I've been playing with Linux bridging for a while, in small low-volume
environments as well as with UML, without problems.
However, I'm looking for something more out of a switch than I can get
currently, and I was wondering if I could configure Linux to be a switch -
bridge over eight or so interfaces efficently.
Has anyone done this ? What sort of traffic can your average linux box
handle like this ? I'm looking at using it on the NexCom boxes;
http://www.ipc2u.de/servlet/comp?22785&22752&22780
which have 8 e100 nics and 4 e1000 nics on a 64bit/66Mhz bus. Seems nice,
if it'll work. Then i'd need to make sure that ucd-snmp etc. will let me
get traffic stats per real (not bridged) interface, just like a normal
managed switch.
I went through the archives of the list, and there seems to be some
problems with VLANs, historically. This would be for use in a very
production environment. I'll do loads of testing, but I'd like to know
any caveats from day one.
John
