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kobusm
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Mikrotik vs Napatech

Tue Apr 05, 2022 1:19 pm

Hi there,

I am running a network at the moment with SBC's connected, via a network TAP, to a Napatech SmartNIC (Napatech A/S NT4E2-4-PTP Network Adapter 4x1Gb). This is capturing traffic for me and replicating to a monitoring system (Voipmonitor).

I am looking at getting a Mirktotik CCR2004-1G-2XS-PCIe (x2) cards for a new build that I am doing and was wondering how these cards would stack up against the Napatech cards? Also, would something like libpcap work with the Mikrotik cards?

At the moment, I am not reaching the 10GB capacity (not sure what its really hitting right now) but this is more about compatibility / workability.

Just wanted to see if the MKtik card could be a good Napa replacement?

Thanks
Kobus
 
AidanAus
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Re: Mikrotik vs Napatech

Wed Apr 06, 2022 5:50 am

these new cars should have 40gb of bandwidth since it is a pcie 3.0 x8 bus so it could improve your performance, the issue that I see is that the napatech card you listed should be able to handle up to 25gb, are you able to let us know a little more about the host board and what rating its pcie slot is etc?
 
kobusm
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Re: Mikrotik vs Napatech

Wed Apr 06, 2022 11:33 am

Im actually not 100% sure what the pcie spec is on the servers.

As far as I can tell its running an Intel chipset (Intel Corporation C620 Series Chipset). The new machine will be a newer chipset and definitely upgraded to what we have right now.

My company is looking at a new build but doesnt want to fork out the amount of money needed for a 10GB Fibre Napatech Card (x2). So they are looking into purchasing a Mikrotik alternative, which is more cost effective.

So really, would it be worth going for the Mikrotik cards as apposed to just getting the napatech cards again?
 
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rfc1149
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Re: Mikrotik vs Napatech

Wed Apr 06, 2022 12:19 pm

So really, would it be worth going for the Mikrotik cards as apposed to just getting the napatech cards again?
I would wait a minimum of 6 months before buying them, if you intend to put them in a production environment, to allow for software fixes.
New products are exciting but long term stability and maturity only comes with feedback and time. Watch the changelogs.

i.e. ROS Stable release tree Release 7.22 22-04-05
*) ccr2004 - improved PCI timeout handling on CCR2004-1G-2XS-PCIe;

Also you need to observe your redundancy planning for production environments because adding these to servers makes the whole server a single point of failure for the network since they rely on motherboard power via PCI-e bus. That reduces your ability to diagnose issues remotely if the PSU's fail. I'll admit it's not a major consideration since most servers have dual PSU's with redundant power options in the DC but it's something to think about for sure.

I can think of a crazy breakout power option that involves dual PSU's and PCI-e extension/risers just to supply redundant power for the card that is independent of the server but at that point you need to ask yourself why you're not buying a dedicated router/switch. :D Rack configuration is everything so think!
 
kobusm
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Re: Mikrotik vs Napatech

Wed Apr 06, 2022 2:44 pm

So currently Im using the Napatech cards to capture traffic from an Oracle SBC. Cards are installed in a Fujitsu PRIMERGY server. Power isnt really a problem at this point (Dual PSU | Dual power feed | Rack mounted).

I use this with Voipmonitor to capture SIP traffic via the Napatech card. Both the Server, SBC and Switch are connected to a network TAP offloading to the server and then to a DB server.

I dont think power would be an issue going with the MT cards. My concern is that there is usually a reason why something is so high priced compared to something else, potentially being better, pricing at a lot less.

So I would you the MK cards as high PPS capture ports, but with the benefit of 10GB upgrade from the current 1GB setup. The Napa 10GB equivalent is priced atleast 10x more.
 
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rfc1149
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Re: Mikrotik vs Napatech

Wed Apr 06, 2022 4:02 pm

I dont think power would be an issue going with the MT cards. My concern is that there is usually a reason why something is so high priced compared to something else, potentially being better, pricing at a lot less.

So I don't necessarily want to speak negatively about MikroTik, especially commercial grade (SFP28 would qualify I guess?) hardware, but in my experience there is a performance gap in coverage sometimes and I mean strictly only for people pushing their networks to the absolute limit. For example, I'm seeing instability with a wireless product (completely different product line/target market) with attempts at large, moderate and sometimes even idle throughput so I take the test figures with a bucket of salt. I'm starting to appreciate that sometimes, either due to ROS or hardware limits, I'm not going to see consistent traffic at the higher end of their capability. Please keep in mind that I don't have experience with that particular product (The PCI-e CCR) nor had the chance to play around with their beefier CCR's, nor does my experience translate into anything valid for the CCR range but I guess just keep your expectations moderate for the interfaces throughput with a small firewall/bridge filter ruleset. I'd expect decent performance since they use the new Annapurna Labs AL52400 SoC but there's no full publicly released information for this chip and I'm guessing MikroTik are under NDA to the same extent (Amazon company, go figure). You'll also note there's no block diagram for the card, further adding weight to the non-disclosure terms they're under for this SoC.

If anyone else could chime in and say otherwise, I welcome the input.
 
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Re: Mikrotik vs Napatech

Fri Apr 08, 2022 5:46 pm

You are not using the PTP/IEEE1588 functions of the Napatech?

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