On Mon, Sep 09, 2002 at 11:51:59AM -0400, Dave Myers wrote: > 1. What are the benefits of using Linux for these "gateways" instead of just > using z/VM TCPIP itself?
Possibly a little less raw speed (haven't seen a thorough analysis yet); however you gain easy access to the network filtering stuff, so you can do firewalling and access control really easily. I find it a lot easier to reconfigure Linux TCP/IP on the fly, but then I'm much more comfortable in Linux than in VM. Be warned--at least one recent revision of the QDIO drivers used the FASTPATH (or some such) option, which meant it was incompatible with filtering. I don't know whether IBM has fixed this yet. > 2. How much memory resource will these Linux "gateways" require and > should we use "stripped-down kernel" Linux images or just inactivate > unnecessary > services on these images (and use the SuSE 'network' install for > example). I usually use 32M machines for routing, and I don't bother stripping the kernel, just turning off all services but ssh. Small machines, but I generally give them something like 1% absolute share, because if *they* don't get dispatched, ain't *nobody* going *nowhere*. > 3. What linux routing software should we use on these "gateways" > for dynamic routing?? Zebra. Then use its RIP, RIP-2, or OSPF modules depending on what you're running on your network. Adam
