Geek Speak

Managing Riverbed Steelhead Devices

As I mentioned, we are doing some testing this week in the lab on WAN acceleration and optimization devices and most recently we've been working with some Riverbed devices. I must say, I'm impressed with the manageability of these devices.

Out of the box. Orion was able to collect stats on CPU, memory, swap, buffer allocation, interface traffic, and interface errors. Additionally, I'm getting NetFlow information directly from this device and it seems to be working swimmingly. It's not often that I see a device that is as easy to manage as these, so I'm impressed.

Anybody else using these devices in their network?

Josh
 

Published Oct 25 2007, 05:33 PM by Josh Stephens

Comments

 

Scorpio said:

Used it a few years back to help with running CAD application across WAN.  Application was design for LAN, thus very chatty...

Before Steelhead, file transfer was aprox. 10-15 mins.  After "pre-loading" the steelhead with files, transfer was less than 5 min.

November 2, 2007 4:04 PM
 

techman said:

We have implemented Juniper WXC devices and found Solarwinds works well w/them.  We tested Riverbed as well, but for our use Juniper fit the profile..  We will have over 100 devices within our network when it's all done.  

November 7, 2007 10:20 AM
 

ale_bar said:

Only tested, this week, 2 entry level Steelhead100, on a vpn between Italy and Slovenia. Monitored with Orion.

Lan side about 140MB (Total rx/tx every 2 hours statistic), wan side no more 40MB in the same time.

And with standard parameter: only plugged ethernet  cables and powered on in each side. Very very good. Last my test with Netscaler was absolute not the same.

November 23, 2007 10:11 AM
 

tredentdata said:

We have deployed a lot of Steelhead appliances for our customers.  We are a Riverbed partner in Southern California.  In 99% of the environments the Riverbed Steelheads win the bake offs.  Glad to see Solarwinds test them with Orion as we love Orion.  What else do you guys plan to test with these appliances?

Justin Lofton

Systems Engineer

justinl@tredent.com

Tredent Data Systems, Inc.

http://www.tredent.com

November 26, 2007 3:05 PM
 

ksanders said:

We're running 2020s and 3250s - redundant pairs at multiple locations in PA, UT, NE, and overseas in India. We've had them in place over a year now and are seeing an average of 60% bandwidth reduction. We're all accelerating internal SSL apps through the Riverbeds. Call center applications. No issues so far and we're watching them in Orion. Didn't know about the netflow stats and I may have to pick up the Netflow add-in to Orion 'cause the info would be good.

November 30, 2007 9:04 AM

About Josh Stephens

Josh Stephens is director of technology – aka Head Geek – at SolarWinds, where he plays an integral part in the development and delivery of our award-winning network management products. Josh has extensive experience in network management systems, network engineering, and software development. His 15-plus years of experience in technology include designing and deploying advanced networks and network management systems within organizations including the US Air Force, Sprint, MCI/UUNET, and Wal-Mart. He has received several industry certifications including those from Cisco Systems, Microsoft, and HP.