[c-nsp] 6500 vs Packeteer

[nick.nauwelaerts at thomson.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net 
> [mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of 
> Murphy, William 
> Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 18:21
> To: cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
> Subject: [c-nsp] 6500 vs Packeteer
> 
> Anyone have any input on the pros & cons of 6500 QoS vs Packeteer or
> other similar appliance?  Specifically I am referring to 
> Sup720-3CXL QoS
> capabilities...  Basically my concern is having an appliance as single
> point of failure.  As I increase redundancy in the network
> infrastructure it would be nice if I can achieve desired
> QoS/rate-limiting using the switches themselves without 
> additional gear.
> At the same time I believe I will give up some deep packet inspection
> capability and a loss of granularity so to speak in identifying
> undesirable traffic...

The packeteers I worked with all came with nics that went into bypass
when the unit failed, I'm guessing with some kind of watchdog running on
'em. I am however still waiting to see the first one fail of the 3 units
I'm running.
As for the QoS, it depends on what you need. If you just need policing
the sup720 might do fine, however if you want shaping or decent
visibility then a packeteer would be more up to it. I'm not one for
layer7 inspection, so no experience on that.

On the side, the additional network cards you can order for packeteers
are the first PCBs I've seen with both intel & amd chips on them.

// nick