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

[Bill Wichers]

>  - 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])

That's what I was afraid of too... I have old VIP2-50's with only 32MB
RAM, and there's no way they'll take a full table. Our old -40's at least
have the max 64MB RAM on them.

>  - 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 should have been more specific -- they are *colo customer* servers, and
thus move far less bandwidth than the customers think :-) I'm told a
VIP2-40 can handle about 70 Mb/s or so of "easy" traffic (not minimum-size
packets or random DoS junk). Not sure about the -50, but in our
application even 20-30 Mb/s per PA would be fine.

> Still running Cisco 4700M's here...

I still have some 2500's as CPE at a few customers. Trusty old things have
been running for over a decade now.

     -Bill

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Waveform Technology
UNIX Systems Administrator