Expanding storage internally - which router options?

Hardware
1

I’m considering adding various containers to customer routers that would require additional writes, and would like to expand storage for that purpose… but only internally. Specifically, I don’t want the customer to be able to pull a USB drive off their router.

Which MikroTik options both support containers and have some provision for expanding storage internally?

Thank you.

2

Sadly there are not more devices like the RDS but I think its now worth to take a look at RouterOS on own Hardware.

3

You could have a look at the
https://mikrotik.com/product/l23ugsr_5haxd2haxd

BUT:

  1. it has Arm32 bit, only compatible with a restricted number of pre-made containers (if you build/compile them yourself it is a minor issue)
  2. it has a miniPCIe slot, but it has to be seen with which devices it is compatible.

Or the:
https://mikrotik.com/product/rb450gx4

Same issue as above (ARM 32 bit) but it has a SD Card slot (though SD cards are usually not re-known for their resistance to multiple writes, it depends on what your containers do, if they would be good enough).

1 Like
4

ccr2116 have a internal m2 slot and can be installed with a nvme ssd.

1 Like
5

First you need to specify what kind of customers and routers you are targeting…

It would be completely different for “home internet users that want a WiFi router at low cost” and “corporate customers who want a high performance branch router”, for example.

6

I was unclear, but I was intentionally asking in a general way which MikroTik routers have the ability… so I could determine which types of customers could benefit (And so the answers would have value for others). I have a range from residential to various types of businesses.

7

Yep, my reply was limited to cheap and "suitable to be deployed from ISP" to (residential) subscribers devices.

But maybe you could as well get (say) Ax S or Ax3's and move the USB connector to be only accessible internally.

For corporate/rack use there are the mentioned ccr2116 and ccr2216 and of course the rds2116.

8

In general, not many. But maybe that will change when containers become more popular and/or become the new way to extend functionality beyond what MikroTik want to support in RouterOS.

(like a good DNS resolver, IPsec VTI, etc)