[c-nsp] Cisco lab using open-source routing dameons(quagga, zebra, ..)

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Mar 2005, Kim Onnel wrote:
> 
>> Has anyone built a lab with PCs running quagga or zebra, in order to
>> get hands-on experience with BGP, OSPF, MPLS if possible?
> 
>  If you are trying to get hands-on with Cisco BGP/OSPF/MPLS,
> you should
>  run Cisco equipment otherwise the time spent in the lab will
> only make
>  you an expert at what you run in the lab :)
> 

I disagree - you should run BOTH of them.  That will give you a
great education about where Cisco breaks the standards.  (and where
Quagga does to a lesser extent)

Too many people learn about the protocols by running nothing other
than Cisco gear and assume that the actual RFC is an implementation
of how Cisco does it, rather than the other way around.

>> I have a bunch of PCs that i would like to run as a lab, is it
>> feasible 
> 
>  For things like education of core concepts you can use
> anything, but keep
>  in mind the implementation differences between vendors and 
> open-source projects. 
>

Yep - vendors typically vary more in the implementation of the
core concepts than open-source does.  Open Source development is
a committe process, understand, and if it deviates a hair's-breath
from the standard then someone's going to rise up on their haunches
and start grinding their axe and screaming.  Adherance to the standard
as close as possible is the only safe way to avoid this.

Vendors have the luxury of doing whatever they want and if you don't
like it they just say go buy from someone else.  And vendors that are
monopolists have the luxury of forcing their hacks onto the market
such as what Cisco did with BGP authentication.
 
>  While there are RFCs that govern how the protocols interact with each
>  other, there is nothing about how to configure them.
> 

Quagga uses the same syntax Cisco IOS uses for configuration.  If
configuration statements were copyrightable, Quagga would be an
extreme violator. :-)

Now, gated, that's a different story.

Quagga is a fork of Zebra so you wouldn't gain anything by having
both of them running (except that the zebra one wouldn't work)

> 
> And more importantly.. If you are using the lab to pre-stage
> or test out
> new ideas that you want to move to your production network, it (the
> lab) should mirror the production network.
> 
> No sense in proving something will work in the lab on quagga if you
> are going to be implementing it on something else in the
> production network.
> 

Exactly - it might not work on IOS. ;-)

> Perhaps I am just crazy, but I have seen too many lab-to-production
> migrations fail due to the lab/staging area not being in sync with the
> production network equipment-wise.
>

Yep.

Ted