[c-nsp] BGP hardware

[Kristofer Sigurdsson]

Hi,

Ronan Daly, Sun, Jan 23, 2005 at 11:36:50PM +0000 :
> 
> Hi,
> I'm looking into running eBGP with three providers and taking full tables
> from all three. I've currently got a 3725 with 256MB of RAM, a NM-2FE2W and
> a NM-1FE2W. Would that be enough to handle the three tables if I'm pushing
> under 20Mb/s?

The 20 Mbit/s won't be a problem, you could do that with an 3640 box.  However,
three full feeds, as others have noted, are not going to fit well into 256 MB of RAM.

Since the 3725 can't take more memory than 256 MB, maybe you could look into taking
only a limited set of routes from one or more of your providers?

> 
> I'm also considering getting a second router for redundancy - maybe a 3825
> or a 7200 ebay special. Anyone have any recommendations for this?

I'd recommend the 7200 series.  The 7200 series are enterprise, modular routers
that have been around for many years.

Buy a 7200VXR router, NPE-400 or, if you can afford it, NPE-G1 (a brand new 7200VXR
with NPE-G1 will cost about $15k on eBay).
Please note, on the NPE-G1, there are 3 x 10/100/1000 ethernet interfaces, so you don't 
have to buy those (you won't be able to use the NM's from your 3700 router on the 7200 series).

What you need in a router is memory.  The 7200VXR's support 512 MB of memory on the
NPE-400 and 1 GB on the NPE-G1.  The older NPE's don't support enough memory.

If I were you, I would buy a 7200VXR with NPE-G1 and 512 MB of memory (it comes standard with
256 MB), use that as a primary router and use the 3725 as a backup router - configured to take 
only a limited set of routes or even just default routes.

-- 
Kristófer Sigurðsson         | Tel: +354 525 4103 / MSN: ks at rhi.hi.is
Netsérfr./Network specialist | Reiknistofnun HÍ/University of Iceland