[c-nsp] Adequate RAM in 7206VXR/NPE-G1?

[Justin Shore]

Bruce Pinsky wrote:
> A quick of a GSR that has 216K routes shows that the BGP router process is
> holding 156MB of memory.
> 
> 175   0  372897988  120493880  156407792          0          0 BGP Router
> 				^^^^^^^^^
> V    AS MsgRcvd MsgSent   TblVer  InQ OutQ Up/Down  State/PfxRcd
> 4    81  685748   19218  1958075    0    0 1w0d       216712


That's interesting.  I have a 3660 with 256MB and it has 2 full tables:

165   0 2042211768 1569844820  135461708       0       0 BGP Router

V    AS MsgRcvd MsgSent   TblVer  InQ OutQ Up/Down  State/PfxRcd
4  7018 24269137  819807 116570581    0    0 1w4d       212728
4 65001 18741841 7237685 116570580    0    0 1d01h      213539

(both are eBGP for the record)

This router used to have 3 full feeds.  That said I would strongly 
advise against anyone else doing this.  This was not a well-thought-out 
design (in fact I don't think thought was involved at all).  This poor 
router doesn't have enough free RAM to run CEF. :-(  Without CEF running 
I have 30MB free.  Fortunately it's slated for the chopping block in the 
very near future.

I have 2 other borders (7206VXR w/ a NPE-G1 and a 3845 each with 1 eBGP 
feed and a 4-member iBGP mesh) and each has 1GB and I wouldn't dare run 
anything less.  I learned a hard lesson many years ago.  When you buy a 
router, no matter what you currently plan on doing with it, you should 
always (ALWAYS!) max out the DRAM and flash.  RAM requirements never 
decrease.  Firmware files never get smaller.  The more times I crack 
open the case of a router the more opportunity I have to screw it up 
(spill a drink in it, drop a screwdriver tip down onto the PCB, zap it 
with ESD, all of which I've seen or done personally).  It's also certain 
that you'll end up doing something with the router that you never 
planned on using it for when you bought it; this will of course tax the 
RAM and flash in brand new ways.  Spend a few more bucks up front and 
mitigate the potential for problems later.

My $.02.
  Justin