MikroTik

Great to see the huge interest in the CHR RouterOS images.
Please post what you would like to see in the CHR images, or web administration side.

- Proper file to easily install it in VMware ESXi without having to fiddle with VMware workstation or other tools.
(either the correct .vmdk file or a .ovf file)

- VMware tools included in the image

Hello,
I would love to see SR-IOV support. Currently (6.36.2) ixgbevf driver is not present. This was mentioned a year ago http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=100 but so far not implemented.

Jarda

- Proper file to easily install it in VMware ESXi without having to fiddle with VMware workstation or other tools.
(either the correct .vmdk file or a .ovf file)

- VMware tools included in the image

+1. Biggest reason why I don't use it. Can't be bothered to do 'hacks' to get a system to install...

The whole "hack" needed to get ESXi compatible image is just a single command, that's not so bad. But yeah, I don't understand, why MikroTik doesn't use it and release images that would work for everyone without fiddling with anything.

Hello,
I would love to see SR-IOV support. Currently (6.36.2) ixgbevf driver is not present. This was mentioned a year ago http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=100 but so far not implemented.

Jarda

+1 !!!

I would like to see two things:

1st - an ISO install boot image (just like the x86 32-bit ROS).
Where the installer can then select their own size of hard disk.
On a prior CHR I was testing, I ran out of hard disk space when testing packages.

2nd - licensing similar to all other Mikrotik ROS products - instead of a subscription based license.
I would like to license and forget instead of having to track a subscription license.
I hesitate to install any products that use a subscription based license.

I suspect these two feature request could drive up the popularity and install base for all physical and virtual environments and make it much more easy to install/configure.

North Idaho Tom Jones

You can set the system disk capacity before first run.
You can buy perpetual license that is even transferable to other chr if you need it in the future.

Support for Citrix XenServer.

Fix the P10 License, vlans over bonding has a lot of TX drops when use more than 1Mb (unresolved ticket: #2016062166000118). This problem does not affect PUnlimited license.

+1 to ad SR-IOV support!

Fix the P10 License, vlans over bonding has a lot of TX drops when use more than 1Mb (unresolved ticket: #2016062166000118). This problem does not affect PUnlimited license.

+1 to ad SR-IOV support!

Please make new topics about each issue, do not reply to unrelated posts.

Hi,
first of all: loving it

specific to CHR I'd ask for a way to automate deployment, be it to do a dhcp-client-request on the first interface found and get a config file specific for this box by eg requesting a tftp-file based on the mac# of this interface.
and for an easy system-reset a specific reboot-flag with "load default config" would also be nice (doing an autobackup before rebooting just in case).

disk-image-resize-support inside CHR would also be nice, in case one needs to increase the bootdisk.

thank you for this awesome piece of software,
hk

I'd love DNS Request routing. This means that the DNS-Service of RouterOS shall redirect its DNS-Request upon a certain rule set (eg. DNS prefix or suffix) to another DNS Server

Example with Sophos UTM
https://community.sophos.com/kb/de-de/123099

This feature would allow hierachical DNS-Setups with Mikrotik. (any site gets its own DNS-space and its own DNS-server)

Hi,
first of all: loving it

specific to CHR I'd ask for a way to automate deployment, be it to do a dhcp-client-request on the first interface found and get a config file specific for this box by eg requesting a tftp-file based on the mac# of this interface.
and for an easy system-reset a specific reboot-flag with "load default config" would also be nice (doing an autobackup before rebooting just in case).

disk-image-resize-support inside CHR would also be nice, in case one needs to increase the bootdisk.

thank you for this awesome piece of software,
hk

I second the notion of being able to automate the deployment. The CHR documentation doesn't say a lot about how the initial spin-up process works. What I'd like to see, from a documentation perspective, is how to customize this process. For instance, I want to run CHR in OpenStack/KVM environment. One of the cool features of this environment is the ability to provide a "configuration drive" that the VM can use during the spin-up process. Ideally, the document would say what file the CHR would be expecting on the drive. Do you realize how cool that would be? =) Right now, it would appear that CHR, by default, has DHCP client configured on ether1; this is well and good, but it's not documented.

