New Router and Network Setup to Prevent Down Time!

[admin]

As most of you know we had some network down time over the past month due to some attacks, 1 inside the network and 1 outside the network. This has been fixed with our current Switch/Router the Extreme Networks BlackDiamond 6808. We also got Internap up and running fully now. When we did this with our BlackDiamond 6808 we found that even though it is one of the best switches and can also do our BGP it is unable to handle 3 full BGP tables. As the world routes keep growing the switch starts to get low on memory. So here is our plan along with backup plans to keep the peers coming in and the network growing and getting faster and faster.

A new core router has been ordered, a Cisco 7206VXR. This will allow us to get our T3's, Gige's and 100Mb links all in one core router that will enable us to do the routing in the hardware where the BlackDiamond 6808 had to do it in the software.

Now for inside the network, the Extreme Networks BlackDiamond 6808 will stay our core switch layer2 and the BlackDiamond 6808 does switching Layer 2 in the hardware at wire speed. We have 2 of these on hand currently.

Our plans in the near future: The Cisco will be put in to with Internap and cogent. Epik will be the main provider for about 10 minutes as we switch over to the new cisco core router. There should be zero down time when we make this switch over to the new router. The new router will also allow us to have up to 6 providers, we already have 3 now; Internap, Epik and Cogent.

So now to anticipate what would happen if the BlackDiamond 6808 or the Cisco 7206VXR failed, right now there is one 6808 in the rack we have all the spare parts on hand so its a 30 minute max to switch the cards out if it failed. Since there are 2 management cards in the 6808, it would take both of them to fail if its being used as a switch only at this point. This also has 2 power supplies so redundant power is covered there. Now if the Cisco failed they will replace the parts in 24 hours or less. We could trim back to the BlackDiamond 6808 to do the routing for 2 peers and still hold all the routing tables.

Now for the long term plans. Two 7206VXR one with cogent gige and one with Internap and Epik. One will run to one of the BlackDiamond 6808's and the other one will run to the other BlackDiamond 6808. Then the BlackDiamond 6808's will be crossed so they can pass traffic to each other using gige. Each of our racks will be plugged in to each BlackDiamond 6808. If a switch or router goes down the network stays up 100%. This means the only single point that any thing could fail on the network would be the 3550's or 2924's in each rack. If one router went out it would just push the bandwidth to the other, if one switch went down it would push it to the other.

We have all the hardware we need for this setup besides the other 7206VXR, we will have that with in the next 2 to 3 months if all goes as planned. We already have the two BlackDiamond 6808's so we are all set there.

This will make us about as redundant as we can get until we can think of a way to also get the switches to be redundant.

[awen]

I feel a Tim Taylor "arrrh arrrh arrh" coming on. Good job Brad, nice plan.

[admin]

Thanks,

I think its a great plan. Once in place I will try and get it alway the way to the rack switch to also be redundant but that would be a hard one.

[bubba]

Please log as a congratulatory post!

I do not want to be relegated to the “complaint posters only” category!

Seriously, I want to thank the entire staff and owners for all their continued efforts to make this a better place.

Any thoughts of taking the company public? I would love to be a share owner!!!!

b

[mresell]

Glad to hear it. Good News

[admin]

Originally Posted by bubba

Any thoughts of taking the company public? I would love to be a share owner!!!!

This is something we have talked about, we might in the next 2 years.

[admin]

I just got off the phone with the company the new router is coming from, it should be here satuerday. So we will test Satuerday until Wednesday. If all goes well with testing, setup and config we will go live with the new router Wednesday AM, next step will be to get the second switch in the rack, that we will do in about one to two weeks max. Then we have to get the second set of cables run and setup to the other switch. This will make the switching very redundant, then we will move right in to getting the second 7206VXR in place.

[Silverbug]

Excellent

[Brangwyn]

Nice

[Curt]

Sounds great to me, but I think you were right not to send that out to everyone. I have a feeling a lot of people wouldn't make it past the first line.

By the way, put me down for one share when you go public too.

[Silverbug]

yeah i think you will have alot of resellers interested in getting shares. I'd be keen

[Light Speed]

Thanks for the update Brad!

It's good to know your are working hard to make Vortech as failsafe as possible.

Shares? I'm in

[antic]

Sounds like a very cool plan indeed! Many thanks for your continuing efforts (and success) in being the best host out there!

Must make for an interesting business plan.... "we are planning to make ourselves completely redundant within 12 months..."

Originally Posted by bubba

Any thoughts of taking the company public? I would love to be a share owner!!!!

On a serious note, I have mixed feelings about this... going public is often the start of the end for many businesses, as the pressure to provide returns to shareholders gradually erodes the company's investment in their customers. This is for another thread of course.... but personally I'd rather see Vortech own what they have, enjoy stable revenue streams, and concentrate on customer care instead of the profit circus. Just my 2c... maybe I watched "The Corporation" a few too many times..

Vortech, your focus on your clients make you one of the best - a fact to which these forums themselves can attest. Please don't change! We love you as you are!

[jmbeach]

Great work Brad (and team)... now, does this mean the west coast connection will be blazin' now? A boy can dream

[mmartinez]

What you say make me fell good, because last week fail was terrible
i received many phone calls from customers

Thanks for your effor