[j-nsp] EX routed VLAN counters and other issues

[will at loopfree.net]

I have been eval'ing an EX3200 for use as a small datacenter 
distribution switch. The idea was to have a routed uplink to a bigger 
router and routed VLANs to handoff to customers, using the EX as a 
cheap router with a bunch of gig-e ports.

It appears that the switch doesn't consistently count traffic on the 
RVI interfaces -- in a test enivronment with a routed VLAN uplink and a 
separate routed VLAN to a customer, one of the RVIs counts transit 
traffic while the other counts traffic to the local IP only (IP 
actually on the switch interface).

So I can send a few Mbit/s through the EX and the "uplink" vlan will 
count the traffic but the "customer" vlan sits near 0 bytes/packets. 
Not very useful for billing customers! (Collecting data on physical 
ports works until you have a customer with 2 ports and you don't want 
to bill for local switched traffic, or if you are running a vlan trunk 
to another L2 switch and need to count traffic per-vlan).

FWIW it looks like Cisco 3550 counts local traffic only, but 3560 & 
newer supposedly get it right and count transit traffic like a "real" 
router would. I have no idea why the EX appears to do a little of each. 
My SE is saying this will be a feature request to change... in an 
attempt to get rid of me I suspect.  :)


In other news, as of JUNOS 9.4 with IPv6 routing, Juniper is now 
requiring a license for OSPFv3. So OSPF2 included, but OSPF3 extra -- 
bummer.

Also have an issue where a family inet filter applied in lo0 makes Ipv6 
neighbor discovery die entirely (making ipv6 routing dead in the 
water). JTAC can't reproduce that one yet.

Sure wish there was something between the EX and an MX (out of my price 
range). Who spends $6000+ on a switch and doesn't actually use the 
layer 3 features? If I just wanted layer2 there's plenty of cheaper 
stuff out there.

-Will Orton
will at loopfree.net