Today, Netgate® announces the availability of TNSR™ Release 19.08. This marks our sixth major release in as many quarters and we’re proud of the progress! 19.08 delivers a host of feature improvements throughout the product, with several key router and firewall capabilities driven by customer requests.

If you’re new to TNSR, it is an open-source based packet processing platform that delivers superior secure networking solution performance, manageability, and services flexibility at a fraction of the cost of legacy brands. It is designed for enterprises and xSPs looking for groundbreaking price/performance across applications including edge border router, site-to-site secure VPN, CG-NAT, Zero Trust High Volume ACL Firewall, Port Mirror, cloud connectivity and more. Quickly and easily configurable via CLI or REST API, TNSR gives network personnel both the familiar feel of command line configuration and a glidepath to the future of intent-based networking. You can learn more here.

Now, let’s dig into 19.08!

Key router enhancements

We’ve added Open Shortest Path First (OSPF). OSPF is one of several Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs) used to move traffic around within a larger autonomous system network, e.g., a single enterprise network. OSPF has largely replaced the older Routing Information Protocol (RIP) in corporate networks. When routes change, e.g., due to network reconfiguration or equipment failure, OSPF provides much faster convergence time - the time required to find a new path between endpoints with no loops.

Next, TNSR now supports Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP). VRRP is a standards-based alternative to the proprietary Hot Standby Routing Protocol (HSRP). In the event of a link or router failure, VRRP enables routers to coordinate control of IP addresses between multiple nodes acting as a single “virtual” router cluster - ensuring the transparent reflow of packets to the highest election-based backup router.

Finally, a number of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) stability improvements have been added. BGP is used to transfer data and information between different host gateways, the Internet or autonomous systems - and decides its routes based on path, network policies and rule sets. TNSR supported BGP previously, but 19.08 significantly strengthens dynamic routing and its supporting documentation. At least one key improvement was upstreamed (and has since been accepted) to Free Range Routing (FRR). As always, Netgate continues to support the open source movement - for the good of all.

Firewall enhancements

In addition to router improvements, 19.08 also expands TNSR’s firewall capabilities.

Host ACL rule protocol now enables the selection of any protocol, specified by number.

And, of particular note is the ability to support very large ACL rulesets, e.g. 10,000+ ACLs. If not the only solution on the market, TNSR is one of only a few capable of supporting 100,000 (no, that’s not a typo, we mean 100,000) or more rulesets. Most hardware-based solutions cannot even come close to this number owing to Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) exhaustion. TNSR scales to the rafters via software - which converts to exceptional speed and price-performance when and where large enterprises and xSPs need it most.

Configuration and monitoring enhancements

From inception, the management of, and interaction with,TNSR has been centered on a CLI and a REST API. The former is widely understood by most network engineers, and the latter represents where the modern world of automated management orchestration of network functions is fast heading. That said, the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) remains a heavily-utilized legacy management protocol in both enterprise and service provider networks. TNSR now provides a method through which its router capabilities can be monitored by a traditional Network Monitoring System (NMS) or other SNMP management software.

Those are the high points of Release 19.08. But, there is more. See our release notes and documentation for a more extensive release rundown.

Ready to see how TNSR can transform your routing, firewall, or VPN needs? Engage with us here and let’s explore!