Software Update: RouterOS 7.1

MikroTik has released version 7.1 of RouterOS, an operating system that focuses on running router tasks† This includes routing network traffic, of course, but also bandwidth management, a firewall, controlling wireless access points, a hotspot gateway and a VPN server. It can be done on the hardware from MikroTik when doing its job on x86 or virtual machines. Before use, a license required, which is included with the purchase of MikroTik hardware.

Version 7.1 is the first stable release in the highly anticipated version 7 of RouterOS. Several new features have been added and the performance has also been significantly improved. Not all sharp edges have been removed from the software yet, so it is recommended that you read up on it before making the switch. The changelog for this release looks like this:

Major Changes

• Updated Linux Kernel based on version 5.6.3;
• Completely new NTP client and server implementation;
• Completely new User Manager implementation;
• Merged individual packages, only bundle and a few extra packages remain;
• New Command Line Interface (CLI) style (RouterOS v6 commands are still supported);
• Support for Let’s Encrypt certificate generation;
• Support for REST API;
• Support for UEFI boot mode on x86;

Networking

• CHR FastPath support for “vmxnet3” and “virtio-net” drivers;
• Support for “Cake” and “FQ_Codel” type queues;
• Support for IPv6 NAT;
• Support for Layer 3 hardware acceleration on all CRS3xx devices;
• Support for MBIM driver with basic functionality support for all modems with MBIM mode;
• Support for MLAG on CRS3xx devices;
• Support for VRRP grouping and connection tracking data synchronization between nodes;
• Support for Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN);

routing

• Completely new BGP implementation with performance improvements;
• Completely new IPv6 stack;
• Completely new MPLS implementation with interface lists, multipath and LDPv6 support;
• Completely new OSPF implementation with performance improvements;
• Completely new routing filtering with script-like rule syntax, RPKI support and large and extended community filtering;
• Support for IPv6 ECMP and VRF (including VRF-lite);
• Support for IPv6 recursive routing and policy routing;

VPN

• Support for L2TPv3;
• Support for OpenVPN UDP transport protocol;
• Support for WireGuard;
• Support for ZeroTier on ARM and ARM64 devices;

wireless

• Completely new alternative wireless package “wifiwave2” with 802.11ac Wave2, WPA3 and 802.11w management frame protection support (requires ARM CPU and 256MB RAM);