I have a ARM 32 MikroTik RouterBoard RB450Gx4 as a test with RouterOS v7.8 and ZT seems to work fantastic with the MikroTik package.
I have two Starlink Terminals and a traditional cable modem that I would like to “Bond/MultiPath”.
As I understand it I will need a VPS with ZT and a public IP as my public facing IP/Datacenter (IPv4/IPv6).
MikroTik RB450Gx4 & RB3011 Ui AS-RM
ether1. Starlink High Performance 100.64.0.0/10. GW 100.64.0.1
ether2. Starlink Square Dishy 192.168.1.0/24(NAT) or 100.64.0.0/10 GW 100.64.0.1
ether3. High Priced ETH LTE(10.xx.xx.xx) NAT/Cable Modem Public IPv4
My Ubiquiti Dream Machine SE throw a fit if I use both Starlink Terminals in bypass with a 100.xx.xx.xx as both with have the same GW address 100.64.0.1. And one will drop and become disabled.
So someone told me they used “any” MicroTic router will handle the fact that both of the SL GW’s will be the same IP. And they used ZT for a SD WAN and setup an ACTIVE, ACTIVE bonding to double the speed.
I would like to bond/multi-path ether1 and ether2 with a fast fallback to ether3 expensive. Potentially with a faster fallback than the 30 seconds that my Dream Machine SE defaults to.
Is this possible?
MikroTik with 2 Starlink Terminals in bypass 100.64.0.0/10 IP’s & 1 LTE. —> ZT Data Center public IPv4/IPv6
Goal is increased speed, seamless fallback to single SL Terminal, and if both SL Terminals fail to the Expensive LTE. And retain my public IP regardless of which link actually transports the packets.
I use a Mikrotik with ZT myself and will try to help out.
Regarding your description, I think I understand most of it but not the part how the DreamMachine fits in. Is it just a temporary fix that will be dropped later on or do you intend to use it as part of the final solution (and how)?
And please elaborate what you mean by “retain my public IP regardless of which link actually transports the packets.” Do you mean the LTE address?
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As for the rest, in order to establish Bonding aka Link Aggregation you need two peers that runs at L2 (Ethernet). It’s possible to simulate this on Mikrotik RoS by tunneling Ethenet over IP using for example EoIP/LCAP or similar protocol. However, it becomes pretty complicated as it has to be done at both ends, ie in both the Mikrotik and in the VPS virtual router. You also need to keep track of the correct MTU for your tunnels, otherwise there is a risk that packets will be fragmented and sent twice which brings unnecessary overhead.
It’s significantly easier to just run outbound L3 (IP) Load Balancing using e.g. Round-Robin, PCC or NTH where the traffic is prioritized and balanced primarily over Eth1/2 and automatically without delay switch over to Eth3 (LTE) in case both 1 and 2 whould disappear. This is pretty much standard procedure using RoS and for this you don’t need a VPS.
Worth knowing there are independent implementations of L3 Multipath (MPTCP/MPUDP) on Linux but you have to run exactly the same version at both ends to avoid compatibility issues.
Regarding ZT, Multipath is the only option that can take advantage of multiple links. Unfortunately, there is no way to enable Multipath in the latest bump to ZT v1.10.3 on RoS since it currently lacks a complete administrative interface thus you’ll unfortunately have to wait until the next release is available (probably soon)
I guess ideally I would like to bridge the Public-IP of the VM as the feed to my Ubiquiti. And use ZT/MikroTik a super long Ethernet Cable(Bridge). Not sure if this is the best methodology. I’m open to suggestions.
Ubiquiti <-Public-IP> MikroTik/ZT <->Transport {Starlink#1-100.64.0.0/10, Starlink#2-100.64.0.0/10, LTE 10.xx.xx.xx} <-> VM/ZT <-> Public-IP
