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What level of routing decisions do you expect to be made on a single / dual ethernet drop to a server card with no other ports? Like this is cute and all, but
by ikiris 5y ago
What level of routing decisions do you expect to be made on a single / dual ethernet drop to a server card with no other ports?
Like this is cute and all, but kind of a weird target market.
- Alupis 5y agoBunch 'O VLAN's to guest VM's without that routing consuming CPU cycles on the host hardware. RouterOS has a full API so you could automate everything. The card actually has 4 "ports". 1 virtual port dedicated to management (via PCIe passthrough), 1 GBe port, and 2 SFP28 cages. Plenty for a cloud hosting provider. Both SFP28 cages, plus the virtual 1GBe port support passthrough via PCIe to the physical server. That's just one use case. Another is a dedicated firewall for the actual physical server that's powering the thing, running at a full 25Gbps consuming zero CPU time on the server itself and zero U's of space... all for less than $199 street price. The card supports PCIe 8x passthrough, so the physical connection to the server is 64Gbps - way more than a single SFP28 cage can support. Pretty slick...
- ikiris 5y agoAnd yet none of this is actually attractive from a cost perspective at this rate compared to other options that would actually be used in the same space is my point. Everything I can think of to do with this card can be done better and cheaper somewhere else. And yes, I've done this stuff at very large scales.
- Alupis 5y agoCheaper than $199 (probably around $175 street price is my guess), 0U's, no licensing or reoccurring fees, and consumes zero host resources? Even as just a physical firewall or hardware vpn endpoint in front of a colo'ed server, using one SFP28 in full passthrough... this thing sounds incredible. I think people that feel this device is pointless just have not been in a situation where this device is exactly what they needed. It is a niche device, admittedly. However, you have my attention - what device are you referring to that does this better and cheaper?
- ikiris 5y agoThis is all better done with ACLs or direct programming on a broadcom chipset in a traditional scale top of rack switch or similar, or better done in the actual host CPU land because its something complicated that can't be done with simple ACL / TCAM programming. Seriously, there isn't a good problem here that this solution solves that isn't better done elsewhere.
- Alupis 5y agoTop of rack requires space, which must be paid for monthly in a colo'ed environment, or reduces usable space (ie. revenue generating space) for hosting/cloud providers. Done in actual host CPU consumes resources. Direct programming on a chipset is a lot more complicated than running an off the shelf router. Yes this is a niche product - but your proposed alternatives are silly in most cases where just slapping a zero U device into an unused PCIe port is far less complicated, less expensive, and easier to maintain. This thing costs less than $200, a one time cost. Just reading the Broadcom documentation alone will cost your organization more than that...
- ikiris 5y agoSo you don't plug servers into an existing switch? Do they just connect via magic or something?