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Beardmann
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Datacenter switch redundancy

Thu Apr 13, 2023 7:02 pm

Hi there
I'm a bit new to Mikrotik, so please bear with me ;-)
I am looking for a redundant switch setup for a datacenter with a number of hosts and storage systems using NFS and iSCSI to communicate.
In the Cisco world you are able to interconnect two Nexus switches in such way that they will act as one switch, so you are able to create a LACP setup with one or more ports from each switch...
If you try this with a "normal" switch you will have to rely on STP...

What are the possibilities in SwOS and are there special options with different switch boxes?

/B
 
Beardmann
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Re: Datacenter switch redundancy

Fri Apr 14, 2023 9:48 am

Guess I can kinda answer my question. The term used my Mikrotik and others is MLAG.
Can someone please verify that this is only available in RouterOS?
And would is be "best practice" to use RouterOS for a task as described?
SwitchOS is much simpler and easier to manage things like VLANs which seems to be very different to manage in RouterOS ?

/B
 
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k6ccc
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Re: Datacenter switch redundancy

Sat Apr 15, 2023 6:48 am

SwitchOS has no provision to make two physical switches act as a single larger switch - I wish it did.
 
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mkx
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Re: Datacenter switch redundancy

Sat Apr 15, 2023 9:55 am

SwitchOS has no provision to make two physical switches act as a single larger switch - I wish it did.

Neither does ROS. There is no such thing as proper stacking in MT world. AFAIK there are only two alternatives which go towards stacking, but both only get to around 1/4 of the way:
  • MLAG which offers redundancy between cooperating switches
  • port extender which offers centralized management across switch chassies (but kills performance and is not redundant)
and both require running ROS to properly setup.

From the description by @OP I'm guessing it's MLAG which might fit the bill.
 
duytran
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Re: Datacenter switch redundancy

Sat Apr 15, 2023 7:54 pm

Cisco Nexus doesn't Support StackWise Virtual, it supports vPC that is similar to MLAG in ROS 7
 
Beardmann
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Re: Datacenter switch redundancy

Tue Sep 19, 2023 9:37 pm

OK so I got the CCR2004-1G-12S+2XS as the router/gateway and works great.
Now I would like to replace the two 10G switches below that connect to my servers and storage systems.

The CRS317-1G-16S+RM would make sense, and it supports MLAG...
One think I do not understand is, that there is no equivalent switch to the CCR2004 ? It would have been nice to connect the two switches to the router via SFP28, but there is no switch with 25G SFP+ ports (XS ports) Why not?

I will connect the two CRS317 together using MLAG for my hosts and storage systems, seems like a lot of work according to the documentation :-)
I can see from the dox that it is done using routeros... but is it also possible using switchos? The few times I had a look at switchos, is looked much simpler which is just what you need on a switch... :-)

The connection from each switch to the router/gateway I guess will have to be setup as a simple STP? Or are there other options here?
My setup is quite simple with four ESXi hosts and two dual controller netapp storage systems...
The ESXi hosts have two 10G NICs which have setup in a redundant LACP pair with VLANs on top, so I have both storage traffic and client traffic running on the same LACP only on different VLANs...
The storage systems have four 10G ports per controller which is setup as two ports in a LACP and the other two setup as simple access ports (running iSCSI)... All this is quite simple to setup in the Cisco world.. yet my setup is too small to warrant cisco switches ;-)

Has anyone configured something like this? (I would assume so).. any hints are very welcome...

/B
 
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mkx
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Re: Datacenter switch redundancy

Tue Sep 19, 2023 9:58 pm

The connection from each switch to the router/gateway I guess will have to be setup as a simple STP?
No, devices connected to MLAG-configured "stack" of switches should use multiple connections as LACP bond (with VLANs on top of it). The only "complication" with MLAG on ROS switches is proper configuration on switch side (both peer-peer link, done once, and MLAG bonds, done per client device).

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