[j-nsp] Suggestions for Edge/Peering Router..

[Mark Tinka]

On 23/Sep/19 10:58, Karl Gerhard wrote:

>
> The big companies have fancy and expensive labs and employees that spend weeks testing new releases. However, we're a small hosting provider running a bunch of MX480ies and other Juniper stuff. I need routers that I can upgrade without fearing that my network will explode. Can't have that with Juniper.

If you've been doing this for as long as many of us on here have, you'll
note that what you're experiencing with Juniper is not unique to them.

I've been running IOS since 10.

I've been running Junos since 7.

I've been running IOS XR since 3.

I've been running FreeBSD since 4.

I've been running SuSE Linux since 5.

I've been running Windows since 3.

There is always a risk with doing upgrades, both with basic and exotic
features. That's why testing as much and for as long as you can before
the activity is not to be underestimated. And even then, you'll still
get caught out. This is not about to change, but will get slightly better.

Saku and others will tell you that QA for Juniper got really bad between
10 and 15, and only started to get better again around 16 onward. But
also, they moved away from a single-OS marketing line to forking for
various platforms. This is to be expected, and don't expect Arista to
avoid this as they grow.


>
> If I were to rebuild our network again, I'd take a very good look at Arista/ANET. As Saku already mentioned, they're the ones that have the best practices in developing software. They might not have all the bells and whistles that Juniper have, but at least I might get more sleep and peace of mind when upgrading those than I got with my Juniper gear.

See my previous post about our ongoing Arista woes (and this is only in
a Layer 2 application). Point is, you can't escape it, whichever vendor
you go for, especially when all the new ones on the block are running
merchant silicon and all the pleasure & joy that brings.

For me, the biggest thing I enjoy about Junos vs. IOS XR is the upgrade
process. This is the major driving reason behind us avoiding the NCS540
for the Metro. Too many devices to upgrade the XR way.

Mark.