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

[Gert Doering]

Hi,

On Wed, Apr 06, 2005 at 05:10:31PM -0400, Bill Wichers wrote:
> 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 :-)

There are two things to watch out for:

 - the number of routes on the VIP is not a function of "what is behind
   the VIP", but of "how many routes does the RSP know" (because, as far
   as I understand, *all* routes are alway distributed to the line
   cards [if dCEF is active])

 - the traffic load - you say "servers", and those tend to send lots
   of traffic... - for a bunch of T1/E1 line, I'd take a VIP2-40 any
   day, but a fully loaded FastE will max out a VIP2-*

[..]
> I hate to just junk the old blades or sell them for peanuts on Ebay...

How well I can understand that :-)

Still running Cisco 4700M's here...

gert
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Gert Doering - Munich, Germany                             gert at greenie.muc.de
fax: +49-89-35655025                        gert at net.informatik.tu-muenchen.de