Lots of ideas here. Better documentation = better users. =)

For now, the thing missing is a 100M licence.
I have 5 pfSense systems I'd like to migrate to CHR, but $45 / VM is a bit too much, especially since VMs are 5EUR / VM and are capable of forwarding <100Mbit/s.

So, say a $10 for 100M would be great. I could be called "p0.1"...

If you don't care about having the latest RouterOS version all the time, your license is free with any speed.

If you don't care about having the latest RouterOS version all the time, your license is free with any speed.

HUH?

So running one version back of bugfix, is free? When did that happen? Nothing like this mentioned at https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:CHR#CHR_Licensing

If you don't care about having the latest RouterOS version all the time, your license is free with any speed.

HUH?

So running one version back of bugfix, is free? When did that happen? Nothing like this mentioned at https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:CHR#CHR_Licensing

You can request a trial and it will never stop working. Only upgrading will be not possible after 60 days. It is in the manual.

If you don't care about having the latest RouterOS version all the time, your license is free with any speed.

HUH?

So running one version back of bugfix, is free? When did that happen? Nothing like this mentioned at https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:CHR#CHR_Licensing

You can request a trial and it will never stop working. Only upgrading will be not possible after 60 days. It is in the manual.

Oh... Ok, my bad. I was under the impression the trial stops after 60-days (like ROS and it's 24 hour limit)... That's very interesting

Interesting indeed...

Thank you!

Fastpath/Fasttrack for CHR is pretty much the only thing I'm missing, apart from a more convenient install method (.iso?) for ESXi.

I've been utilizing on AWS, and some in house testing in vSphere.

When we start talking "cloud", there is an expectation for rapid deployment and scalability. My vote would go to in-house license management, and central deployment/management. I should be able to configure an image to call home, then check out a license from my license pool at spin-up and perhaps some basic configuration options. I should be able to issue licenses to systems which aren't on the internet, and I should be able to do it without providing a singular set of credentials.

A use case:

Deploy CHR on a virtual stack deployed for a customer. The CHR tunnels home, giving management access to the network.

One or two customers, all of the manual intervention required for configuration and licensing is reasonable. Multiply by a number of customers, and a number of sites then you simply have a headache.

Fastpath/Fasttrack for CHR is pretty much the only thing I'm missing, apart from a more convenient install method (.iso?) for ESXi.

+1 for this and I would also like to get IP Cloud feature.

Cloud DDNS would be nice.

Cloud DDNS would be nice.

We already have that. Or you meant something different from the DNS name your device shows in the QuickSet page ?

Normis, the topic is about CHR...

Normis, the topic is about CHR...

ohhh. sorry about that it was still early morning when I replied.

Sooo what about Fastpath on CHR then?

We already have that. Or you meant something different from the DNS name your device shows in the QuickSet page ?

Yes, that
Doesn't exist on my CHR, unfortunately.

How about a way to re-trigger the partition resizing, after the first boot?

I'm evaluating using a CHR as a VPN server. I'm hosting it with a VPS with 20 GB disk, however "/system resource print" only shows 128MB. I was able to shut down the CHR and boot the VPS with Finnix to adjust the partition table, however when I reboot normally it still only shows the original 128MB.

Or is there a way to make this happen manually, by mounting one of the partitions and adding or removing a specific flag file?

How about a way to re-trigger the partition resizing, after the first boot?

I'm evaluating using a CHR as a VPN server. I'm hosting it with a VPS with 20 GB disk, however "/system resource print" only shows 128MB. I was able to shut down the CHR and boot the VPS with Finnix to adjust the partition table, however when I reboot normally it still only shows the original 128MB.

Or is there a way to make this happen manually, by mounting one of the partitions and adding or removing a specific flag file?

