I've ordered two Cisco routers.
One is thought as NAT-PT gateway, so that we'll be able to provide a IPv6-only service. The Linux implementation of NAT-PT isn't quite the best and the older Cisco boxes go dead cheap on eBay currently.
The other routers purpose is not fully determined yet. I might use it as 6to4 gateway, depending on what throughput it delivers or for testing.
Showing posts with label Cisco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cisco. Show all posts
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Cisco Catalyst
We've recently bought a couple of older Cisco Catalyst switches and replaced the Dell switches in the network.
First of all, the Cisco switches are more flexible and some of them even do Layer3 services, like BGP. So on top of the Catalyst 4006 for ExWest, we've got one of them in TeleCity and one in Mervue.
The changeover was done last week and things seem to be running pretty good. I'm just left with replacing the switches in remote sites like Abbeyknockmoy etc.
The reason for replacing the old switches is, that once in a while, when the VLan configuration is committed, the darn things just go daft and drop everything. All that is left then is to drive on site and powercycle the switch. Not something you really want to do, when the switch is 60-70 km's away.
Another switch that had to go is the Linksys Enterprise switch, because it's just a PAIN to having to find a Windows box, just to configure the Vlans. The switch's webinterface only works in IE and you can't configure Vlan's via SSH or telnet. How daft is that ?
Also our INEX Lan#2 peering are handed by the Catalyst in Dublin now. No major box needed there currently and we can upgrade as we go.
First of all, the Cisco switches are more flexible and some of them even do Layer3 services, like BGP. So on top of the Catalyst 4006 for ExWest, we've got one of them in TeleCity and one in Mervue.
The changeover was done last week and things seem to be running pretty good. I'm just left with replacing the switches in remote sites like Abbeyknockmoy etc.
The reason for replacing the old switches is, that once in a while, when the VLan configuration is committed, the darn things just go daft and drop everything. All that is left then is to drive on site and powercycle the switch. Not something you really want to do, when the switch is 60-70 km's away.
Another switch that had to go is the Linksys Enterprise switch, because it's just a PAIN to having to find a Windows box, just to configure the Vlans. The switch's webinterface only works in IE and you can't configure Vlan's via SSH or telnet. How daft is that ?
Also our INEX Lan#2 peering are handed by the Catalyst in Dublin now. No major box needed there currently and we can upgrade as we go.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Cisco Catalyst Switch for ExWest
I've finally aquired a proper switch for Exchange West.
A Cisco Catalyst 4006 with a bunch of FE ports and a couple of GBIC ports will be serving as Internet Exchange in Galway until the demand for something bigger or better arises. Yes, this beast is EoL, next year even EoS, but honestly, the service is going to be free on 100 mbit/s ports and will come with no SLA and no option to buy transit across the exchange.
I've also sourced a SuperVisor III engine for the beast, so that it's running IOS, has a 64 Gbps switching fabric and will forward 48-Mpps in hardware for both Layer 2 and Layer 3/4 traffic.
I reckon' it'll be a good start platform.
A Cisco Catalyst 4006 with a bunch of FE ports and a couple of GBIC ports will be serving as Internet Exchange in Galway until the demand for something bigger or better arises. Yes, this beast is EoL, next year even EoS, but honestly, the service is going to be free on 100 mbit/s ports and will come with no SLA and no option to buy transit across the exchange.
I've also sourced a SuperVisor III engine for the beast, so that it's running IOS, has a 64 Gbps switching fabric and will forward 48-Mpps in hardware for both Layer 2 and Layer 3/4 traffic.
I reckon' it'll be a good start platform.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Adding 200 mbit/s from Galway to Dublin
It looks like the next couple of months will be very exciting.
We've recently peaked 86 mbit/s on our BT circuit to TeleCity in Dublin and the Smart circuit on the other end of town is running at around 23 mbit/s. That's an aggregated traffic volume of approx. 110 mbit/s at peak.
Now, we're going to shut the Dangan circuit down, maybe keep it as backup as it doesn't cost us much, but all the traffic on that circuit is going to be moved into our datacenter in Mervue. Also with only 14 mbit/s leeway left, more bandwidth was needed.
Smart is going to supply us with 100 mbit/s L2 (in addition to the BT circuit), which we're going to combine on the Cisco switches I've just bought for our network.
On top of that, we're going to get another 100 mbit/s L2 circuit into DEG in Dublin (another datacenter), where we are moving our INEX Lan#1 connection. That way, we'll be connected to INEX in two different datacenters and will be getting the optimum redundancy out of that.
That's a total of 400 mbit/s from Galway to Dublin now, where 300 mbit/s of that are in our datacenter in Mervue.
There were a lot of reasons for not increasing the circuit with BT:
- we wanted fiber into the building on a physical different path. Smart was not even allowed to bring the fiber in through the same ducting or elevator shaft. So matter of fact, we're bringing the fiber in through a cable-riser in the neighboring building and then through a complete different wall.
- we wanted the fiber on an entirely different path from Galway to Dublin. BT's fiber is along the irish railroads, while Smart uses ESB networks fiber along the pylons and high voltage lines.
- BT only installed a STM1 capable CPE, when they supplied us with the fiber initially. If we had opted just to increase that circuit, the CPE gear would have to be replaced resulting in downtime or us hauling the traffic across town to Dangan, which isn't really an option. The reason for establishing the DC in Mervue was, that we couldn't get decent wireless links to Dangan.
These are just a few of the reasons, why.
We've recently peaked 86 mbit/s on our BT circuit to TeleCity in Dublin and the Smart circuit on the other end of town is running at around 23 mbit/s. That's an aggregated traffic volume of approx. 110 mbit/s at peak.
Now, we're going to shut the Dangan circuit down, maybe keep it as backup as it doesn't cost us much, but all the traffic on that circuit is going to be moved into our datacenter in Mervue. Also with only 14 mbit/s leeway left, more bandwidth was needed.
Smart is going to supply us with 100 mbit/s L2 (in addition to the BT circuit), which we're going to combine on the Cisco switches I've just bought for our network.
On top of that, we're going to get another 100 mbit/s L2 circuit into DEG in Dublin (another datacenter), where we are moving our INEX Lan#1 connection. That way, we'll be connected to INEX in two different datacenters and will be getting the optimum redundancy out of that.
That's a total of 400 mbit/s from Galway to Dublin now, where 300 mbit/s of that are in our datacenter in Mervue.
There were a lot of reasons for not increasing the circuit with BT:
- we wanted fiber into the building on a physical different path. Smart was not even allowed to bring the fiber in through the same ducting or elevator shaft. So matter of fact, we're bringing the fiber in through a cable-riser in the neighboring building and then through a complete different wall.
- we wanted the fiber on an entirely different path from Galway to Dublin. BT's fiber is along the irish railroads, while Smart uses ESB networks fiber along the pylons and high voltage lines.
- BT only installed a STM1 capable CPE, when they supplied us with the fiber initially. If we had opted just to increase that circuit, the CPE gear would have to be replaced resulting in downtime or us hauling the traffic across town to Dangan, which isn't really an option. The reason for establishing the DC in Mervue was, that we couldn't get decent wireless links to Dangan.
These are just a few of the reasons, why.
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