Why shouldn't I get a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X?

[fjkl]

Hmm, I thought I saw people say the ERX could reach ~150Mbit with QoS. I may be mistaken...

Well, I'm new to the EdgeOS environment, just got mine today. So I might have configured it wrong (or missed some configuration option that would get more speed). Or perhaps they used a different form of traffic shaping (the Smart Queue Management is the new FQ-CoDel + HTB option they added in 1.7.0 but there were other methods in older versions)? Either way though, 150 is still short of 300 Mbps.

 

[System Error Message]

there is mikrotik's PPC based and TILE based routers for around the price of the ERPRO so if you need the CPU power for QoS, firewall and other stuff they perform much better even for vpn. If you do decide to go with their TILE based router i suggest the fanless one or modify the noisy ones.

 

[Trip]

The ER-X should be able to do smart-queue QoS at 100-200 Mb/s... assuming the rest of the config is setup correctly and you don't have any excessive packet handling schemas getting in the way. I'd have to inspect your running config to see if you've got something set errantly, albeit even incorrectly.

Re- SEM's suggestion, the Mikrotik equivalent would be done along the lines of this wiki guide. No trivial feat, but if you've got the chops to handle the setup, the passively-cooled CCR1009 will smash almost anything out there for equivalent QoS throughput (300Mb would be no problem at all). EDIT -- and at $350-400 USD street price, the cost/performance is hilariously insane.

 

[fjkl]

The ER-X should be able to do smart-queue QoS at 100-200 Mb/s... assuming the rest of the config is setup correctly and you don't have any excessive packet handling schemas getting in the way. I'd have to inspect your running config to see if you've got something set errantly, albeit even incorrectly.

Like I said, I'm new to EdgeOS, so I might have missed something. All I did was run the WAN+2LAN2 wizard, set up some port forwards, then (and maybe this is the problem) upgrade to 1.7.0 (1.6.6 was installed), and finally go to QoS, Add Smart Queue, select eth0 (where my cable modem is connected), enter my download and upload speed, and hit Apply. So like I said, nothing fancy was going on.

 

[kvic]

Faster than people can wait, Ubnt already have a FW (1.8.5 beta) that supports HW NAT. Someone did a quick and dirty test. WAN throughput jumps from <500Mbit/s to >700Mbit/s.

HW crypto and other offload processing shall be coming in subsequent releases?! Seems there is no reason by now you shouldn't get one. @Nullity have you got hands on one yet?

EDIT: link to 1.8.5 beta

https://community.ubnt.com/t5/EdgeM...ilable-in-the-beta-forum/m-p/1532068#U1532068

• "Hardware NAT" offload and "per-port VLAN" for the ER-X platform
• Traffic Analysis/DPI for the ER-X platform

Not only HW NAT but also per-port VLAN as well as DPI engine!

 

[Trip]

I have 1.8.5 running now on almost all of mine in the field (10 or so) and it's a nice update feature-wise.

However, certain things still must be handled in software, namely all traffic subject to Smart Queue QoS, which means your WAN-LAN throughput maximums are still CPU-bound. Conversely, DPI can't capture offloaded traffic, so if you want full visibility in many scenarios you must leave HW offload off.

So it's often still better to do everything in software via a large amount of aggregate CPU (Mikrotik CCRs, Intel boxes, etc.), but then we're talking multiples higher cost, and short of those needs the ER-X is still a nice value.

 

[kvic]

The MediaTek SoC inside ER-X is very interesting (if not better than lower end Cavium octeon's). It has HW offload for NAT, Crypto and QoS. With NAT done in 1.8.5, offload for IPsec/OpenVPN won't be far into the future. Just my speculation again apparently. Worth noting that no other edgerouters have OpenVPN offloaded. ER-X could be the first one. Let's hope QoS offload won't be too difficult to tackle. The Ubnt team seems young and aggressive and yet capable.

True that offloaded traffic will bypass traffic analyzer. So we lose some eye candy. At least that's in a SOHO environment.

@Trip do you see which vendor provides the DPI engine?

 

[sfx2000]

there is mikrotik's PPC based and TILE based routers for around the price of the ERPRO so if you need the CPU power for QoS, firewall and other stuff they perform much better even for vpn. If you do decide to go with their TILE based router i suggest the fanless one or modify the noisy ones.

Should also mention that RouterOS (MicroTik's operating system) is available as a software installation for x86, and there performance is pretty impressive - there's a licensing cost associated with it, but I've seen it in action, and works fairly well.

 

[System Error Message]

Should also mention that RouterOS (MicroTik's operating system) is available as a software installation for x86, and there performance is pretty impressive - there's a licensing cost associated with it, but I've seen it in action, and works fairly well.

True, compared to a PPC or TILE based routerboard the license is much cheaper depending on level rather than buying a routerboard if the x86 hardware was reused. Most people seem to want embedded rather than a desktop. The best part of the x86 routerOS is the virtualisation software available. But compared to the other x86 OSes available people usually prefer pfsense or other alternatives because its easier to configure than routerOS. The only problem relating to x86 routerOS is that the license is specific for a system and if you change stuff it means contacting mikrotik so there could be downtime if there is a hardware change which means you should contact them far ahead.