This is strange I have extended my disk two times in Hyper-V from 128 MB to 1 GB and then again to 10 GB. All I needed to do is shutdown the CHR, extend the disk and CHR resized the disk during start.

I forgot to add, I did a write-up which details how I resized the filesystem, in case anybody needs it.

https://www.jms1.net/mikrotik/Cloud%20H ... ltr.com.md

Mikrotik developers,

I am sure others have explained this, but open-vm-tools is absolutely necessary for CHR. If you are running a CHR it is most likely in a datacenter environment which has zero tolerance for downtime. With vmware tools or open-vm-tools quite a lot that vmware can do with this VM is accomplished. Currently there are several reason that a CHR VM has to be shutdown to perform something simple that would normally be done while the VM is running. Also things like Vmware HA do not function properly because vm tools provides a heartbeat. It just does not make sense that you have built a router "tailored for virtual environments" that can not fully function in a virtual environment...

Thank you!

... or not at all : viewtopic.php?f=15&t=120413

Please add install iso file for CHR!
It would massively easy up life for most of people(no need for separate guides and so on - just install from ISO like nearly any other system and it will work for cases like ProxMox where we don't have actual VM file but have compatible KVM).

Please add install iso file for CHR!
It would massively easy up life for most of people(no need for separate guides and so on - just install from ISO like nearly any other system and it will work for cases like ProxMox where we don't have actual VM file but have compatible KVM).

+1 for ISO or OVF templates

I would like to be able to access the virtual BIOs UUID from within the guest. With QEMU / KVM this is unique per VM.

In a linux guest it can be accessed using dmidecode.

I mentioned it in this thread- viewtopic.php?f=15&t=124230

Thanks

Fastpath/Fasttrack for CHR is pretty much the only thing I'm missing, apart from a more convenient install method (.iso?) for ESXi.

+1000 for Fastpath/Fasttrack in CHR

+ Support R11e interfaces.
+ Support Trusted Platform Module
+ USB power control.
+ IDS/IPS feature.
+ More VPN clients/servers (Wireguard, openconnect)
+ DNS Server with DNSSEC
+ Support TOR/I2P networks

Fastpath/Fasttrack for CHR is pretty much the only thing I'm missing, apart from a more convenient install method (.iso?) for ESXi.

+1000 for Fastpath/Fasttrack in CHR

With VMXNET3 iface fastpath/fasttrack is ok.

....this is on my wishlist for CHR:

- support for two-factor-authentication (for a roaming admin) on Web-UI
- post-install script securing the router automatically (disable all services) ...the last time I installed a fresh CHR on a V-Server, the bots were faster than I was able to secure it (took them 2-3secs to get a successful login)

....this is on my wishlist for CHR:

- support for two-factor-authentication (for a roaming admin) on Web-UI
- post-install script securing the router automatically (disable all services) ...the last time I installed a fresh CHR on a V-Server, the bots were faster than I was able to secure it (took them 2-3secs to get a successful login)

Please don't ask for functional changes in this thread - it is only about CHR features!
Running a reset with script for initial installation is already supported!
Besides, a CHR comes up with blank config so you could have been more careful in the sequence of configuration (e.g. set the password before you add a network interface)

Please don't ask for functional changes in this thread - it is only about CHR features!
Running a reset with script for initial installation is already supported!
Besides, a CHR comes up with blank config so you could have been more careful in the sequence of configuration (e.g. set the password before you add a network interface)

I am not a native english speaker and a mikrotik novice, so bear with me, but I am not asking for functional changes - as you put it - but specifically for adding these features permanently to CHR only.
With CHR I am not referring to any hardware based model, but to the x86-platform based, software images only, to be used in cloud installations.
I am using mine on v-servers.
So I'd gather this is the right thread for my request..

The info on running a reset with a script for initialization is nice to hear and I will look into that employing that with a CHR install (not after a reset).
However, my personal experience is, that the images come up with an interface *enabled* after the install. Hence my request.

