[c-nsp] ASR opinions..

[John Elliot]

 > 
> However, we're deploying some NAT services and will be 
> implementing the inter-chassis NAT redundancy feature across 
> 2x ASR1006's, to allow for session state on the backup NAT 
> router should the main one fail. Thanks - Have you implemented inter-chassis redundancy before?(As our asr's will be performing so many roles, dont know if this would work in our environment....maybe hsrp would be a better option) 
> 
> > Have you come across any "gotchas" on the asr's...having
> > never touched/seen XE, how does it compare to standard
> > ios? 
> 
> Hardware-wise, not really. We've been lucky that all the 
> units we've got haven't failed in any way.
> 
> The biggest problem with the ASR1000 is IOS XE. We've been 
> running the box since IOS XE 2.4, and that had a number of 
> key features missing when compared to something like 
> 12.2(33)SR*, which is what IOS XE is based on.
> 
> That said, we're now running IOS XE 3.3.1S and it has 
> greatly improved. We continue to use this platform because 
> all the features we need do not require any additional 
> hardware, so we know those missing features will come 
> eventually. One of the biggest areas for us that were 
> lacking was QoS, but it's getting there - simple things like 
> marking statistics for service policies has only just become 
> available (and requires a special command to actually enable 
> it). Thanks - So qos does work on the asr's correct? Was it just that statistics were not working? We do "standard" gold,silver,bronze on our intercaps, and also do egress policies on some clients dot1q subints(Match what they have marked egree on CE, and give priority to certain markings)....do the asr's support this? Netflow is also something we utilise on the existing 7200's - asr's netflow functional?
> 
> But otherwise, all in all, we're happy, and will be buying 
> more ASR1000's. I think they'll be as popular the 7200's, 
> just with more horsepower.
>  Yep, they certainly appear to be the ideal upgrade for the 7200(On paper at least!) Thanks again Mark.