[olug] dynamic routing for small business

[Nick Walter]

I'm going to respectfully disagree on the complexity of dynamic
routing.  Routing (static and dynamic) is an arcane topic from the
viewpoint of a small business.  While I'm sure very many of the people
on this list consider it an approachable and interesting topic, the
average small business doesn't have that level of staff talent on hand. 
I've dealt with lots of admins, even ones at large companies, that get
confused dealing with static routing situations.  While it's possible a
mediocre admin could follow a HOWTO guide and get zebra up and running,
they would be left with a setup they didn't 100% understand.  And that
spells disaster the first time the setup fails and needs quick
troubleshooting.  I'm not trying to discourage anyone from learning
about this stuff, I'm just saying from a practical standpoint it should
be avoided unless one really knows what one is doing.  Otherwise it just
adds a complexity factor that makes extended network outages more
likely.

I do stand corrected on my "spendy hardware" reference.  I've never
bothered to try it on a Linux-based router, I always leave those kind of
tasks to the  Cisco equipment.  And that stuff is spendy ;-)

Nick Walter


On Fri, 2003-07-25 at 14:21, Matthew G. Marsh wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, Eric Penne wrote:
> 
> Well - I was going to stay out of this one ... buuuut...
> 
> > If it is so arcane then what is it's replacement?
> 
> It is not arcane nor does it require $$s.
> 
> http://www.policyrouting.org/PolicyRoutingBook/ONLINE/TOC.html
> 
> and check out Chapter 7. There is some information on getting simple
> RIP/OSPF going. Also see both the Zebra and Bird projects along with the
> venerable gated.
> 
> There are several scenarios where dynroutes are useful. Most notably when
> running a real VPN (consider that 2.6 wil have a fully policy routing
> compliant IPSec implementation). Also when monitoring link status. Many
> routing daemons notice link flaps very quickly and can send SNMPv3 traps.
> 
> > > A small business with only one link to the internet does not need to
> > > muck around with dynamic routing.  This is a good thing, because dynamic
> > > routing is arcane, requires spendy hardware, and is easy to screw up.
> > >
> > > The only time a business needs to start worrying about dynamic routing
> > > is when they have multiple links to the internet.  In that case, dynamic
> > > routing becomes a necessity to have traffic re-routed around if one link
> > > fails.
> > >
> > > Nick Walter
> > >
> > > On Fri, 2003-07-25 at 11:33, Eric Penne wrote:
> > >> I was curious about what dynamic routing was.  I did a little googling
> > >> and found out what some of the acronyms I had seen in the past couple
> > >> of years meant.
> > >>
> > >> What I never did find is when is it useful.  I know it is useful for
> > >> large companies with lots of sites and network connections and stuff
> > >> but what about small single connection places?  Is it useful to build
> > >> a router with dynamic routing if you just have a single t1?  Does
> > >> dynamic routing help you and others to determine the best path for
> > >> packets?  Will running a router with dynamic routing help anybody else
> > >> if you don't actively participate?  These are quite being worded the
> > >> way I want them to.
> > >>
> > >> Ok here it goes again.  I assume to use dynamic routing effectively
> > >> you have to collaborate with other routers to find the best path.  If
> > >> I were to just set up a router on my t1 without actively collaborating
> > >> with my isp or next step up the chain, would it help anything?
> > >>
> > >> Eric
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
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> 
> --------------------------------------------------
> Matthew G. Marsh,  President
> Paktronix Systems LLC
> 1506 North 59th Street
> Omaha  NE  68104
> Phone: (402) 553-2288
> Email: mgm at midwestlinux.com
> WWW:  http://www.midwestlinux.com
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