[c-nsp] Using older VIP2's in non-demanding apps

[Bill Wichers]

Has anyone tried using older or low-mem VIP2's (VIP2-40's, or VIP2-50's
with 64MB SDRAM or less) in low-load edge apps? I have a bunch of old
VIP2s laying around and have been wondering if they could be used in our
colo facilities where they're only handling traffic to servers -- no
"real" routed links to other routers using BGP, EIGRP, etc. I am hoping
maybe to get some more use from the old VIP2's where they don't have to
deal with routing and thus high memory use, but I'm not sure if the VIP2's
still need a lot of memory to handle routes when they're not passing any
routes on themselves. Hopefully that makes sense :-)

We always use VIP2-50's w/ 128 MB SDRAM for links to our other routers
where full route tables must be passed, and they show pretty high memory
use in that application. We had to mothball some older VIP2-40's and have
a few VIP2-50s that would be useful again if there is an application where
their low CPU (in the case of the -40), or low memory config (in the case
of the -50) wouldn't be a problem. Any ideas? Advice? Expierience? I hate
to just junk the old blades or sell them for peanuts on Ebay...

     -Bill

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Waveform Technology
UNIX Systems Administrator