MikroTik

Hi folks,

Could you help me choosing the right equipment for my network?

Currently I have two sites based on Mikrotik devices

Site 1 - Main
- ISP 1Gbit/s
- main router RB1100AH
- CAPs RBcAPGi-5acD2nD and RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT
- 4x 48P 1Gbit/s switches (D-Link ) + 1 x 24P 1Gbit/s switches (D-Link )
- approx. 140 end devices ( 60 wired / 80 wireless )
- few VPN users

Site 2
-ISP 750Mbit/s
- main router RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT
- CAPs RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT
- 1x 48P 1Gbit/s switches (D-Link ) + 1 x 24P 1Gbit/s switches (D-Link )
- approx. 50 end devices ( 20 wires / 30 wireless )

Sites are connected via eoip tunnel

At this moment this works somehow, but for sure could be faster - especially site 2 could benefit with better router.

As I`m planning to connect the Site 3 I have a chance to upgrade the network.

Site 3

- approx. 40 end devices ( 10 wired / 30 wireless ) but there is potential to extend it to 140 devices within next three years ( 60 wired / 80 wireless )

Any chance you could help with choosing the right solution for Site 3 and any ideas how to upgrade the main routers at Site 1 & 2?

I thought about getting CCR2116-12G-4S+ for Site 1 (and getting 2Gbit/s from ISP ), moving existing RB1100AH to Site 2 and purchase additional CCR2116-12G-4S+ for site 3. Would it work?

BTW, I can see a big shortage of the Mikrotik devices - CCR2116-12G-4S+ is available in my country, but for example there is a shortage of RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT, cannot get them anywhere - any idea why?

Regards,
Nicholas

Any ideas or did I post in the wrong place?

Firstly are you running the devices on default CPU frequency? Maybe you can get some more performance by overclocking the CPU which is usually safe using the available presets on Mikrotik devices (obviously there's some risks but personally I've never had a problem). You could put a heatsink on for peace of mind

Otherwise yes you may need to upgrade. And yes, hardware stock shortages due to chip shortages is a major problem at the moment, not only with MikroTik of course, so you may have to wait some time for availability if you can't find what you're looking for right now

Well, I`m running devices with default CPU frequency. I wouldn't try overclocking CPU that is already in use for quiet few years - I really prefer to upgrade to a newer model, especially that I need to connect new site within next few months so I will need to purchase new devices. However, where possible, I would prefer restore current configuration from backup rather than configure router from the beginning.

I got you about the shortage - as I can see, main routers are available, there is mainly a problem with hAP ac, but I can still use cAP's
and rotate them with existing hAPs that I have already in my network, so there is the way to at least temporary solve this problem.

small sites with around 200-300 regular customers can be well served by rb4011igs+rm, this has to be your start point nowadays

if you need more than that the next step will be ccr2004-16g-2s+ for around 500-600 regular customers

next step ccr2116-12g-4s+ for around 1000 regular customers

all depends on your money budget, power budget and physical space budget

However, where possible, I would prefer restore current configuration from backup rather than configure router from the beginning.

You can try, but experience so far is that binary backups don't work between different device models. If you get new device with ROS v7 (and you probably run v6 on your RB1100AH), ROS version discrepancy is another factor in favour of failure.
So you better prepare for configuring stuff from scratch ...

ccr2004-16g-2s+ looks sweet, I think that three of them will do a job in three of my sites. One site is small, but the price of this router is low, so cannot see a reason for not buying one, OK, only if it will be available. Configuring the whole router from the scratch makes me cry So I assume that even IP addresses I will need to type manually ?

Full configuration export to text file is one of greatest ROS features IMO. And it allows you to copy-paste (more or less) large parts of config. So perhaps manually typing in addresses won't be necessary after all, run a CLI terminal inside a graphical OS UI (Windows would do) and use mouse to copy-paste between text viewer and terminal window.