Hi, I'm looking for a cheap (but of course) bare metal switch that I can install a FOSS operating system (so no Cumulus) and that will support MLAG. The ideal switch is a leaf 10GbE switch (with a few 40GbE ports, as is customary).
I've looked over OpenSwitch and Open Network Linux and, for the love of me, I still don't know if those support MLAG or not. Hell, I'm not even sure it *can* be supported purely at the software level, or it requires ASIC support. Considering Cumulus is touting this as a major CL feature, I assume it can be done purely in software.
MLAG is mentioned in the OpenSwitch documentation as a 'coming soon' feature a few years ago (http://netseminar.stanford.edu/seminars/04_14_16.pdf), so the cynic in me is more than convinced it will never be implemented.
So far, the only device I've found that supports this is this one (https://bm-switch.com/index.php/bare-metal-switches/leaf/netberg-aurora420-10g-switch.html), however I've never heard of Netberg so far, so I'm rather unconvinced.
Also, I have the tingling sensation that MLAG support in this case refers only to Broadcom ICOS, which (being prebundled and, well, Broadcom) I can only assume is kind of s**t. Please do correct me if I'm way off.
One could also reformulate my question as 'How do I get performant switches supporting MLAG without having to sell my house to pay for it', since the way I see it, bare metal + FOSS NOS actually *cuts* costs (which was surprising for me, at least).
For my use case, MLAG is necessary both as a redundancy mechanism (tho I know STP *should* deal with that too) and as a bandwidth amplifier.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
EDIT: Minor text style change
No comments:
Post a Comment