I am completely new to network engineering. So, I need some help to understand the things. I want to colocate my server with the datacenter with my own IP and ASN, do I have to have a router or a switch? As I am aware to have my IPs with my datacenter I need to have BGP peering with the datacenter/ISP. So, do I need my own hardware for this or is it handled by the datacenter? And if I need to handle this, do I new routers or switches for it?
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Did any answer help you? If so, you should accept the answer so that the question doesn't keep popping up forever, looking for an answer. Alternatively, you can provide and accept your own answer.– Ron Maupin ♦Commented Dec 25, 2018 at 8:03
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The main reason for putting your equipment in another company's data centre is to take advantage of all the infrastructure: power, cooling, networking, physical security. Secondarily it can be advantageous if it's near something it has to communicate with a lot, such as web servers near database servers and web servers close to customers. The trade-offs between owning equipment in colocation or renting by the hour in the cloud can be complex, but I'm sure you've considered them. These are all server-related issues best dealt with elsewhere than this forum.
The main reason for having your own ASN and doing the appropriate border routing is if you have a large amount of network, with multiple peering to other networks. None of which is necessary for a few servers, and if you're new to it, it's a lot of learning and work for no particular gain. It might be helpful to read a peering guide from an exchange in Amsterdam and a peering tutorial.
I'd suggest you consider just using the networking provided by your datacentre, getting multiple redundant ethernet connections, and have your autonomy at the DNS layer.
To directly answer your question, you'd need a router, not a switch, at the border.
answered Mar 1, 2018 at 10:43
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Can I use Layer 3 switch for the same? Or the combination of router and layer 2 switch can be fine? Also I have multiple servers at multiple datacenters around the globe but the reason I am looking for this is only because I am renting the servers and IPs from datacenter directly. And to lower the cost and start creating own infrastructure now I am looking over these things. Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 11:42
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A "layer 3" switch is a switch with a router in the same box, so yes, it's basically equivalent to separate units. Whether it's suitable all depends on bandwidth, complexity and many other parameters. (From your brief description, I'd recommend reviewing cloud services rather than colocation.) It's not clear to me what you want to achieve with the networking change. Regards. Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 13:05
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Actually we want to host our own cloud platform and selling to our business customer. We are hosting company already was working with few colocations with remote hands with datacenter now on RTO basis. But currently we are looking to expand to own infrastructure. Also we have applied for own ASN and IPs with RIR, we just want to do BGP too with the ISP/datacenter. Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 13:32
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I understand; In which case I'd suggest getting a stack of old routers and something like O'Reilly's BGP book and an online explanations and practising. You might still might want to hire a specialist for a day or two to scale your routers for your production environment. Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 16:04