[c-nsp] Cisco 12008 8/40 Gigabit Link

[Pete Templin]

On 9/11/12 9:33 PM, root net wrote:

> That's what I am starting to figure out. Been doing some research and
> it's truly a distributed platform. I've also been reading that we would
> want Engine 3 as you mention but I think Engine 2 would work too. What
> do you think?

The Engine 2 cards Suck(tm).  Horribly limited code, so you might be 
able to use an ACL, or you might be able to use uRPF, or you 
might...it's a guessing game, and enabling a conflicting feature may 
cause a brief outage while microcode bundles are changed.

> Does that previous employer have two full Internet tables or just one?
> Is it IPv4 only or both IPv4 and IPv6.

Two tables...bzzzt.  Two feeds?  Yes.  It's all one table.  But yes, 
plenty of routers taking multiple feeds (the additional feeds don't take 
as much memory as the first), and they do have v6 as well.

> You are right miss read. Only 124xx has 5xSFC. The 8/40 we are getting
> has 3xSFC and 1xCSC now. I will add another CSC period for redundancy.
> It doesn't have any router processors. My choices for Ethernet lines
> cards seem to be 8-Port FE w/ ECC (engine 1) w/256MB, 1-Port GE w/ECC
> (engine 1) w/256MB and 3-Port GE (engine 2) w/512MB. Unfortunately the
> 4-Port GE ISE (engine 3) not supported on the GSR 8/40. That would have
> been easy enough hands down with a 1GB of route memory on the LC.

Avoid Engine 1 completely.  It was hurried to market so they could have 
OC48 or 4xOC12, but it's even worse than E2: no priority queueing is 
possible in the card.  See above on the 3xGE; it was worse than the 
other E2 cards I used.

I promise you the 4xGE does work in GSR8/40 aka 12008.  I've shoved it 
in and seen it come alive no problem.  I think you have to bring it down 
to a lower RAM amount in GRP-B, but it'll work.  Previous employer had 
several.

>     If your cards are Engine 3, they'll serve you well up to the
>     2.5Gbps/slot limits.  If your xRP has enough RAM for all of its
>     tables and your linecards have enough RAM for the FIB copy, you'll
>     be fine.  I miss these boxes, but they do have a steep learning curve.
>
> This 8/40 would have no xRP. So, we would need to decide to go with the
> GRP-B and upgrade as bandwidth increases.

I think you missed the underlying fact of the GSR architecture: it's all 
about the linecards.  A GRP-B could run a fully loaded 12816.  Transit 
traffic never touches the RP, so bandwidth is not controlled/limited by 
the RP.  Only receive traffic makes its way towards the RP, though some 
stuff is handled on the card.  If dCEF dies on a card, the card is out 
of service until dCEF is restarted; there's no "punt to RP" option. 
(The RP can go in any slot, so the RP could only move one slot's worth 
of traffic if it were asked to move traffic; that wouldn't work.)

pt

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps167/products_tech_note09186a00801365b3.shtml
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps167/products_tech_note09186a008015a057.shtml