Open source Quagga router sets an acceptable pace
By John Bass, Network World Lab Alliance
,
Network World
, 10/09/2006
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Open source routing software projects have been receiving attention lately as viable, inexpensive platforms for midlevel routing
deployments. But are they practical for enterprise network managers used to the performance levels and feature bells and whistles
served up by commercial router vendors?
That is the question we explore in this initial test of open source router software. Most open source router software spawns
from one of two projects - Zebra and eXtensible Open Router Platform (XORP). Because the Zebra project has been dormant since
mid-2004, we tested its descendant, Quagga, which is updated about every quarter. (We plan to test a XORP-based product later
this year.)
Overall, we found running Quagga on modest Dell servers yields performance numbers that would make the combination a formidable platform for a purpose-built routing application.
If you're looking to run Quagga as a router in your production network, however, you may require a higher port density. This
requires a server with more horsepower, which is more expensive. This additional cost may offset somewhat Quagga's low-cost
appeal.
How we tested the Quagga open source routerArchive of Network World testsSubscribe to the Network Product Test Results newsletter
Quagga runs on GNU/Linux 2.4.x and higher, FreeBSD 4.x and higher, NetBSD 1.6 and higher, OpenBSD 2.5 and higher, and Solaris 8 and higher. It supports
Routing Information Protocol and RIPv2, RIPng, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), OSPFv2, OSPFv3, IPv6, Internet Group Management
Protocol and IGMPv2, and Border Gateway Protocol 4.
Quagga's basic architecture consists of a Zebra daemon that handles updates to the Unix-based routing tables, and additional daemons for OSPF, RIP and BGP. Quagga has a unified configuration file for all daemons,
which is easier to maintain than the original Zebra implementation that has separate configuration files for each daemon.
The syntax of the Quagga configuration files is very much Cisco-esque. Quagga lets the user change IP addresses from the configuration file and command line; there is no need to configure
IP addresses outside the router. The command-line interface is easy to use and intuitive (assuming some Cisco experience).
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