[c-nsp] VSS or not for edge routing?

[Graham Wooden]

Quoting Mattias Niklasson <mattias.niklasson at deltamanagement.se>:

> Hi,
>
> We are a small hosting shop that is planning to implement two 6509   
> with SUP720-10G-3CXL as edge routers and distribution switches in a   
> collapsed design. We have two full BGP feeds and a limited number of  
>  VLANs. A really basic setup. The old school would be to use iBGP,   
> OSPF, HSRP, STP. After looking into VSS, I'm quite tempted to get   
> rid of most of these things and just let the VSS have two eBGP   
> sessions and run a MEC from each access switch.
>
> To be honest, I feel more on top of things using all the   
> abbreviations above, but it would be really nice to get rid of STP.   
> :) I have not seen any configuration examples where VSS is used in   
> combination with BGP though. Anyone here that are doing this?
>
> What are your experiences when it comes to VSS stability and   
> maintainability (failovers (SSO), software upgrades (eFSU), adding   
> line cards and such)? Can I trust it? Any opinions are welcome.
>
> /Mattias


I can't speak to the edge router  protocols w/ VSS.  However, I  
implemented an expanded out core and 4 distro pods, each running VSS.   
Our core is running the Quad Sup.  Yeah, mgmt wasn't happy about that  
bill.  All are running 12.2(33) SXI4a.

Was glad to get rid of the HSRP and most of the RSTP (still have some  
campus wide VLANs that I haven't segmented out yet).  The gotcha to  
keep in mind is the line cards.  We chose to ditch the CFCs and  
ordered the DFC3C for all of our 67xx cards.  Also, you can't do a VSL  
link on a 6704 10Gb.  We were maxing out those cards anyways, and went  
with the 6708s.

VSS has been a solid setup for us.  A little pricey, but well worth  
the upgrade for our shop.

-graham