[c-nsp] Open Networking Switches feedback

[Andrey Khomyakov]

We are running Cumulus Linux in a good chunk of our data center. I would
generally consider our experience as a successful one and we do not have
any developers on staff that help us. We are bunch of network engineers
with rudimentary coding skills (read google and copy/paste/replace).

I would say that our success comes from the lack of snowflakes and working
hard trying to avoid them by talking to other teams about changing their
ways of how they have "always done it". Because of that we are able to use
automation to manage the fleet of hardware. If every box on your network is
bespoke hand crafted snowflake because customer X wanted to connect in a Y
way, i can't imagine how that can be automated with enough ROI on your
automation investment.

As much as I'd love for Cumulus to gain larger install base, I'd say that
if you are looking for 271.5 features just in case, Cumulus Linux is likely
not for you.
They are a fantastic start-up, their TAC is stellar, but their resources a
limited, so if you need that bespoke obscure feature, you are unlikely to
get it with Cumulus.

There is also an argument out there that the strength of the open
networking comes from lack of feature bloat. That is to say that, yes,
Cisco, Juniper and other old school NOS vendors do have 271.5 features list
and support (not necessarily working well), but that creates a large bug
exposure. With NOS start-ups such as Cumulus you get less features that
they support, but they tend to work well.

And lastly, if you do need a feature, you might be able to find "an app"
that does it on an open platform such as Cumulus Linux or even Dell OS 10.

With all that said, ymmv.



--Andrey

On Mon, Mar 26, 2018 at 6:13 AM, Nick Cutting <ncutting at edgetg.com> wrote:

> I am also interested in hearing about success or horror stories relating
> to this.
> We have some many complex connections between clients and public clouds
> and old / new datacenters, with MacGyver solutions and spaghetti everywhere
> - I sometimes think I need those 271.5 features in my top of rack switches
> just so I am ready for the next ridiculous client request.
>
> All the marketecture around the whitebox switches is a bunch of linux guys
> living a perfect world with a very simple network.
> It might work for a single enterprise network, but not in the dirty cloudy
> world I have to live in.  We have a lot of grumpy old network engineers and
> not enough developers.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cisco-nsp [mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of
> Sami Joseph
> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2018 12:31 AM
> To: Cisco-nsp <cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net>
> Subject: [c-nsp] Open Networking Switches feedback
>
> This message originates from outside of your organisation.
>
> Hello,
>
> Has any one here tried Big Switch, Pica8, Cumulus or any of those open
> networking prdoducts? I’d appreciate feedback from someone that actually
> used them.
>
> Thanks
> Sam
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