[nsp] 7206VXR with NSE-1 & PXF

[Andrew Fort]

On 3/03/2004 5:48 AM, Dan Salekin wrote:

>I'm looking for options to reduce high CPU and PXF has been identified as an option.
>
>I'd like to have a complete understanding of what can be PXF accelerated.
>
>Any suggestions regarding using/implementing this feature would be appreciated.
>
>If there are any good references for PXF, please respond with the links.
>
>thanks,
>Dan
>  
>

Hi Dan,
The exact list depends on the IOS release as more things are ported to 
being PXF enhanced as releases move forward - I've generally found the 
release notes for given IOS release can be useful as it tends to 
indicate when a particular new thingo is supported.

IIRC, you can no longer enable PXF in 12.2(18)S and later on 7200 NSE-1 
(you get a message indicating it is disabled?), and I would take care 
enabling it in earlier 12.2S (we experienced stability problems under 
very heavy load in testing, despite the improved performance from PXF 
enhanced 802.1Q tagging).  If you're doing pure IPv4 routing on the box 
(no MPLS, L2TP, etc), then 802.1Q tagging is about the only performance 
improvement you get, from memory (which for us equated to about an extra 
few Kpps on a transit router, so if it works for you, it may do enough).

I asked this question (well, NSE-1 PXF stability) awhile back, there 
should be something in the list archives about a stable release (see 
marc.theaimsgroup.com for a reasonable search to the archives).  It was 
something in the 12.1E series.

If you can afford it, look at replacing it with an NPE-G1.

-afort