3 ms·
Sorry, I should have been more clear. When I asked if FreeBSD and/or Linux could keep up, I was referring to the forwarding rates across four 1 GbE interfaces,
by jlgaddis 11y ago
Sorry, I should have been more clear. When I asked if FreeBSD and/or Linux could keep up, I was referring to the forwarding rates across four 1 GbE interfaces, like what the higher end SSGs came with. I certainly didn't mean to imply that an x86 BSD box could perform right up there with a QFX10000, for example.
Now that I'm thinking about it, though, Arista runs a Linux kernel on their switches. Or they did anyways, the last time I was out there being briefed; it was a Fedora Core 3 install (yes, it's been a few years), if memory serves, so it must be possible anyways. No idea if they're still doing that but, at the very least, they were at some point.
- throwaway7767 11y agoA few Gbit/s is peanuts for modern machines. Even a low-power fanless machine can saturate that without breaking a sweat.
- jzwinck 11y agoArista does run software on their switches. But that is the supervisor, aka the control plane. The data plane, where the actual throughput is achieved, is done with ASICs, and in some cases where user programmability is needed, FPGAs. At no point does Linux handle 1 Gbps+ traffic in those switches.