran]

Hi,

I've a local LAN consisting of about 150 machines.  I'm using a Linux 
machine as the gateway machine which inturn connects to two different 
ISPs.  My question is can a Linux based machine match the performance of 
a hardware based routers provided by Cisco,... OR is my decision to go 
for a Linux based solution is a wrong one?.

Is there so much difference between these two solutions?

Can I achieve the same performance using a high end PC and Linux?

 I'm asking this because one guy told me that my decision to go for a 
Linux based solution is a wrong one and it can never match the 
performance of Routers provided by Cisco.

Thanks
Sudheer  
_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/

Re: [LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[Catalin BOIE]

> I've a local LAN consisting of about 150 machines.  I'm using a Linux machine 
> as the gateway machine which inturn connects to two different ISPs.  My 
> question is can a Linux based machine match the performance of a hardware 
> based routers provided by Cisco,... OR is my decision to go for a Linux based 
> solution is a wrong one?.
>
> Is there so much difference between these two solutions?
>
> Can I achieve the same performance using a high end PC and Linux?
>
> I'm asking this because one guy told me that my decision to go for a Linux 
> based solution is a wrong one and it can never match the performance of 
> Routers provided by Cisco.

Go with Linux.
You can always come here and ask a question.

>
> Thanks
> Sudheer  _______________________________________________
> LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
> http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/
>

---
Catalin(ux aka Dino) BOIE
catab at deuroconsult.ro
http://kernel.umbrella.ro/
_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/

RE: [LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[Jeff Green]

 
Hi Sudheer,


		In general the answer is yes - but your situation may be
different and it depends what you want your "router" to do (YMMV).

You need to be prepared to produce a custom kernel / boot image and
Use the appropriate h/w, etc, for equivalent "uptime".

This question has been asked frequently in the Zebra and Quagga lists.

I suggest you consult the list archives for h/w and config

http://www.quagga.net

http://www.zebra.org


					Regards,


-----Original Message-----
From: lartc-admin@mailman.ds9a.nl [mailto:lartc-admin@mailman.ds9a.nl]
On Behalf Of Sudheer Divakaran
Sent: 08 July 2004 12:30
To: lartc@mailman.ds9a.nl
Subject: [LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

Hi,

I've a local LAN consisting of about 150 machines.  I'm using a Linux
machine as the gateway machine which inturn connects to two different
ISPs.  My question is can a Linux based machine match the performance of
a hardware based routers provided by Cisco,... OR is my decision to go
for a Linux based solution is a wrong one?.

Is there so much difference between these two solutions?

Can I achieve the same performance using a high end PC and Linux?

 I'm asking this because one guy told me that my decision to go for a
Linux based solution is a wrong one and it can never match the
performance of Routers provided by Cisco.

Thanks
Sudheer
_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Confidentiality Note: The information contained in this email and
document(s) attached are for the exclusive use of the addressee and may contain confidential, privileged and non-disclosable information. If the recipient of this email is not the addressee, such recipient is strictly prohibited from reading, photocopying, distribution or otherwise using this email or its contents in any way. Please notify the Sapiens (UK) Ltd. Systems Administrator via e-mail immediately at networksupport@sapiens.co.uk, if you have received this email in error.

Disclaimer: The views, opinions and guidelines contained in this confidential e-mail are those of the originating author and may not be representative of Sapiens (UK) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/

Re: [LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[Michael 'Moose' Dinn]

> >I've a local LAN consisting of about 150 machines.  I'm using a Linux 
> >machine as the gateway machine which inturn connects to two different 
> >ISPs.  My question is can a Linux based machine match the performance of a 

How fast is your internet connection? A Pentium 133 will happily run wire
speed for 10M ether, and most places don't have 10M of incoming bandwidth...

for reference, we have a Duron 800 running 3 net connections for a total of
about 10M with virtually no load.


