I have been testing out the new PCC load balancing on a couple of DSL circuits that I have and everything is working great. However, I plan on adding more WAN links to this PCC load balancing router and I thought it might get a little confusing when Torching the LAN interface. To alleviate this confusion I thought it would be a great help to be able to see what traffic is going out what interface. For example, if the upload on one of my circuits is saturated I would like to be able to torch my LAN interface and see what connections are going through what interface so I can identify what user is uploading through which WAN link. The problem is once there are multiple WAN connections with hundreds of users making requests it will get a little confusing trying to see what connections are going out what WAN link. I’m aware I can torch a single interface, but I would like to be able to torch my whole LAN interface and see the traffic divided into groups for each WAN connection.
I have thought of a solution for this problem. I just need some help implementing it since I’m still fairly new to ROS. My solution involves VLAN IDs. The Torch tool in ROS is able to collect VLAN IDs associated with a particular connection. So I thought if I assign a VLAN ID to each WAN link then I would be able to identify what connections are going out what VLAN, or WAN link. For example WAN1 would be assigned VLAN1, WAN2 would be assigned VLAN2, etc. So that way each connection through a WAN link would have a VLAN ID assigned to it that would be displayed in Torch.
I suppose an alternate solution would be for MikroTik to update their Torch tool to show what interface a connection is going out or coming in.
I tried adding a VLAN to each WAN link that I have and used Torch with “VLAN Id” checked, but the VLAN ID column is blank for every single connection and the VLAN shows no data going through it. How can I make Torch show a VLAN ID for each connection going out a certain interface?
Is any of this possible?
Seems that no one understands what I’m trying to do here. Do I need to explain a little more? Or maybe there aren’t that many people familiar with the new PCC setup. Surely someone understands what I’m talking about… Anyone?
All I’m wanting to do is make a few interfaces part of individual VLANs so that their unique VLAN IDs show up in the “VLAN Id” column in the Torch tool. I.E. ether1 is VLAN1, ether2 is VLAN2, etc. Then I can see any traffic going out ether1 as VLAN1 or ether2 as VLAN2 in the “VLAN Id” column in the Torch tool.
Well… are you one of those persons that like to monitor torch all the time? Maybe it is good idea to have some kind of traffic logging so that you can create customized results.
No actually I don’t use torch to monitor my network all the time. I only use it a couple times a week to see realtime data flow or when there is some suspicious activity on my network that I need to track down quickly. I actually have an ntop server on my network that gets its flows from an RB150. That little 150’s CPU is barely enough power now, so it’s soon to be replaced by a RB450G that I am experimenting with a PCC config on. I also have the Dude monitoring my whole network that I watch almost constantly (the Dude is probably one of my most valuable tools 
).
Currently, I am using the PepLink 3-WAN Load Balancing router, but I need more WAN links, a more powerful OS, and more powerful hardware that isn’t going to cost me the $4,000 that PepLink is asking for. Actually the main thing that drew me to using a RouterBoard as my load balancing router is the power of Router OS. Price isn’t really the issue. In fact I’ll probably be going with a RB1000 for my final setup if I decide to stay with 3 WAN links (if not, I’ll be going with a 493AH). However, before I toss my PepLink router aside I need to make sure ROS is going to allow me to do what I imagined it could. At this point though it doesn’t look like it is going to be able to do what I want it to. It looks like I might have to go with the PepLink 710. However, I still have hope that ROS will be able to run the config I need, but if not I wish someone would just tell me this is an impossible configuration in Router OS.
What I am needing this particular VLAN config for is to be able to get a better insight into a PCC router with multiple WAN links being fed into it. My PepLink 3-WAN router allows me to see all active connections going through my router divided up into groups for each WAN link. That is all I really want. Just to be able to see all connections going through my router, but be able to tell which connection is going through which WAN link.
I am confused about why Torch doesn’t label traffic going through one of my WAN links as part of a VLAN. I have my WAN1 interface part of VLAN1, but when I look at the stats for VLAN1 it shows no data is going through it. Is it possible I need to put a RouterBoard between my WAN link and my PCC router and do the VLAN tagging before it gets to the PCC router for Torch to be able to detect the VLAN? In other words, does Torch only label packets as part of a VLAN if they have been tagged before they get to the router?