VirtIO SCSI support, please, ASAP: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=124905&p=626094#p626094

VirtIO SCSI support, please, ASAP: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=124905&p=626094#p626094

+1

VirtIO SCSI support, please, ASAP: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=124905&p=626094#p626094

+100500

For example - cheapest and great hetzner[dot]cloud (no advertising, just fact) support only virtio-scsi disk. Fu#ked with 6.42RC15 - 6.42RC18 - 6.42RC20 in this cloud provider tonight. Not working... Please, make us happy...

Hi,
another +1 for virtio-scsi driver. It should not bee so hard to add it.

Hetzner cloud for example is using virtio-scsi.

I would like to see a feature that allows to assign the same MAC address of the CHR vnic to de VRRP virtual interface, so you don't have to activate promiscuous mode in the vswitch (or port group) for VRRP to work in VMware vSphere.
I saw that feature on Cisco with the "standby use-bias" command and in vyos not using the rfc3768-compatibility command.
With promiscuous mode activated I have performance problems and packets duplication.

References:
https://supportforums.cisco.com/t5/othe ... -p/2720356
https://supportforums.cisco.com/t5/lan- ... -p/2686459
https://forum.vyos.net/showthread.php?tid=26561

Fastpath/Fasttrack for CHR is pretty much the only thing I'm missing, apart from a more convenient install method (.iso?) for ESXi.

+1

CHR feature request

--> Mikrotik , I could really use an ISO image of a CHR so that I can install CHR on a bare metal box (just like x86 ROS).

Info :

- x86 ROS is available as an ISO that can be installed on a bare metal box. All CPU's are available to the x86 ROS system. The problem is that it is 32-Bit

- CHR ROS (64-bit) is only available as a disk image to be copied into a hypervisor system ( in my case a VmWare ESXi hypervisor ). The problem is that there are no free and popular hypervisors (that I know of) that will present greater than eight ( 8 ) CPUs to the guest hosted CHR ROS system. So your options are 1, use 8 CPUs on your CHR or 2, purchase a very expensive hypervisor license ( 100 K ? or so ) so that the hypervisor can then permit a CHR to run with greater than 8 CPUs. Example - a high end bare metal box with two Xeon 56 core processors could yield 112 Xeon processors to a CHR (without hyper-threading enabled). - - - Now you could have as many firewall rules and connections as you want and probably almost never bog down the layer-3 throughput. Also , a bare metal CHR with two Intel® Xeon® Processor E7-8890 v4 processors would yield 24 CPU cores and 120 Meg of CPU cache - thus a CHR could run at full CPU cache clock speed instead of the slower RAM speed for crazy fast CHR throughput.


In my network, I have a CHR with multiple 10-Gig interfaces performing bandwidth management on a dozen class C networks to customers averaging up to almost 150 thousand firewall connections. I suspect a bare metal CHR would increase firewall bandwidth processing yielding an additional 500 to 1,000 percent (or greater) CHR throughput.

Can't you just boot from a Linux Live CD and then use that to dd the disk image to the physical disk?

you cant just copy the image to a disk. it is a container for the hypervisor and uses only virtual devices without drivers for the baremetal server.

But you are talking about using a server with so much cores and ram and cant afford an esc licence for around 800€ per CPU?
The Server is abaout 3000€ with 2 sockets just add 1600€ esx licence.
if you are running a business this should not be a problem.

My thoughts on possible methods to get CHR running on a bare metal box . . .

- I believe a CHR does have IDE drivers to directly manage/talk to an IDE hard disk controller and IDE drives. I'm pretty sure a CHR does not have any SCSI, SAS, SATA support/drivers. Sooo #1 a bare metal box might have to be IDE hard disk based.

- CHR does have support for Intel E1000e and E1000 network cards. FYI - there are no physical vmxnet-3 network cards , all vmxnet-3 ethernet interfaces only live in a virtual world. Sooo #2 a bare metal box might have to have Intel E1000e and/or Intel E1000 physical network card interfaces.