 

[sfx2000]

True, compared to a PPC or TILE based routerboard the license is much cheaper depending on level rather than buying a routerboard if the x86 hardware was reused. Most people seem to want embedded rather than a desktop. The best part of the x86 routerOS is the virtualisation software available. But compared to the other x86 OSes available people usually prefer pfsense or other alternatives because its easier to configure than routerOS. The only problem relating to x86 routerOS is that the license is specific for a system and if you change stuff it means contacting mikrotik so there could be downtime if there is a hardware change which means you should contact them far ahead.

I was trying to toss you a easy ball to hit out of the park

Put in a pair of DL380 G9's, and RouterOS can work in a Active/Active load-balanced solution, or Active/Standby for failover with sync across the servers.... and this is enough to power most enterprise networks.

The strength of Microtik is not the Hardware, it's RouterOS, period... the HW is kinda nice, but it's really the SW...

 

[System Error Message]

Yeah routerOS is nice, but if i had a choice i would build one up using a linux server OS mainly for the flexibility. Ofcourse in an enterprise network you wont be installing things on your router so routerOS makes sense even though you cant install stuff on it being a dedicated router.

Still much better than ubiquiti edgemax OS, I'm having so much trouble just trying to get my edgerouter working properly. With mikrotik it is so much easier as either update or change config. With ubiquiti i change config, reinstall the packages and i still get the same problems so now i have to reset and start from scratch but im trying to check if a hard reset will wipe the config i want to delete which i dont know where which is a script that reinstalls stuff after an update/reset.

 

[sfx2000]

I'm having so much trouble just trying to get my edgerouter working properly

That's because it's hiding in the closet - bring that bad boy out into the open - it's a good week for that - show some pride...

Didn't think I would catch you up on this one...

win!

 

[System Error Message]

its not in the closet . Im just having trouble with the router in regards to SSL. not just SSL, quite a lot of things are running slowly. It used to be much faster in running software.

 

[Nullity]

its not in the closet . Im just having trouble with the router in regards to SSL. not just SSL, quite a lot of things are running slowly. It used to be much faster in running software.

Are you planning for a career in politics?

So many words, yet so little said...

 

[sfx2000]

its not in the closet . Im just having trouble with the router in regards to SSL. not just SSL, quite a lot of things are running slowly. It used to be much faster in running software.

FWIW - shared concern with NAND fragmentation - I've diverted /var/log to ram (got a lot of it, 4GB worth), but there is some concern with the 8GB eMMC on my pfSense box burning a hole with logs...

Yay low end Celerons, Atoms, whatever - my box is not a typical Celeron/Pentium/Atom - it's a purpose built Silvermont cored device that is designed for the very reason why it's there...

I've picked up a mSATA Samsung EVO 120GB to solve that issue - I know it's a bit excessive, but that was the cheapest available solution local - $70 USD

Shouldn't have issues moving forward, as FreeBSD does support fstrim...

 

[kvic]

The strength of Microtik is not the Hardware, it's RouterOS, period... the HW is kinda nice, but it's really the SW...

...and the difference between Mikrotik and Ubiquiti router FW..Mikrotik has 10 extra years of tunings under their belt. That alone as a competitive edge is losing fast. So easy to be borrowed, and copied by late comers.

 

[sfx2000]

So easy to be borrowed, and copied by late comers.

Or quietly ignored and moved beyond - something to be said about specialization and technology debt...

 

[superjet]

I got an ERP for a gateway from a local store for $155. It is a serious beast of a router for what I use it for with a 1000/1000 gpon connection. The hardware offload works unlike any consumer router I've tried and the management interface is robust. In my experience it needs active cooling though. A $10 usb fan blowing on it solves that problem in my case. I'm extremely happy with mine.

 

[occamsrazor]

Hi,

Just came across this thread and looking for some advice on which Edgerouter model to get. My current setup at home is:

ISP Fiber modem at 10 megabit up/down > DMZ >
Asus RT-N66U as Router running tomato firmware >
Netgear GS110TP gigabit switch with SFP, other GS108Tv2 gigabit switch, Fiber Media Converters, Wifi APs, etc
Everything is on the same subnet

Although I've been happy with Tomato, I'd like to try the EdgeOS and so have been looking at the different Edgerouter models...

- My existing hardware seems to offer enough ports, I just need good router to connect to my main switch.
- I do a lot of gigabit LAN transfers backing up between computers and two NAS.
- Given my ISP speed, raw throughput probably isn't an issue
- I will need OpenVPN option as both client and server
- I will need QoS to handle simultaneous torrents, browsing, VOIP, etc
- I will need Static DHCP functions on the LAN

I've read some of the discussion about the merits of the ER-X vs ER-L hardware, especially as regards HW acceleration. Given current state of EdgeOS firmware, which would you recommend for my use?

In terms of router OS functionality, options etc (ignoring speed) is there any difference between the OS used by the ER-X and ER-L?

Thanks in advance....

 

[System Error Message]

fiber optics at 10Mb/s? what kind of ISP does that? Thats usually what cable or DSL would give.

any edgerouter will support your 20Mb/s forwarding requirement.