I have a CRS317 (idk the numbers, 16x sfp+ and one 1gbe rj45). I’ve had it running SwOS for years with my esxi hosts connected to it. My home network is a router on stick setup and it’s been awesome for ~10 years.

But with all this pfsense plus fees and money garbage, I’m thinking about putting the microtik crs317 into routeros L3 mode so I can buy a netgate box like 1100/2100 (and get pfsense plus with the appliance).

Wondering what people’s real-world experience is with routeros on the crs317 switch? I can currently saturate 10gbe and part of my battery backup and shutdown procedure is based on the timing of those transfers/migrations, etc. so while I don’t need to absolutely keep every bit of 10GbE, I can’t go down to something like 2.5GbE.

Thanks.

I guess if the mikrotik won’t work: Should I buy a router? Should I buy a Cisco sx550x 10gbe switch? Thx.

  • WrongColorPaint@alien.topOPBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Having L3 at the access switch layer have other benefits.

    Thx. for the response. I bit the bullet and bought a second identical machine (lenovo tiny m720q) to what I’m running now with pfsense. When it gets here and I get it together I’ll run the second machine with opnsense, in parallel to the current pfsense setup. I’ll probably do something like a double-nat and use opnsense for my esxi and homelab stuff so I can keep pfsense running the rest of the house.

    What do you mean other benefits? ACLs? I have pfsense (2x sfp+ lan lacp, 1x mobo gigabit wan), then a Cisco SG500X-24 in L2 mode, then from there I’ve got the mikrotik crs317 and a bunch of cisco sg300 switches. If I make a change I’d probably offload the dhcp server too. What else am I missing?

    Should I try to replace pfsense 1:1 with opnsense for now, and then make changes later (or don’t change anything once I’m comfortable)? I’ve been using essentially the same setup for so long I don’t really know much else.