Building a physical bare metal box with IDE drives and Intel E1000e networks cards at this point is pretty easy.
The hard part is moving a virtual CHR file system on a virtual IDE disk drive to a physical bare metal IDE hard disk drive and keeping the boot information and CHR linux file system identical so that a CHR ROS system can boot on the bare metal system. This procedure is slightly beyond my knowledge at this time.

However , I do know that a virtual CHR file system can be mounted under a virtual Linux system. I have done this with both 32-Bit x86 ROS and 64-Bit CHR ROS. I've already done this a couple of times to examine the Mikrotik x86/CHR Linux file systems on some virtual ROS systems. What I don't know is a possible procedure to dd a CHR virtual file system to a physical IDE hard disk and what may be needed to get it to boot on the physical bare metal box. I am guessing this should be an easy process to follow if a person was to follow some instructions.

With all of the above teckie steps to attempt to get a CHR running on bare metal, I can only assume it would be much much much easier if Mikrotik just came out with a CHR ISO so that it would be easy to install CHR on a bare metal system (just like x86).

Had anybody ever attempted building a bare metal CHR ?

Why not possible use hw ROS with CHR licensing model?

This is not correct.

I can give wh and install free ESXi, and use CHR, why Mikrotik can't just change licensing model?

I also want or should I say need this dhcp-client-request does not work form me
I want to at least get the IP Address added and maybe a password

Nut if I can get the IP address added to can use API to do everything else

thanks

Hi,
first of all: loving it

specific to CHR I'd ask for a way to automate deployment, be it to do a dhcp-client-request on the first interface found and get a config file specific for this box by eg requesting a tftp-file based on the mac# of this interface.
and for an easy system-reset a specific reboot-flag with "load default config" would also be nice (doing an autobackup before rebooting just in case).

disk-image-resize-support inside CHR would also be nice, in case one needs to increase the bootdisk.

thank you for this awesome piece of software,
hk

I second the notion of being able to automate the deployment. The CHR documentation doesn't say a lot about how the initial spin-up process works. What I'd like to see, from a documentation perspective, is how to customize this process. For instance, I want to run CHR in OpenStack/KVM environment. One of the cool features of this environment is the ability to provide a "configuration drive" that the VM can use during the spin-up process. Ideally, the document would say what file the CHR would be expecting on the drive. Do you realize how cool that would be? =) Right now, it would appear that CHR, by default, has DHCP client configured on ether1; this is well and good, but it's not documented.

Lots of ideas here. Better documentation = better users. =)

Hello,
I would love to see SR-IOV support. Currently (6.36.2) ixgbevf driver is not present. This was mentioned a year ago http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=100 but so far not implemented.

Jarda

Where are we at with this?

still no support for...

Hello,
I would love to see SR-IOV support. Currently (6.36.2) ixgbevf driver is not present. This was mentioned a year ago http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=100 but so far not implemented.

Jarda

Where are we at with this?

Maybe in the v7 beta? (I did not check)

We are using CHR in Microsoft Azure and it would be nice if the Mikrotik image can be used thru Azure Marketplace.

The second missing feature is the Azure Guest OS diagnostic agent that can provide integration with Azure services like Site recovery and VM backup.

Hey 👋, as vmware has released esxi for raspberry pi, can we have CHR for that please.

Good day.
On the web administration side, you need to create a home page - dashboard!
On the dashboard, you need to place graphical information on the CPU, RAM, device uptime, temperature, etc., status and loading of interfaces and log windows with the last 10 errors.

Can this be done as an extra package? And how much will that cost?

---
Sorry for google translate

You can do it with Winbox... i.e. you can start Winbox, open the things you want to see in separate subwindows, arrange them how you like, and save that session.
The next time you start Winbox and connect that router, it will come back with that view immediately.
There are some possible tricks to share that saved session among different devices, or to start a new session with that specific saved session.
(however you would have to be careful not to modify it)

This is not available in the web interface. You could write your own software that runs on a separate web server and that uses API to retrieve the information from the device and puts it on a webpage in the layout you wish.

