We are looking to Purchase 2 Cloud Cores in the near future. We are doing this to replace our current layer 3 switches we are using for core routing.
Some plans I have
Get rid of as much vlanning as possible - Putting each edge switch on its own vlan (Drawing only shows 2 department -really there is 3 more, a wireless switch and some DMZ stuff)
Making the core routers and server network fully Redundant.
The Drawing I have attached has what I am thinking of as far as cabling goes.
My question is can OSPF be used somehow in this setup to not only create redundancy, but also create higher throughput? Would my only option be just use VRRP on the cores.
I am guessing because the Edges in the departments are just layer 2 switches i am not going to be able to use OSPF the way I was thinking.
I am open to any suggestions(Your not going to hurt my feelings), All I know is that it has taken me 5 years to convince the mothership (parent Company) that dropping the big cash on Cisco is just not worth it anymore so I want to make this baby shine!
Thank you for any ideas.
I would be careful about “getting rid of as much vlanning as possible”. If you are moving away from Cisco switches you will already be losing several security features which Cisco equipment can offer and Mikrotik does not. If you also remove control points by flattening the VLANs you may be further reducing your opportunities for applying controls if/when you need to at some point.
I should clarify removing vlanning. As we sit now we have 4 different vlans that users use. there is no rhyme or reason to who is using what subnet. So moving forward with this project I hope to move each edge switch into its own subnet and remove the sprawled out vlans we have now. All of the changes here are internal and have no real security bearing. We do have a few lans that I will be keeping for keeping DMZ traffic separate.
Not to try to start a flame here, But having used my fair share of Cisco equipment, and having been told many time Cisco is more secure and has so many advantages. But every time I ask what makes it is more secure, and what is it that you can do on a Cisco you can’t do on a mikrotik, I just get blank stares. I have always looked at it this way a firewall is only as good as the person who writes the rules. Now that routerboard is putting out some serious hardware (The part I have always felt lacking from Mikrotik) I am more than excited to take advantage of the expanded possibilities of using mikrotik on a larger scale project.
Well they didn’t know Cisco kit very well if they couldn’t real off a host of features easily… especially if comparing switch products. 
They are different worlds - Cisco sells expensive hardware while Mikrotik sells affordable hardware.
I wasn’t advocating for one or the other - just noting that you may be losing possible control points. VLANs are used extensively for internal security - e.g. that Guest SSID on the APs gets back hauled to the control point (e.g. firewall providing internet access only) on its own VLAN via the shared switched infrastructure.
The CCRs are certainly very interesting products (especially at their price points) and I don’t think we have seen them perform at their best yet so they will hopefully only improve. I have been less impressed with the CRS products.
I will be keeping some vlanning for just that purpose Guest wireless and such. I plan to move all of the wireless to its own edge switch.
On the switch side i can see how Mikrotik is not really in that market, They just threw the hat in that ring with some 24 port offerings (Cant wait to try one at a branch office). We have a few Cisco switches that were used before, the decided to move to the dells. The dells have been good as far as layer 2 goes, just would never buy another layer 3 Dell switch again. I
The dell layer 3 cores we have just don’t have the mustard to keep up with the routing at the core, so thats where the MT’s will go in.
What I am really look for here is thoughts on Redundancy/Throughput on a pair of CCR’s. I would love to do OSPF and let both routers work all the time. But I can’t think of a way to do that with only layer 2 switches at the edges. I can do this on the old cores that I will be using for the servers layer 3 dells. But I think the best I can do for the edges is to use VRRP. Gives me redundancy just no added throughput. I would like to see a option from MT that allows true stacking of the devices. A nice 10 GB backplane cable, HDMI cable interlink type of thing. So you can configure the two units as one. Create bonded ports across routers, that sort of fun stuff.