[c-nsp] Is the 6704 really as terrible as everyone says?

[Nick Hilliard]

On 02/12/2010 15:41, Drew Weaver wrote:
> I've read several posts on here that lead me to believe that the
> WS-6704-10G is essentially the worst linecard ever produced.
>
> The problem is, I only need 2 ports of 10G and just to replace 2x1Gbps
> uplinks that almost never get anywhere near their line rate capacity.

If that's what you need, it will work perfectly.  Get a unit off ebay with 
a couple of LR XENPAKs (don't pay too much for these - they are cheap on 
the aftermarket).

> If they are really, really, awful.

They aren't really, really awful - they're just first generation 10G cards 
and are showing their age at this stage (they were first fabricated in 
2002).  They have a number of known limitations, but if these limitations 
aren't relevant to you, then they're fine.  For < 1G traffic, you won't 
have any problems at all.

If you're having packet loss due to shallow buffers on any other line 
cards, make sure you have "mls qos" disabled.  By default, this will carve 
up the buffers on all line cards in a way that would make you weep.

Nick