Why SURFsara is happy with Open Networking switches Erik Ruiter SURFsara TNC17 – Linz May 2017

What is Open networking? Decoupling of network operating system and hardware Similar to the rise of Linux and Windows with the IBM compatible PC Driven by cheap top-of-rack switches in big datacentres (eg Facebook Wedge / Backpack)

What is Open networking? Open networking vendors Corsa Dell Edge-Core MBroadcom Helix4 Mellanox Penguin Pica8 Quanta Open networking OSes Big Switch Cumulus Linux Dell OS 10 MLNX-OS Pluribus SONiC Switchdev driver + Linux Network Processors Broadcom Apollo Firebolt Helix Tomahawk Trident Triumph Mellanox Spectrum Cavium

How does SURFsara use bare metal switches? ToR management switches / EoR aggregation switches All switches are operated using Cumulus Linux + Ansible Currently only using L2 features Future features implementation: Routing (Q3) Cloud platform integration (Q4) BGP-EVPN (2018)

How does SURFsara use bare metal switches?

Why are we happy: Freedom of Choice: Vendor / OS Rich feature set: Almost as complete as traditional (Eg. MLAG, VRF, VxLAN) Flexible operation: Operate as linux box, Use config management, or classic CLI Cheaper: 40%-60% TCO reduction (except for 1gbps switches)

Keep in mind Engineers might need a somewhat different skillset depending on use case: configuration management -> Ansible / Puppet, GIT Linux OS knowledge -> Cumulus / switchdev Time investment required to get settled Using configuration management is powerful Make sure support is arranged between HW and SW vendors

Erik Ruiter Erik.ruiter@surfsara.nl THANK YOU!