Mellanox / Cumulus

Tom Hill tom at ninjabadger.net
Wed Nov 4 15:36:49 UTC 2020


On 02/11/2020 17:52, Bryan Holloway wrote:
> Anybody using these in production in an SP environment? And if so, any
> opinions, good or bad?

I haven't used them in an SP environment precisely because the Mellanox
hardware - while miles better than equivalent Broadcom designs - does
not cater to anyone with more than the most basic of QoS requirements.

Realistically, the ASIC designs are brilliant for data
centre/storage/HPC use, but they do not have (last I was briefed) any
hardware that would replace even an access switch, let alone a capable
border router.

I would *love* for that to change, so please correct me if I'm outdated.

On the software side, Cumulus Linux is very capable, and a joy to work
with. However, the business case to support even the Broadcom DNX range
(e.g. Arista 7280R) just wasn't there /before/ their acquisition. Again,
if that's changed it would be a fine software suite to investigate.

Regards,

-- 
Tom


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