[c-nsp] Router recommendation for load balancing setup

[Gert Doering]

Hi,

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 11:30:32AM -0800, Hector Herrera wrote:
> I'm currently using a 3550-12t for the task, with the only drawback
> that the cpu hits 99% load with a 5000 packets per sec./40Mbps
> combined throughput on the load-balanced links.  The two 100Mbps
> uplinks never reach more than 50% utilization because the router can't
> handle the load.

"something is seriously wrong there" - a 3550 should never see CPU load,
even with all ports running at full speed, as the packets are forwarded
in hardware (nb: don't call a 3550 a "router"...).

Now, there are situations where the CPU needs to touch the packets, and
then the performance goes seriously down the drain...

As for "why is it CPU-switching the packets", I don't have much expertise
with the 3550s - usually it's some feature (ICMP redirects, packets going
in and out over the same interface, too many routes for TCAM, ...) that
kills hardware forwarding.

gert
-- 
USENET is *not* the non-clickable part of WWW!
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Gert Doering - Munich, Germany                             gert at greenie.muc.de
fax: +49-89-35655025                        gert at net.informatik.tu-muenchen.de
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