[c-nsp] Cisco 7304 experience (was Cisco 7507 RSP4+ with VIP-2 and 2PA-FE-TX)

[ekagan at axsne.com]

> I know some seem to have terrible issues with the 75xx units, 
> but knock on
> wood, this thing has been a rock. Shy of someone DDOSing the 
> hell out of it, I
> never have any problems. I almost hate to loose the redundant 
> RSP's upgrading
> to a 7206VXR, but I just couldn't justify putting a 76xx router with a
> SUP720-3BXL in to run the co-lo stuff.  Granted I can't say I 
> recall any of my
> 7206's at the old company ever failing, so hopefully the new 
> NPE-G2 will be a
> champ as well.
> 

I ran a few 7507's for a while with redundant RSP's and hated them. We
ran in to constant issues with RSP's crashing, router crashing, etc.
While it is nice to have CPU redundancy, how often does an NPE on a 720x
fail ? They are few and far between and keeping a few spares around
seems to work quite nicely.

Anyway, while shopping for a Sonet OC12 router I came across the 7304.
It has several Gig ports on CPU like NPE-G1/G2 and can also handle a 2nd
CPU in one of the slots for redundancy if you wish.  There is also an
adapter to use existing  72xx PA's.  From what I can see based on retail
(below), its inline with 7206VXR/NPE-G1/G2.  Does anyone have any
experience with the 7304's or feedback ?  It looks like there are line
cards up to OC48 and appears to be the ideal in between of 720x VXR and
76xx. (The 76xx I belive is more the 6509 model of a switching platform
with routing capabilities.  The price tag also seems quite high.)


4-slot chassis, NPE-G100, 1 Power Supply	1	22,000.00
Cisco 7304 Redundant AC Power Supply Option	1	3,000.00
Redundant 7304 NPE-G100 w/1GB SDRAM, 256MB Flsh, (3)GE/FE/E	1
20,000.00


Thanks
Eric