Re: Feature requests / inquiries.

From: Brooks Davis (brooks_at_one-eyed-alien.net)
Date: 08/29/05

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    Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 11:47:12 -0700
To: Max Laier <max@love2party.net>

    On Mon, Aug 29, 2005 at 08:09:43PM +0200, Max Laier wrote:
    > On Monday 29 August 2005 19:50, Brooks Davis wrote:
    > > On Mon, Aug 29, 2005 at 05:56:25PM +0200, Bart Van Kerckhove wrote:
    > > > Dear Sirs / Fellow Freebsd Freaks,
    > > >
    > > > I've been using FreeBSD for a while now as a routing/firewalling
    > > > platform, but recent developments in our network infrastructure confront
    > > > me with some lack of features in the IPstack.
    > > > In a nutshell, i'm looking for support for (in order of importance to me)
    > > > : (r)STP, ECMP, and LACP.
    > > >
    > > > For STP, i have found a patch that contained a port from netbsd code of
    > > > if_bridge ; but i'm way too insecure about running this on a production
    > > > system.
    > > > For ECMP, the only thing i found out was that there used to be a patchset
    > > > that did something like it, but went defunct after 4.8.
    > > > LACP: no idea at all, sorry :)
    > > >
    > > > As these are features we'll be using some time soon now, i can say we
    > > > _need_ them. I have even seriously considered moving to NetBSD; the lack
    > > > of NIC polling support for the intel chipsets i'm using is holding me
    > > > back at the moment.
    > > > I do not want to move over to linux, for various reasons.
    > > > So I figured perhaps some of the freebsd community is also interested in
    > > > these features, and I might as well sponsor (part of?) its development.
    > > > Are there any persons interested in developing these features, or do they
    > > > already exist and am I just plain ignorant (forgive me if that is the
    > > > case). Please note that i'm not interested in the netgraph approach, as
    > > > that's (imho) just a hack around it, and it's not functioning with for
    > > > example gnu/zebra et all.
    > > >
    > > > I am looking for short- and long-term solutions, anything that's
    > > > developed trough sponsoring i'd be happy to contribute to the main tree.
    > > > As this would be the first time we actually ask for a specific feature in
    > > > any OSS software, I could be way off the scale with the figures i had in
    > > > mind. This would be about 200 to 400 euro per feature, the more important
    > > > ones like STP and ECMP are totally open to discussion.
    > > >
    > > > Any takers? Any enlightenment? Thanks for helping out in advance ;)
    > >
    > > if_bridge has been imported into FreeBSD 6.0 and I believe will be
    > > merged to 5.x before 5.5.
    >
    > A candidate MFC patchset is at:
    > http://people.freebsd.org/~thompsa/if_bridge-5stable.diff and is believed to
    > be production quality (judging from the reports for RELENG_6 so far). There
    > might be minor problems and/or yet undiscovered problems, but only testing
    > gets it there. Andrew is certainly thankful for any feedback!
    >
    > > I can't speak for ECMP.
    > >
    > > LACP is supported by ng_fec. The fact that you don't like it is a
    > > seperate issue. FWIW, ng_fec only uses netgraph for configuration.
    > > It's not really a netgraph node. I'd personally like to see OpenBSD's
    > > if_trunk imported and LACP added, but I certainly don't have time.
    >
    > It's certainly a good idea to look at if_trunk. I don't have hardware to
    > build a testbed, but I belive there are people out there who do and also have
    > the skills to make it happen. The main problem is: Whoever does this must
    > have (physical) access to a reasonable testbed and free time while there
    > (i.e. agreement with employer etc)

    I've got the equipment access, but lack the time. Untangling the mess
    in the VLAN and EtherChannel support has been on my like for a couple
    years now, but I have know idea when or if I'll get to it. FWIW, a
    Catalyst 2950 series switch will do EtherChannel and they appear to be
    available on e-bay for under $500 if someone wants to work on this.

    -- Brooks 

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