Hi there,
Let’s be clear, I do know the technical side. I’m just trying to figure out which of 3 suboptimal solutions I should pick.
The current situation:
Edgerouter 6P with fiber internet connection on SFP port. Because the connection from the downstairs neighbours is being used (FTTH was available, since they have a more serious FTTO connection because it’s a bank). I decided to put a 30m patchkabel from FS.com, so there’s no active hardware in the downstairs utility room.
Right across the street is another location, a different company but with the same owners. Over there there’s an Edgerouter 12 with FTTH as main connection and cable as a backup.
As long as the backup internet pulls it’s IP through DHCP there’s no issue. If both connections are fixed IP’s, both WAN’s require a static route, which causes a bug in EdgeOS that may never be fixed (has been around for ages).
This prompted me to look for a different solution. The company with backup internet may need static IP’s on the backup WAN as well.
There’s always been a plan that’s yet to be given the green light to put a pair of Gigabeams on the rooftops and use the Cable connection for backup for the first location as well. If this plan is to go through, we will most definitely switch to a /29 subnet, so both routers can be connected to the modem without needing to be daisychained.
Enter the EdgeOS bug (routing tables stop working and backup WAN appears unreachable, but is actually still working).
I’m currently testing an OPNsense box (DEC675), which I’m really liking. This has a rackmounted version as well, which is lacking an SFP(+) cage. We could always bump up to the DEC2750, which has 2 SFP+ cages, but this comes at a premium of over €200,- excluding taxes. This also leaves us with the issue that the OPNsense boxes can’t provide the 24V passive POE for the Gigabeam, which the current ER6P would be able to deliver.
Ofcourse I could use a POE injector, but this feels a bit jerry-rigged in such a clean and neat patchcabinet. They also have USW24 (the old 250W version with 24V POE support).
This made me think: what if I just made both WAN’s go through this switch? This would ofcourse make the VLAN configuration less straightforward, as it’s not a good idea to use the default ALL profile on trunk ports.
Another option is to get something like an EdgeSwitch 10XP to feed both WAN’s through. They are hard currently made out of unobtainium and this would add to the costs. This would also create a second SPOF (as would the switch), but we’re not using redunant routers and switches anyway. But if I think this through logically, 2 SPOF’s in a row would 2X the chance of failure, right? (although 2 times a very low chance isn’t that big of a deal in the end, it’s still suboptimal).
So I’m curious what other people’s take is on this?
Option A: POE injector + mediaconverter/more expensive model
Option B: Run it through the current switch
Option C: Run it through a new dedicated switch (isolated from UniFi)