RE: Linux router

*BSD uses CARP with VRRP to maintain failover routing and its pretty
slick. I'm sure there's some VRRP for Linux. And worst case is that
state isn't maintained and everyone has to log back in to Facebook.

I think pretty much all Unix-like can work with VLANs. If I recall, its
usually like an if-alias so any firewall/nat that you can specify IPs on
should be fine.
 
And off the top of my head..... Another fun way would be to use
something like Cisco's Fast Ethernet Channel. Create a channel (all
FEC's have to be trunks) with two NICs in the router and plug either
channel into separate switches. STP on the switches should keep it
sane. If you want router redundancy, then add another port to the
switch channels and duplicate it on another Linux router. Set both
Linux routers to use VRRP and some sort of failover setup and you should
be meshed to the nines! If this works - and I'm not positive about it -
then you should be able to survive a router AND switch failure all with
only layer 2 switches.

Chris Twa

Saskaweb IT Solutions

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-linux@slg.org [mailto:owner-linux@slg.org] On Behalf Of
Steven Kurylo
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 3:11 PM
To: SLG
Subject: Linux router

I'm looking at using a linux machine at the core of a new network.
Overall we're trying to avoid paying the cisco tax, so I was thinking
about dlink DES-3052Ps, and instead of buying a layer 3 switch from
them, use linux.

Has anyone used spanning tree under linux? What about the vlan tagging?
I was thinking about trunking two or three of the switches to the linux
router (perhaps two routers?).

I see a bridging STP howto, but it basically says STP just works and
doesn't mention any knobs or config. When was the last time any
technology did that? :-)

Most of the router projects seem to be aimed at the consumer edge NAT
devices. Anyone know of a more enterprise-y project?

Thanks.
Received on Thu Jun 5 21:46:11 2008