-- 
 Michael 'Moose' Dinn, Twisted Pair Network Consulting Incorporated
 dinn@twistedpair.ca // 902 423 4700 (voice) // support@twistedpair.ca
_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/

Re: [LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[Abraham van der Merwe]

Hi Sudheer                                       >@2004.07.08_13:30:21_+0200

> I've a local LAN consisting of about 150 machines.  I'm using a Linux 
> machine as the gateway machine which inturn connects to two different 
> ISPs.  My question is can a Linux based machine match the performance of 
> a hardware based routers provided by Cisco,... OR is my decision to go 
> for a Linux based solution is a wrong one?.
> 
> Is there so much difference between these two solutions?
> 
> Can I achieve the same performance using a high end PC and Linux?
> 
> I'm asking this because one guy told me that my decision to go for a 
> Linux based solution is a wrong one and it can never match the 
> performance of Routers provided by Cisco.

Unless you're talking upper end Cisco/Juniper hardware even the lowliest PC
nowadays will outperform a Cisco router by an order of magnitude. For the
kind of load you're talking about, any modern Linux PC will handle the load
without breaking a sweat.

The only reason to possibly choose Cisco/Juniper/other commercial solution is

 (a) You need a lot of interfaces (think Cisco 7500)
 (b) You need interfaces which are not [well] supported in Linux (E1/E3, ATM,
     etc)
 (c) Features (e.g. better routing/netflow/qos support)

-- 

Regards
 Abraham

TODAY the Pond!
TOMORROW the World!
                -- Frogs (1972)

___________________________________________________
 Abraham vd Merwe - Frogfoot Networks CC
 1st Floor, Albion Springs, 183 Main Road, Newlands
 Phone: +27 21 689 3876 Cell: +27 82 565 4451
 Http: http://www.frogfoot.net/ Email: abz@frogfoot.net

_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/

RE: [LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[Laurence Arabia]

I spent  a few years developing routers just small parts of them. I cannot 
speak much on protocol implementation. But just as a point most routers you 
buy use vxWorks/PSOS as an embedded OS although most that I know now who can 
afford to do so are moving to embedded linux. They then buy stacks which 
implement protocols these stacks when you go through the source generall 
have BSD,GPL licences in the source.  So understand that most of the sofware 
base has come from open source communities. And I find it to be better 
written cause the source base has matured. The only thing a company adds is 
a warranty.  IOS is a different kettle of fish its very well guarded. But I 
firmly believe if you investigate your HW well you will get the same results 
if not better and with more functionality. Which will also stop router 
companies holding people to ransom because they want there bugs fixed.  
Stick with linux   I suggest.

_________________________________________________________________
It's fast, it's easy and it's free. Get MSN Messenger today! 
http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger

_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/

Re: [LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[Peter Surda]

On Thu, Jul 08, 2004 at 05:00:21PM +0530, Sudheer Divakaran wrote:
> Hi,
Hi.

> I've a local LAN consisting of about 150 machines.  I'm using a Linux
> machine as the gateway machine which inturn connects to two different ISPs.
> My question is can a Linux based machine match the performance of a hardware
> based routers provided by Cisco,... OR is my decision to go for a Linux
> based solution is a wrong one?.
Without more information it is difficult to say, but you didn't write what
bandwidth it is supposed to route.

I have positive experience with 16MBit/s and ~1200 machines (on linux).

> Is there so much difference between these two solutions?
Actually, I think if you don't have really high traffic (say >100MBit/s), or
odd connectors, linux is better. I have had very bad experience with Ciscos
that didn't support basic things like vlans and bridging (and there was no
right IOS to be found), trouble with loadbalancing, and not being able to
withstand flooding attacks.

> Can I achieve the same performance using a high end PC and Linux?
I don't think a "high end PC" is necessary. If you only have like ~10MBit/s, a
Pentium II should be all you need (heck, even PI if you don't need special
gimmicks).

> I'm asking this because one guy told me that my decision to go for a Linux
> based solution is a wrong one and it can never match the performance of
> Routers provided by Cisco.
According to my experience, this is only true with very expensive cisco models
and very high bandwidth (Gbit/s range).

You can also fsck up linux' performance by crappy ethernet cards and improper
software configuration (like iptables chains with 1000s of rules), but an
inexperienced admin can fsck up ciscos as well.

If you only need a ROUTER, Cisco is a generally good idea. But if you also
need a FIREWALL or even more features, it is less so.

Go for a specialized linux distribution for routers, there are plenty of them.
I won't recommend any, because as an author of one of them I'm obviously
biased :-).

