This is a big ask, as it probably has something to do with hardware and not just software, but I’m going to put it here anyway. In many enterprise and carrier grade systems, components are hot-swappable and able to be replaced if a failure occurs in a more controlled and compartmentalized way.
On the Peplink SDX (maybe the EPX too, I don’t have one of those to be able to say definitely) you are required to shut the router entirely down before you can replace or add/remove a flexmodule. I found this out today the hard way when I tanked my entire (thankfully not yet production) network by inserting a new flexmodule.
I implore the Peplink team to consider the addition of hot swap functionality to these devices. If these devices are supposed to be enterprise grade — they should be given the price point they come in at — then this is a pretty important feature.
Consider this - you have an SDX Pro with two GE modules that run many different trunks and access ports throughout your network. One of them fails and you are in a partial network down emergency. Instead of being able to just pull the failed card out and replace it, you must now shut the device entirely off and suffer an even worse outage to replace the failed card, including boot time of the machine once the card is swapped. This situation is only amplified if this issue affects the EPX and you have way more modules loaded. Besides - I don’t know about you, but I’m not aware of too many Network Engineers who like powering devices OFF entirely once they’ve been turned on for the first time and have been running for a while.
I just can’t fathom having a device like this in a mission critical operation and not having this functionality. Please consider this as the Peplink SDX and EPX line continue to evolve and modularity finds its way into more PL products. Thank you!