Well, maybe the developers will see my post and agree to write such a page ( Dashboard ) for some amount of bucks?

Well, maybe the developers will see my post and agree to write such a page ( Dashboard ) for some amount of bucks?

I have never seen developers on this forum engage in such activity... does not mean it never happens, of course.
But I think it would be better to contact the sales department about it. They can probably tell you what is possible to do when you pay for it.

I do not understand.
If there are no developers here, then why this topic?

Where exactly is it better to write my ideas so that developers can see them?
---
Soory for Google translate

Of course this is a feature request topic, but when your request is "please implement this for some bucks" it is more like a sales case.
When talking to developers here, it is quite apparent that requests that come via sales have quite some more priority than "nice to have" requests here on the forum.
And when you are prepared to pay, that seems like a valid request to send via sales.

Ability to adjust ring buffer size.

Hey 👋, as vmware has released esxi for raspberry pi, can we have CHR for that please.

+1

Is there any place to vote for feature requests? :)

if is esxi, you can use the same image as regular esxi.... what are the problem?

Are you sure that x86 VM image works without any problems on arm architecture? No speed penalty?

Are you sure that x86 VM image works without any problems on arm architecture? No speed penalty?

I know, if I'm not wrong, ARM is more faster than x86....

Just discovered that my CHR unlimited license was not updating/renewing. Who knows for how long this has been going on.
Support fixed it after two days and stated the problem was on MT's end.
Would be nice to get a warning in Winbox about license issues. Never crossed my mind to check the license status. Clicked it by mistake and noticed the tick on "Limited upgrades".
Now I have another thing to worry about.

Well, expired license means you cannot upgrade ROS version. The router itself continues to work just as before.

Well, expired license means you cannot upgrade ROS version. The router itself continues to work just as before.

Support stated the same, nevertheless, I do not agree.
At least one function did not work while the problem was active, so who knows what other functions are disabled?
I only checked IP/Cloud "Update time" and that gave me a warning that my trial has expired or something along the lines and could not be enabled.

I'm not sure if it would have worked OK when you had enabled it before the license expired and then no longer touched it.
However, IP->Cloud->Update time is not something you would want to use anyway. It is often quite inaccurate.
Just configure NTP server(s) in System->SNTP servers. When you do not have a local NTP server you can enter DNS name pool.ntp.org

At least one function did not work while the problem was active, so who knows what other functions are disabled?
I only checked IP/Cloud "Update time" and that gave me a warning that my trial has expired or something along the lines and could not be enabled.

Correct, I meant all the local functions which should work. Cloud functions definitely stop working

Activation of license with no internet access..

Activation of license with no internet access..

Any real-life use case where you cannot have Internet access during initial setup of CHR?..

Activation of license with no internet access..

Any real-life use case where you cannot have Internet access during initial setup of CHR?..

But activated CHRs with license do contact the license server once a month. I think when they cannot do so for 3 months they get de-activated.
(at least they post a "deadline date" in the license window similar to that)

I think when they cannot do so for 3 months they get de-activated.

And that is wrong

(at least they post a "deadline date" in the license window similar to that)

You cannot upgrade ROS after that, that's the only limitation

Ok, I saw a few days ago on a CHR where strict output rules are configured that it was trying to do an outgoing connect to port 443 on a MikroTik IP, that turned out to be license.mikrotik.com, so I added that as an address list and an output rule, and after that it has used the rule once and the "deadline" date has shifted.
But indeed it seems that this is not really required, only it is convenient as the license remains current.
Maybe when on an isolated network which has internet connectivity but its use is forbidden, that can be worked around with a similar rule.
(also for upgrade.mikrotik.com)
The paranoid can disable these rules and only enable them when the need arises.

Zerotier for CHR would be great. Introduce paid modules if needed.