Hello guys!
I’m new to all this, but I’m a fast learner and love to research.
I work at a company, a blood testing laboratory, and we are planning on buying a mikrotik router Rb 750 Gr3, and we got a relatively small network, we are a medium sized company, and around 30 computers 15 testing(blood) machines and it all goes on to a SQL server, and mostly all computers need access to that server and lots of data goes by regularly from testing machines, and doctors reviewing the exams, around a 20 thousand exams a day.
What can a mikrotik router do for us?
A small answer would suffice, i can research the tips, and test anything else that’s necessary on my base if you need more information.
I’m running Router OS on a Virtual Machine to get familiarized with it. But i have no idea what would be the advantage of buying this mikrotik router.
Depending on your server infrastructure a licensed CHR instance may be far more productive.
The hex will do tasks like switching and inter VLAN routing in software. Other models have switch chips in them but this only speeds up intra VLAN traffic. So depending on the PCs and servers are placed in your network may help determine which product fits the bill best.
Performance testing is highly subjective. I see about 300mbps for inter VLAN routing on my hex if memory serves for. I run about 20 firewall rules for IPv4 and another 20 or so for IPv6 but only a handful of them match for internal to internal traffic.
It really depends specifically what your needs are. In general it’s always better to give yourself some head room when buying hardware so you run less risk of being constrained by it down the line.
- Complete firewall, better than consumer devices
- VPNs, site-to-site if you will connect another lab later
- VPN for roadwarriors, support for SSTP and others.
- Troubleshooting Tools, go to Tools menu in winbox. These are a huge help when there are anomalies in your network.
- Snappy interface (I use winbox) and never need to reboot when config changes
- dual wan
- each interface can be on its own subnet.
Router is not firewall . Try a UTM firewall.
Correction: It IS a firewall. It is NOT a UTM firewall.
But he didn’t say anything about multiple networks, and I see some posts that imply there are multiple networks.
We really need more information about which way the data will flow and how many networks you have, and whatever other related details you can tell us. Any 10 gig?
If you’re in the same subnet then your only real concern is if your switching performance is good enough to handle the workload you need. You can buy really decent 1 gig switches for a few hundred these days. Including MikroTik ones. Or used Ciscos.
What is your connection to the internet, and what will your expectations be for performance to the internet?
It’s entirely possible that the RB750Gr3 will work, but like someone else said, it might be better to start with something a little more robust. Unless money really is that tight. Seems like you wouldn’t be asking about this router if money wasn’t a concern.
I would recommend looking at the RB1100AHx4 or CCR1009 over the smaller units. It sounds like uptime and reliability will be more important than the low cost of the the hEX. The dual power supplies and more powerful CPU’s will end up providing you better stability with the dual power supplies and more flexibility and performance in the future.
Yes. If you’re trying to run a business, dual power supplies and redundant links (LACP) are pretty much required in my experience. Not to mention VRRP gateway redundancy so software upgrades or other maintenance can be done with low impact.
$60 (RB750Gr3) vs. $350 (RB1100AHx4) shouldn’t even be discussed in the same post in a business context but he asked about the cheapie first… There seems to me more to this story.
Satafa32 needs a switch for inner network and a router for connecting the inner network to the outer world. Rb750gr3 looks absolutely suitable for that purpose as he described his needs.
Hello and thank you for all your replies
Our main traffic around here is LAN, everyone and everything dumping lots of SQL data to server 24/7.
Our main config now has a Switch with Store and forward, 4mb memory buffer and runs on CSMA / CD protocol.(brazilian brand: Intelbras SG2400QR 24 ports switch)
24 ports, and the rest connect to a port panel, our main router is a really shitty one, the reason im getting a router now.
But what i was hoping was some ways the mikrotik router could help with trunking maybe? some ways to speed up all the LAN process.
We are all under the same subnet, since everyone needs to access the same server all the time. Pretty much I’m more interested on ways of getting things done faster to that SQL server.
But of course the RouterOS tool set and increased security is a big plus.
Basically every sector here don’t need to talk to each other, but everyone needs access to the SQL server continuously.
Any more information you guys need?
Thank you one more time.
Felipe
Wouldn’t the bulk of the traffic be going through just your switch, and not the router? So the Hex will be fine as your router, but doesn’t help your LAN. If you have slowness when accessing SQL Server, I’d start looking at that server first..
Not experimenting any particular performance issues with it, but since we are getting the router would like to know what can it add to that set up.
So maybe you need to talk about design goals now.
If everything is in the same subnet, your router doesn’t matter. Your switch is doing all the work.
Like I said earlier, you can get really nice switches for a few hundred dollars these days. MikroTik for sure, but also used Cisco or Juniper or some other large name brand. And whatever MikroTik router you get, it will mostly be compatible with any high end switch.
Trunking is a big word, maybe be more specific. Do you mean bonding?
Doing interface bonding on your highly utilized server is a good idea. Most operating systems support it. Use LACP (which you have to set on the switch side as well), and use layer3+4 for hashing. Most managed switches support it, and MikroTik supports it of course.
But as another person said, it’s more likely that your server is having performance problems than the network. Optimizing disk I/O on databases is a really big deal and you need to do that for sure.
Get your boss to spend some money. For a thousand bucks you could have a really nice MikroTik router (routers? VRRP?) plus a few nice switches. Any reasonably successful business should be able to afford that.
It is necessary to know what needs to be improved. Where are the bottlenecks. Is the switch and used network cards running at gigabit? If not, change the switch and the network cards. Otherwise check what are the throughput spikes on the network. Maybe your inner network is fast enough. Thinking about router starts with your wan capacity and other things you want it to do on the edge of your network. If you just want to speed up your server and network is fast enough, you need to focus on the server itself.