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.
Just to be clear, you’re upset with pfSense so your solution is to spend money on pfSense…
Move to OPNsense if you like but I’m unclear what that has to do with changing the function of your switch. Why are you considering that?
Because the Netgate appliances I’d need to replace my whitebox appliance are either the 6100 or the 8200. So if I offload most of the routing into a L3 switch, and I can put dhcp somewhere else too, then all I need is a little 1100 or 2100 appliance to just do firewall.
My current setup has all my switches in L2 mode and all firewall/routing is done in pfsense. If I break out the routing portion (and dhcp) then I don’t need nearly as much hardware for pfsense.