On Mon, 4 Sep 2000, David A. Ranch wrote:
Hello Ondrej,
Hi David,
I just saw your Freshmeat announcement for BIRD and since I work for Juniper Networks, I had a few questions that should probably go into a FAQ:
The best way is start reading our UsersGuide. It's explained in 1st chapter.
#1: Why did you develop BIRD when we have both Gated and Zebra? What differentiates it?
Gated is not free and Zebra has limited capability especially in filtering and configuration. BIRD is also more portable.
#2: How is BIRD configured? Gated is its own animal Zebra emulates Cisco IOS
BIRD has powerful configuration language.
#3: Do you have any plans to support Multicast protocols like DVMRP, PIM, MSDP, MBGP, etc?
Yes.
#4: Are your protocols modular? Meaning if I'm running OSPF and BGP, the RIP and IPv6 modules AREN'T loaded?
You may exclude or include any protocol during compilation.
Anyway.. thanks for your time.
Kind regards F.
--David
.----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | David A. Ranch - Linux/Networking/PC hardware dranch@trinnet.net | !---- ----! `----- For more detailed info, see http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch -----'
-- Ondrej Feela Filip
I just saw your Freshmeat announcement for BIRD and since I work for Juniper Networks, I had a few questions that should probably go into a FAQ:
The best way is start reading our UsersGuide. It's explained in 1st chapter.
Doh! I apologize for that but it wasn't obvious. I would recommend that you mention on the top-level web page that the UserGuide has a FAQ, etc for common questions.
#1: Why did you develop BIRD when we have both Gated and Zebra? What differentiates it?
Gated is not free and Zebra has limited capability especially in filtering and configuration. BIRD is also more portable. I understand the issues about Gated but why not help with the development of Zebra vs. create competition?
#2: How is BIRD configured? Gated is its own animal Zebra emulates Cisco IOS
BIRD has powerful configuration language.
So its unique?
#3: Do you have any plans to support Multicast protocols like DVMRP, PIM, MSDP, MBGP, etc?
Yes.
Any ETAs on any of these protocols?
#4: Are your protocols modular? Meaning if I'm running OSPF and BGP, the RIP and IPv6 modules AREN'T loaded?
You may exclude or include any protocol during compilation.
Hmmm.. that's good (better than IOS) but it would be nice if they could be modules that could be dynamically loaded, etc. Kinda like Linux kernel modules. --David .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | David A. Ranch - Linux/Networking/PC hardware dranch@trinnet.net | !---- ----! `----- For more detailed info, see http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch -----'
Hello!
I understand the issues about Gated but why not help with the development of Zebra vs. create competition?
We've looked at Zebra, but we have decided that creating a new routing daemon from scratch is about as much work as rewriting Zebra to suit all our needs. Also, we needed some task to solve as a university project :-)
BIRD has powerful configuration language.
So its unique?
Yes. It's a bit similar to the Gated's one, but especially the syntax of route filters is a totally different animal as we use a simple programming language.
#3: Do you have any plans to support Multicast protocols like DVMRP, PIM, MSDP, MBGP, etc? Yes. Any ETAs on any of these protocols?
Not yet. We'd like to finish IPv6 support (especially OSPFv3) first. Anyway, if there will be any volunteers, we'll be happy to integrate any reasonable multicast routing code and help with writing it.
You may exclude or include any protocol during compilation. Hmmm.. that's good (better than IOS) but it would be nice if they could be modules that could be dynamically loaded, etc. Kinda like Linux kernel modules.
For userspace tasks, dynamically loaded modules are completely worthless as Linux already uses on-demand loading for all executable files, so the only gain you get is potentially easier packaging of modules. So unless you are short on disk space, the best solution is to compile bird with all protocols enabled and select what you want to use in the config file. Have a nice fortnight -- Martin `MJ' Mares <mj@ucw.cz> http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mj/ Faculty of Math and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Rep., Earth "Linux _is_ user-friendly. It is not ignorant-friendly and idiot-friendly."
We've looked at Zebra, but we have decided that creating a new routing daemon from scratch is about as much work as rewriting Zebra to suit all our needs.
Ouch! Is their implementation poorly written?
Not yet. We'd like to finish IPv6 support (especially OSPFv3) first. Anyway, if there will be any volunteers, we'll be happy to integrate any reasonable multicast routing code and help with writing it.
Is this a new version of OSPF based on a set of RFCs and the like? From my understanding, we're all running v2 today.
So unless you are short on disk space, the best solution is to compile bird with all protocols enabled and select what you want to use in the config file.
But say I have a network running and I have some new crappy subnet that will ONLY run RIP (hmmmmm.. IPX...). If I could load the RIP module, I could leave my BGP and OSPF neighbors up. With a recompile, I would have to shut down and restart the routing daemon. For a simple project, this isn't an issue but if you want to make your tool truly for an enterprise, this would be a huge issue for at least me. --David .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | David A. Ranch - Linux/Networking/PC hardware dranch@trinnet.net | !---- ----! `----- For more detailed info, see http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch -----'
On Mon, 4 Sep 2000, David Ranch wrote:
We've looked at Zebra, but we have decided that creating a new routing daemon from scratch is about as much work as rewriting Zebra to suit all our needs.
Ouch! Is their implementation poorly written?
.... well, in some ways. We would like to build better daemon.
Not yet. We'd like to finish IPv6 support (especially OSPFv3) first. Anyway, if there will be any volunteers, we'll be happy to integrate any reasonable multicast routing code and help with writing it.
Is this a new version of OSPF based on a set of RFCs and the like? From my understanding, we're all running v2 today.
Yes, it's true, but v2 is for IPv4. For IPv6 you need v3.
So unless you are short on disk space, the best solution is to compile bird with all protocols enabled and select what you want to use in the config file.
But say I have a network running and I have some new crappy subnet that will ONLY run RIP (hmmmmm.. IPX...). If I could load the RIP module, I could leave my BGP and OSPF neighbors up. With a recompile, I would have to shut down and restart the routing daemon. For a simple project, this isn't an issue but if you want to make your tool truly for an enterprise, this would be a huge issue for at least me.
Version 1.0.4 of bird takes about 200kb on the disk! (Client included.) So compile all protocols and run just RIP. Then you can add any others without restart. I don't see any problem in that.
--David .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | David A. Ranch - Linux/Networking/PC hardware dranch@trinnet.net | !---- ----! `----- For more detailed info, see http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch -----'
-- Ondrej Feela Filip
participants (4)
-
David Ranch -
Martin Mares -
Ondrej Feela Filip -
Ondrej Fila Filip