Extreme BlackDiamond

Mon Oct 13 18:01:50 UTC 2003

On Mon, 13 Oct 2003, Pekka Savola wrote:

> Just don't use extremes as routers, and you will be much, much happier. It
> _might_ work in the dumbest, unicast-only setups, but I have a lot of
> doubts about anything more complex than that.

I think you're being too pessimistic. For instance, some of the largest
LAN parties had Extreme boxen as core equipment (Dreamhack for instance,
4500 computers) and their ISP (where I work) had Extreme routers for a
larger part of its national core/distribution network.

We run BGP as well. It works for what we need it for. We use network 
statements and talk BGP with customers.

With EW7.1.0 they solved most of our issues, we're now going ISIS as well.

As with all equipment, try everything you want to do and see if it does it 
well. If you're doing a large network buildout you might save a LOT of 
money buy bying intermediate stuff (like Extreme) instead of coing the 
hard-core way (Juniper/GSR).

Yes, GSRs are better at routing but they lack L2 capability and it's a 
very expensive (and lousy unless you have Engine3 cards) GE plattform.

-- 
Mikael Abrahamsson    email: swmike at swm.pp.se