In my opinion Mikrotik does a good job, but not a great one.
We choose their products for the features and the low prices.
But what do you do as a network admin when you realise that a 48 port switch installed in a rack, that connects 30 servers, is not working (traffic not passing, flapping ports, instable uplink ports…and all other issues seen on this forum) ?!
Well, you first reboot it. Then you try and update the switch. And then another reboot. Finnaly you decide to change the switch with other vendor ! Will you trust to install again that mikrotik item ?
No! you dont !
I understand that there are 1 million of situations and you can not make all tests in your labs !
But, please, do more tests with your products in your labs before release them on the market ! Customers are not lab rats !
Sorry but you - network admin - are the one who is responsible.
Do not blame others for your fault.
(I do not deny there are bugs, but testing for your network setup is your job)
Yes, I can. But many times, problems come after a while, after you make test → instability.
Another thing: you buy some products and on tests you realise that they have issues. And you loose a lot of time. More, you need to send them back, but some companies do not take items back (bad luck).
It wouldnt be easier that these equipments would do what they say they do? I dont say that they should have zero issue. I say that there are way to many bugs ! Bugs that could be handled in the testing labs in the first place, by hardware/network enginners.
I realise now that some of you really like to be lab rats.
He is absolutely right about making us beta testers where MT is used in many production environments. MT software development is an example how to make it wrong with no respect to users. It would be interesting to find out how they (not) test their software before releasing it to public. Their products are fantastic but the part of it, ROS development and testing, is some kind of a joke. I am looking forward to see they will understand it some day and do important changes to the process.
Network admins don’t blindly reboot a switch and upgrade firmware in a mission critical environment.
People with switch credentials that shouldn’t have them do that quite often though. Then they don’t perform effective troubleshooting, and complain when something doesn’t behave as expected.
Please define your standards, because ‘doing the job right’ is vague and subjective.What does ‘doing the job right’ mean? Can you provide an example of a company that develops software that you think ‘does the job right?’
I’m quite curious what your standards are. No bugs? No downtime? No possibility of misconfiguration? No hardware failures? If those are allowed, what is the threshold at which they are no longer ‘doing the job right’?
I am not saying that Mikrotik/RouterOS should have ZERO bugs.
There is no perfect network equipment (or other type of it&c item). Any vendor releases sometimes update, security patches etc.
But flapping ports between Mikrotik switches with Mikrotik cables? What the hell is this ?!
I am not talking only about my problems, but look how many users report mikrotik issues. And I am not talking about sophisticated situations, but simple bugs that should never exists on released products.
And btw, I refer to Mikrotik hardware+software, not only software.
Flapping ports does not necessarily indicate a switch problem. You have provided no details on why you believe the switch is the cause of the problem. Are you saying that somehow Mikrotik switches and Mikrotik cables (I didn’t know they made cables) are incompatible, because that’s the implication.
How do you know it is a bug? Have you done testing and analysis that demonstrates the cause is a bug? If you did, you forgot to mention it and provide that information that leads you to that conclusion.
People report issues all the time for all vendors. The 900 pound gorilla has announced 84 medium, high, and critical security advisories this month alone (https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/publicationListing.x?product=Cisco&sort=-day_sir#~Vulnerabilities). That doesn’t count the non-security bugs they’ve squashed. Given they have a lot more products, but my point is that an organization with those resources also fights software bugs constantly.
If you put a piece of unvalidated hardware and software in production, don’t be surprised if there is the rare unexpected issue. Most of us aren’t trying to maintain mission critical levels of service. If you are, then validation of your specific use-case in a lab environment before deployment is a necessity.
Well stated tippenring!! @hostclub, I think you missed the point, which was if your not a properly trained switch manager you have no business being involved in switch infrastructure of any significance. So suggest you take your own advice and stick to home installs…
I disagree. Mikrotik is perfectly fine in mission critical environments if the device(s) have the features required for that environment and implemented properly. That means hardware and software validation in a lab scenario that mimics the production environment the equipment will ultimately be deployed in. There is no way around that. All mission critical environments do this with all of their gear before going into production. They also usually have redundant routers (VRRP), redundant switches (STP), and redundant connections (MS teaming, VMWare vswitches) to servers.
If downtime will cost an organization US$100,000 per hour, it isn’t hard to justify buying redundant gear, testing it, configuring it, and maintaing it properly.
Once again, go buy equipment from another vendor if you are not satisfied (now I sound like my ISP representative).
I’ve spent a lot of time searching for equipment which suits my needs and I’d be glad if Mikrotik covers all of them but unfortunately it doesn’t.
I need application control on my router/firewall, there are products from other companies which provides this service but buying their equipment + yearly license + support fee is too much for me, so I’m satisfied with Mikrotik.
There are things with which I’m not please in ROS as well but I have an option, use MT or use another vendor equipment which is btw X times more expensive than Mikrotik.
What the heck is the connection between being a properly trained switch manager and working with bad hardware that “reveals” issue at random time ?! Network admins CAN NOT fix hardware/software issues !
BTW: Welcome to 2020. The time when IT guys were sysadmins, network admins, hardware enginners, painters, electricians, janitors and other jobs has longed passed.
I dont want to be rude, I dont this is the place, but please, dont be smart ass.
I’m often inspired by the by the title of the thread, and the ranting tone of the author.
Just because you dont get the reaction you desire, tis no reason to whine further.
I’ve given my input, I know my limitations when it comes to using MT (barely good enough to deploy at home), takes others longer to figure it out I guess.
