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ddavis
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rb750 and rb493 for load-balancing/failover of wireless link

Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:56 pm

I'm fairly certain this should work, but I'd like some confirmation before purchasing.

I'd like to use an rb750 at a satellite office to provide load-balance/failover for two wireless links back to the main office. I'd also like to use VLANs so I can hang two firewalls off the router, one for the corporate network and another for guest access. The main office will have the rb493 that'll connect to our fiber connection. I'd like to do this for 3 satellite offices. If I can do some bandwidth throttling on the rb493 for the guest access that would be good so the wireless link isn't saturated. If not, I'll see what I can do on the guest firewall. Does this sound feasible? Thanks.
 
dog
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Re: rb750 and rb493 for load-balancing/failover of wireless link

Sun Feb 28, 2010 2:45 am

I don't quite understand your structure.

At each remote site you want a RB750 and 2 RB493 which connect back to the main site?
Or do you want to interconnect the remote sites to create a kind of mesh?

Either way I would either recommend to use a completely routed network or a completely routed network but with MPLS/VPLS.

One example
                    +-----+          net1       +-----+
192.168.1.0/24 -----| S1  |---------------------| S3  |----- 192.168.3.0/24
                    +-----+                     +-----+
                       |   \                       |
                       |     \                     |
                       | net4 \______________      | net2
                       |            net5      \    |
                       |                       \   |
                    +-----+                     +-----+
192.168.2.0/24 -----| S2  |---------------------| CO  |---- 192.168.0.0/24
                    +-----+         net3        +-----+
                                                   |
                                                   |
                                               0.0.0.0/0
net1 = 10.255.0.0/30
net2 = 10.255.1.0/30
net3 = 10.255.2.0/30
net4 = 10.255.3.0/30
net5 = 10.255.4.0/30

Then use OSPF to create the routes.
Now you can either use MPLS/VPLS or go with "raw" IP.
 
ddavis
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Re: rb750 and rb493 for load-balancing/failover of wireless link

Sun Feb 28, 2010 5:47 am

I want an rb750 at each site and an rb493 at the central office so I can have a sort of hub/spoke config with the central office being the main site (and the internet connection). It's slightly more complex due to one of the satellite offices not having line of sight to the main office. I'd like to use the routerboards strictly for connecting/routing traffic of the sites, I've got existing corporate and guest firewalls at each satellite. I want to use the single internet connection at the central office for all the satellites (both corporate and guest). I really only suggested the rb493 so I have enough physical ports on the router. I've attached a network diagram to try and make things clear.
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dog
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Re: rb750 and rb493 for load-balancing/failover of wireless link

Sun Feb 28, 2010 6:53 pm

That would be possible.
But I would recommend using a RB433 mounted in a Poynting A0042 case (or similar).
Then connect them to a switch or RB750 or RB450 and then to a switch.
Both have advantages and disadvantages:
Connect them directly to the switch: You can use VRRP for failover
Connect them to a RB first: You can use two different routes for TX/RX giving you a somewhat full-duplex WLAN.
 
ddavis
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Re: rb750 and rb493 for load-balancing/failover of wireless link

Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:51 pm

So you're suggesting using the RB433 as the wireless bridge? I was actually thinking about using some Ubiquiti hardware for the wireless links and Mikrotik hardware for the fail over/routing portion.
I'm new to link fail over/load balancing and there seem to be quite a few options. I know I definitely want load balancing so no one link becomes saturated and auto failover so if one link goes down, traffic automatically reroutes.
I guess regardless of the route I take, it sounds like RouterOS level 4 should be adequate to meet my needs.
 
dog
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Re: rb750 and rb493 for load-balancing/failover of wireless link

Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:08 pm

s. I know I definitely want load balancing so no one link becomes saturated and auto failover so if one link goes down, traffic automatically reroutes.
That won't be possible.
Real load balancing requires the LB to keep track of the capacity and load on a endpoint.
What you can accomplish is load distribution.
There are two ways: ECMP - with which your router will choose a wireless link as it sees fit or using one link for RX and the other for TX.
Both ways will provide fail over when properly configured.
it sounds like RouterOS level 4
L4 will be enough for most peoples needs :)
L5 and L6 make only sense in very big scenarios.
 
ddavis
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Re: rb750 and rb493 for load-balancing/failover of wireless link

Wed Mar 03, 2010 7:26 pm

Using the RB493 in the main office I should be able to manage bandwidth using VLANs, right? That way I can give priority to corporate VLANs over guest VLANs?

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