What is the most powerful device I can buy from Mikrotik with Ethernet ports, I don’t think they have 48 or 52 ports, so it would be the one with most ports, I guess.
Check product list. There are 48-port switches (with SFP+ and QSFP ports), but there are other devices which may be “most powerful” due to criteria other than port count.
So it would be either the CRS354-48G-4S+2Q+RM or CRS354-48P-4S+2Q+RM correct?
I’m still confused how the filtering is done on the website, since some appear as routers and others as switches or in both. Note: I’m looking for a switch, but maybe I got this wrong and the software is the same for all of them (routers or switches) and some switches can be set specific ports to routing (with of course a performance hit…)
I did post another thread in the forums (my first post) with all those questions, but somehow it was not approved. I’m not sure what devices support specific functions, example VRRP, BGP, etc. RouterOS seems to be a general OS that comes on most devices, but are all those features just software based on do I need to consider the hardware, like for example for VLAN offloading to the switch.
I’m looking for rack mounted devices for powering servers as a distribution switch (Gigabit ports)
Thanks guys!
All MT devices (well mostly all) can run RoS.
Most switches have the option to run Switch Mode or RoS mode.
Switches High End.
Yes for max ports the ones you looked at.
For High end work
https://mikrotik.com/product/crs518_16xs_2xq
If I get this correct, CRS354-48G-4S+2Q+RM is without PoE which I don’t need for this specific business case.
So the CRS354-48G-4S+2Q+RM is the best, or newest most powerful option I can buy today with max amount of Ethernet ports?
Is there a similar model I can buy for my lab (testing) that is on pair with the same features?
This can be only 4 or 8 ports, and with PoE, that way I can use this smaller switch on my local office for testing and playing around and the CSR354 at the cabinets. Maybe also at home for IoT devices.
So basically, I’m looking for:
Cabinet switches for rack servers (48 ports per switch) as I require 2-4 ports per server.
Smaller unit that is similar or as close as possible to those in functionality and hardware, for office, lab and probably home. New purchases so looking for the latest models of course, a US distributor would be nice since I checked on Amazon and pricing is 20-30% from the suggested listing price. Not that I mind since the price is still excellent.
After my research, I did found that I do want RouterOS and not the other alternative SwitchOS. I want to manage the devices from the command line or the API if possible and lock the down (including web interface) once configured.
And last question, is there any fail over mode that can be configured in the future between switches? Preferred in an active - active mode but one takes over in case of master failing.
Thanks again for the feedback.
If you only need the basic features, then any device running ROS can do it … better devices will do them in hardware, low-end devices will do them in software (and performance will suck). If you’re after some nifty features (some more advanced VLAN-related things, such as VLAN ID rewriting, etc.), then not all devices will be fine, you’ll have to try to find a smaller device which supports same features (it depends on chipset model/generation).
You’ll have to do some searching and homework yourself, if you’re not sure is something particular is supported on some particular device, then ask.
As to fail-over: there’s MLAG …
Yes, I read some people complaining about performance, and it’s probably because they enabled routing and stuff on a device they should not. Makes sense. But if this is the same (software) for all devices, it’s still nice that you can at least enable it for testing.
What devices would be able to run the features you mentioned without a performance impact? I could not find any other 48 models besides the ones I mentioned. Aren’t those switches powerful enough to handle VLAN’s?
For a lab setup, a simple HEX can be enough.
It has VLAN HW offloading.
But older design (still solid though for a lot of applications !!), MMIPS processor, limited resources, …
For future safety, RB5009 might be a better choice.
All depends on your use case, budget, …
Sure they are, simple VLAN tagging/untagging/filtering is basic functionality and any of CRS switches will do it in hardware. Many other devices will do as well (including those mentioned by @holvoetn).
What I was talking about is advanced features. Such as ACLs for ethernet, VID rewriting (as in: replace VID on ingress frames where original VID is XYZ with VID UVW), etc. That can’t be done on all devices, AFAIK software implementation doesn’t even support some of those features. And if your intended setup requires such functonality, then … well, the device selection narrows a lot.
So if you want to get a good advice, describe your requirements (to pretty deep details) and we can then comment on suitable devices. So far, your description is very vague …
Well, is it listed on the site for each device what it supports or not in terms of features? Example, in the product page for CRS354-48G-4S+2Q+RM there is a brochure for tests results and the manual that seems generally applied for RouterOS.
This is the only thing I found that is specific to that model:
https://i.mt.lv/cdn/product_files/CRS354-48G-4Splus2QplusRM_3_200705.pdf
I guess this not a layer 3 switch after all because that does not look promising at all under those results with Layer 3 enabled 
Maybe another model?
Maybe start with… what do you need ?
Switch Layer 3, Ethernet gigabit ports, 48 or 52 for rack cabinets, mostly will handle VLAN traffic. I need to be able to route traffic between VLANs which is why layer 3 is required.
For L3 routing, look for device that has decent support for L3HW offload … https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/L3+Hardware+Offloading#L3HardwareOffloading-L3HWDeviceSupport … That’s why I was talking about different criteria when considering “most powerfull device” … all devices capable of L3HW offload are top-notch when it comes to L2 (and VLAN), so no worries there.
Similarly to the L3HW capability, some other fancy features of certain devices are not listed on product pages but are (unfortunately) hidden in some on-line help/manual pages. One excuse for thi is that certain features get supported on some devices after those devices are first introduced (again, L3HW offload is one of those features which landed on older CRS3xx devices long after hardware was introduced, but product brochures are usually not updated to reflect new functionality … which also require ROS upgrade and some users don’t want to do that so new functionality is not universal for certain device model).
And which models are those? I can’t find anything on their site over 16 ports.
Thanks for that link. I was looking for that.
You wont as those are Routers first…
That has SPF ports, not Ethernet, so it’s not an option in my case.
Looks like the CRS354 would fit: https://mikrotik.com/product/crs354_48g_4splus2qplusrm
48 gigabit ports with 4 10G SFP+ & 2 40G QSFP uplink ports and full L3 HW offload: https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/L3+Hardware+Offloading#L3HardwareOffloading-CRS3xx,CRS5xx:SwitchDX8000andDX4000Series
For a rack cabinet full of servers 61,3 Mbps max speed? My phone pushes more speed than that 
That layer 3 performance, at least from the brochure, is something I would not even use at home.
That’s the routing capability of the CPU. I mentioned L3 HW offload. That’s wirespeed on all ports as long as you stay within its’ limits. Read the page I linked to.
Firewall is the make or break L3 HW Offload issue for CRS3xx products. No firewall is the safe choice. Firewall with very limited rule set using FastTrack may work at or near wirespeed. MAC Address Learning requires close attention.