Dear MikroTik-Team,

I have a setup with 6 CRS226-24G-2S+RM connected via 10G Fiber.

Currently they are connected in-line. So if one connection is broken, about half of the network is disconnected.

I would like to connect them in a ring so that an arbitrary connection can fail without anyone being disconnected.

For this I need any kind of STP.

So I kindly request to place the implementation of RSTP for your switches into your feature list of upcoming releases.

I am aware that there is RSTP in the kernel. But I would loose the 10G throughput if I would configure kernel bridges between the switches. I need RSTP in switch mode.

Thank you and best regards,

Chris - a happy sysadmin responsible for more than 20 MikroTik devices in one network.

G8032 rings. Not stp.

Yep. Rings + STP = horrible headaches

Rings are for sub-millisecond failover type of technology, not things like OSPF, STP, etc.

That's not very helpful, he obviously needs some sort of redundancy in his network.

Rings work great.. STP, kinda well... sucks.. it works, but not super duper fast.

G8032 rings in a switched environment are awesome. No reason the feature shouldn't be included.

barkas is right. What matters in my case is redundancy and being able to reconfigure or update a single device without breaking the whole net.

Of course would a G8032 ring solve my requirements. The question is only whether RSTP or MSTP is useful in more different scenarios. In a data center where I have two uplinks, I would use two switches connected in a mesh like this:

http://www.cloudwifiworks.com/images/Sw ... iagram.jpg

I cannot see a ring solution here. Even downtimes of several seconds and throughput reduction do not matter in my cases. I -only- need reliability.

Chris

Rings work better there than stp and are simpler. Mlag would be better for that scenario though. Mikrotik is really behind the times when it comes to basic redundancy considerations.

pending topics on CRS to be a competent smart switch:

802.1x auth
stp rstp mstp
lacp
acl (on 1xx series is not supported)

G8032 will be nice but beyond the scope of a smart switch

Why would you use ring L2 ? Just little bit upgrade to CCR you can make ring network based on MPLS using VPLS for the service.
CRS, also support MPLS and VPLS too. The spec doesn't like CCR, maybe CRS focusing to L2 network.

Cmiiw

Ethernet rings are l2. Vpls from Mikrotik is shoddy for that purpose. Not to mention convoluted solution to a small problem. Rings are very simple and very fast.

Why would you use ring L2 ? Just little bit upgrade to CCR you can make ring network based on MPLS using VPLS for the service.
CRS, also support MPLS and VPLS too. The spec doesn't like CCR, maybe CRS focusing to L2 network.

Cmiiw

because switching functionalities are in hardware at wire speed

RouterOS MPLS VPLS are software implementations obviously not the purpose of a hardware L2 switch

Mikrotik MUM 2015 slogan is 'routing the world' - and not switching the world....

- so - if you do switching, go and buy on ebay some cisco 3750G layer 3 switches and get all the switching goodies for less $ than you pay for a CCR.

and they can even be stacked if you use etherchannels.

Mikrotik MUM 2015 slogan is 'routing the world' - and not switching the world....

- so - if you do switching, go and buy on ebay some cisco 3750G layer 3 switches and get all the switching goodies for less $ than you pay for a CCR.

and they can even be stacked if you use etherchannels.

Yes you have right but when you sell Switches not only routers you should implement best future and ERPS it is one of the Especially when someone consider to unify net hardware to one manufacturer (for better compatibility).

I'll second this. I am quite surprised that the CRSs don't have STP. Also, I have searched around and there is not a clear statement from Mikrotik about whether this will be enabled on a future software (or hardware!) release.

I agree that there are great L2 loop protection protocols like G.8032 (a published standard already) that are designed to do what STP does and more and faster and better, but I'd settle for good old RSTP at the moment. It is basically on every switch that you can ssh/telnet/http to that has ever been manufactured, it is usually enabled by default, and therefore it makes introducing new CRS switches on a running network easy.

So Mikrotik guys, can you please let us know if and when the CRSs will feature any kind of loop protection? Bonus points if you also say which one(s).

Thanks.

Obviously the are more advanced techniques to solve that problem, but stp / rstp is should be a supported baseline.

Yes, stp / rstp should be included in CRS Family very fast. Other protocols can be done later :-)

Regards
Lutz

+1 for RSTP for CRS switch config

+1 RSTP

even i need rstp too. I dont have loops but because of the lack of stp related features, when i change the ethernet port i put my gateway on a few times i end up having to reboot the switch. This is disgraceful because my cheaper smart switches from other brands like netgear have RSTP.

Why would you use ring L2 ? Just little bit upgrade to CCR you can make ring network based on MPLS using VPLS for the service.
CRS, also support MPLS and VPLS too. The spec doesn't like CCR, maybe CRS focusing to L2 network.

Cmiiw

there was plenty of "legacy" applications and solution, that Explicitly rely on that, both in healthcare, aerospace and production(saw on food factory once, for example).
VPLS or if you like MPPLS is very very handy but for another League for both overhead, response and purpose/usage.

We might just have to realize, packing features into hardware and hard wire those is just not as easy as software coding.
There is a reason why Cisco switches cost a bunch more just to have such features available. Not that I do not support this request - We have many mikrotik switches without redundancy deployed too.

1 + RSTP on VLAN - because it is common.

These features are important and many are included in smart switches. Mikrotik CRS should be a fully managed switch, its a shame that its missing some basic smart/unmanaged features.

Maybe CRS is a good switch if it is the only one in a small office?

1 + RSTP on VLAN