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MikroTik CHR (Cloud Hosted Router)

MikroTik CHR is a strong fit when you need high-performance L3 routing with a tight cost envelope.

When to choose MikroTik CHR

  • ISP/WISP scenarios or carrier-style labs
  • Advanced routing policy requirements
  • Teams comfortable with RouterOS operations
  • 2-4 vNICs depending on topology
  • CPU: 2+ vCPU, RAM: 2-4 GB
  • Disk: 2-8 GB (based on logs and packages)
  • CHR license tier aligned to expected throughput

Baseline setup

  1. Define interface and addressing plan.
  2. Lock down management access (ACL + service ports).
  3. Configure static or dynamic routing policies.
  4. Apply ingress/egress firewall filters.
  5. Enable export/binary backups and VM snapshots.

Good practices

  • Separate management and data planes.
  • Document route filters and policy routing logic.
  • Evaluate FastTrack/FastPath impact before production.
  • Control RouterOS versioning to reduce regressions.

Operational checklist

  • Is CHR license tier sufficient for real traffic?
  • Are anti-spoofing and bogon filters in place?
  • Are CPU, pps and queue metrics monitored?
  • Is there a tested rollback path by version?