RouterOS hardware questions

RouterOS General
1

Hi.
I've been involved in a sideproject which is cost-sensitive (ie the less money spent, the better), and i thought of using routeros as an edge firewall, since we've been using it for years at work. Only routerboards though, and for wireless links, so I've never really tried the routing/firewall features, that's why i thought I'd post my ideas here, to see if anyone has any input on my thoughts.
So. here we go, here's my initial plan.

Internet 2-300Mbit/s <-> MIkrotik firewall (license level 4)<-> L3 core switch <-> L2 accessswitch/network

I have an option to use the L3 switch as core router for client VLAN's, or the mikrotik. We are planning for about 5 VLANS, including DMZ for hosting services. DMZ should be handled by mikrotik. Traffic from client networks should be NAT:ed through the mikrotik
At the moment we have about a dozen users.
We should be able to set up VPN tunnels (IPsec), and allow for clients to access the network via dialup VPN (PPTP/L2TP)
We will have 2-300Mbit bandwidth to the internet, and start off with ten external IP’s

Regarding hardware, I have an old HP Proliant DL380 G4 with a dual 3ghz Xeon processor, and 3Gb of RAM. The downside is that I can't run the routeros off the SCSI harddrives, which means I must run it off a USB stick (or something plugged in to the USB port). I've got it working without any major fuzz, but I wonder if there are any drawbacks for this setup, especially regarding running off the USB stick?
I will install three supported network cards, so in total, it will be five physical ethernet ports.

Will my hardware be able to cope with firewall rules, NAT:ing and routing?

I'd appreciate any comments on this :slight_smile:
Thanks in advance.

Markus

2

hi Marcus.

Some time ago, I had running an Atom 1MB RAM mini computer, with 5 ethernet ports, for about 6 months.

It was routing 50 PC’s on 12 VLANS to 2 ~11 MBPS Internet links. It had webproxy, firewall, and router running ok.

The only think on your server that can be of concern, is the fact that you will be writing and reading a lot of information to the USB disk cache. That could slow down your router, also, solid state memory, have a lifetime of limited write cycles.


good luck.

regards

3

I’ll keep another installation on a separate USB stick, so if it should break down, I’ll have a backup.
This is probably only a temporary solution until we can afford having more suited hardware which allows us to run from disk.
Thanks for your input!
regards