Z3 Throughput

[Bovie2K]

What actual Throughput are Z3 users getting? Also is the Z3 like the Z1 where you get as much throughput as the device will give usually much more than the specs say or like an MX where its locked to a software maximum?

[MilesMeraki]

From my knowledge there isn't any hard limit of the throughput of the Z3 unless you set one. Therefore the Z3 is able to operate as close as line speed as possible (1Gbs).

[MerakiDave · Accepted solution]

Hi @Bovie2K, 

As @MilesMeraki stated, there does not seem to be a hard limit, I do not believe the Z3 is artificially throttled to 100Mbps in firmware.  You'd have to test to confirm, I don't have a Z3 at the moment to test with, just my Z1.  The Z1 is rated for 50Mbps FW and 10Mbps VPN, while the Z3 is rated to 100Mbps FW and 50Mbps VPN.  I just tested my Z1 and got 125Mbps through it with a handful of L7 FW rules in place.  And the limiting factor there is my ISP, not the Z1.  So the Z1 definitely wasn't capped at the spec of 50Mbps, and the Z3 likely shouldn't be either.  While the Z3 has the much better specs versus the Z1, including 2x2 11ac W2 and 802.1X, both Z1 and Z3 still have the 5 recommended clients.  While I believe (and have seen) the Z3 handle many more, ~5 clients is still the recommendation as it's more of a SOHO gateway. 

[lesbarn]

I was just looking at my test lab that is using a Z1 it now has firmware mx 13.28 and now on the traffic shaping page its says 1Gbps. I know this is different. I just hadn't though of checking it. Here is a screenshot from my dashboard. As far as clients, in the Spring of 2014 we had a lightening strike at school and took out my SonicWALL. I was able to put this little Z1 in its place with two VLANs and run the entire school for three weeks without a hitch. Our Internet speed at that time was only 15Mbps/15mbps. I didn't have any problems with around 100 to 200 clients per day. Can anyone provide a screenshot from a Z3?

[MRCUR]

@lesbarn This is from a Z3 running MX 14.21. From my testing it's definitely software limited to 100Mb. 

[Bovie2K]

This happened with the Z1's a few years back where they artificially limited it and then unlimited it. I understand the reason for limiting to protect your business on larger firewalls but these Z1's and Z3's shouldn't be limited. Though with that being said I'd love if they pulled the limit off the MX64.

[Patrickpu]

How did you run 100-200 computers off of 1 Z1?  These things have a cap of IPs that they can utilize...right?  I believe they can only run a /29.  

[lesbarn]

I had two networks setup up at the time using 10.6.1.x/24 and 10.6.2.x/24. They were separate at that time because my old switches could not have vlans. I used the Z1 to allow the networks to communicate with each other and share the Internet. I had zero problems with clients being able to access the Internet and share resources.

[Jabettan]

I have just tested this with a Z1 and confirmed at the minimum it could hand out 500 leases over 4x /25 subnets

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@Patrickpu wrote:

How did you run 100-200 computers off of 1 Z1?  These things have a cap of IPs that they can utilize...right?  I believe they can only run a /29.  

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[Jabettan]

HI @MerakiDave, @Bovie2K

I just tested this today.
The Z3 is artificially throttled in firmware to 100mb/s.

Tested a Z1 with the same config on the same ISP and are getting a little over 200mb/s.

As a confirmation I called up support and opened a ticket.

Support confirmed this is intended behavior and that the Z1 will be functionally faster in some scenarios.

[Bovie2K]

This is frustrating both directions. The Z3 is more $$$ than the Z1 yet has less performance. Also limiting it to 100mb makes it a bad choice when many peoples home connections are 250mb or more down and a cheap router can do that speed as a business you give them a Z3 to take home and everything is slower. Yet on the other end I have an MX64 at home and why should a Z1 or Z3 out preform my MX64. Though I can see on Meraki's end why they don't want to impact on their more expensive products. Though still why not stop artificially limiting and just promise actual speeds like say Cisco does. They don't promise a 5506 will do gigabit but in the right situation it will. 

[Bovie2K]

@MerakiDave Could this be like a few years ago when the Z1 got accidentally artificially limited then later the cap was removed?

[MRCUR]

@Bovie2K The Z3 spec sheet is quite clear on its throughput - 100Mb and a further limit of 50Mb for VPN.