> Thanks
> Sudheer  
Bye,

Peter Surda (Shurdeek) <shurdeek@routehat.org>, ICQ 10236103, +436505122023

-- 
                Where do you think you're going today?
_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/

Re: [LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[Michael Schwartzkopff]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Am Donnerstag, 8. Juli 2004 13:59 schrieb Michael 'Moose' Dinn:
> > >I've a local LAN consisting of about 150 machines.  I'm using a Linux
> > >machine as the gateway machine which inturn connects to two different
> > >ISPs.  My question is can a Linux based machine match the performance of
> > > a
>
> How fast is your internet connection? A Pentium 133 will happily run wire
> speed for 10M ether, and most places don't have 10M of incoming
> bandwidth...
>
> for reference, we have a Duron 800 running 3 net connections for a total of
> about 10M with virtually no load.

Well, it depends if you also want to encrypt your traffic (VPN). See 
http://www.suse.de/~garloff/linux/FreeSWAN/
for ipsec performance sheets.

- -- 
Dr. Michael Schwartzkopff
MultiNET Services GmbH
Bretonischer Ring 7
85630 Grasbrunn

Tel: (+49 89) 456 911 - 0
Fax: (+49 89) 456 911 - 21
mob: (+49 174) 343 28 75

PGP Fingerprint: F919 3919 FF12 ED5A 2801 DEA6 AA77 57A4 EDD8 979B

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFA7T/lqndXpO3Yl5sRAibAAJ4ry5FZzG9FzegzRoYVPOwrFPUnmgCg4Exj
V1cFpNNp7XuPa3RpKnETQ38=EVdY
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/

Re: [LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[Sudheer Divakaran]

1mbps & 256 kbps  :'(


Michael 'Moose' Dinn wrote:

>  
>
>>>I've a local LAN consisting of about 150 machines.  I'm using a Linux 
>>>machine as the gateway machine which inturn connects to two different 
>>>ISPs.  My question is can a Linux based machine match the performance of a 
>>>      
>>>
>
>How fast is your internet connection? A Pentium 133 will happily run wire
>speed for 10M ether, and most places don't have 10M of incoming bandwidth...
>
>for reference, we have a Duron 800 running 3 net connections for a total of
>about 10M with virtually no load.
>
>
>  
>
_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/

Re: [LARTC] Is Linux based Router feasible

[Joshua Snyder]

Let me start out by saying that I work for a company that makes Linux
based routers.  <plug> Checkout www.imagestream.com </plug>  Anyway, any
Linux box will perform just fine at the data rates your talking about.
You don't even have to worry about what type of hardware your using as
long as it not more than 5 years old.  Now to answer some of the points
that other people have brought up.  You can make a pc that has a large
number of interfaces.  I have seen Linux boxes with 100 t-1's and 2 ds-3's
plugged into them... 8 port t-1 cards are common and dual port ds-3 cards
are easy to get.  You just have to get mainboards that have enough pci
slots.  In general as long as you stay inside of what the hardware can do
you should be able to route at line rate.  Currently most pc hardware is
limited to about a max of 1Gbit/sec but server hardware can be used to
build routers that will route 4Gbit/sec.  Not as good as some of the
highest end cisco routers... but ten's of thousands of dollars cheaper.
One thing I have seen doing testing of many routers vs Linux routers most
cisco routers tend to get badly boughed down when running many access
lists.  This is not a big problem with a Linux box or even other non-cisco
routers.  If you don't believe me checkout...

http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2003/0714rev.html

You should have no problems doing what you want to do.

					josh


p.s. alot of the packet per sec numbers that cisco talks about are only
valid when routing from Ethernet to Ethernet interfaces and with packets
that stay in the fast switching path on the cisco.  If you start talking
about other interfaces all of those numbers are out of the window.  This
leads many people to end-up with cisco's that are way under powered for
the application.  I am not saying that cisco's can't route at wire-speed
but that most people don't have the right router for the job.


_______________________________________________
LARTC mailing list / LARTC@mailman.ds9a.nl
http://mailman.ds9a.nl/mailman/listinfo/lartc HOWTO: http://lartc.org/