[c-nsp] FIB scale on ASR9001

[Mark Tinka]

On 11/22/21 14:10, Robert Hass wrote:

> We will keep our ASR 9001 until support will expire, but for small Edge nodes.
>
> Well it is hard to trust Cisco currently.
>
> I can recall our CSR 1000V story (permament licenses). CSR 1000V
> permament licenses are EoL/EoS. But subscription CSR 1000V are not, so
> you need to pay again for something you already paid for.
> Next move was Catalyst 8000V which is CSR 1000V but with just new name,
>
> How to deceive a customer who bought licenses?
> 1. Release a newer version under a newer name (Catalyst 8000V).
> 2. Retiring the previous product/version - EoS/EoL - CSR 1000V.
> 3. By that you simply stop discussion regarding perpetual ->
> subscrption model change
> 4. Done. Dear customers - pay again for same piece of software!

Oh dear, sorry to hear that. But that's exactly the kind of nonsense we 
are running away from Cisco for.

We love the CSR1000v, but we are not running the latest & greatest. We 
use them primarily for iBGP route reflection, and have settled on 
15.5(3)S9 - a.k.a. 3.16(09)S - for some time now, even though it shipped 
in March of 2019. It has all the relevant BGP features we need now, and 
into the future, so we aren't worried about running old code.

We did attempt upgrading them to Amsterdam - 17.3(4a) - but that was as 
cluster-f* of note. First, due to some issue between later versions of 
CSR1000v (16.x and higher) and how VMware identifies interface drivers, 
you lose the ability to set Jumbo frames, even if the host supports it. 
This totally broke iBGP sessions because IS-IS was confused, without 
looking confused.

Secondly, the license drama went to hell, same way you describe. But 
what I didn't know is that Cisco make you pay again for it; what horror! 
I just assumed they'd honour your previous permanent license, and port 
you over. Thanks for that!

Anyway, we downgraded back to what we are running today, and are happy. 
Our perpetual licenses are still valid, for the code we run.

If you need the newer code, I'd recommend taking a hard look at vMX or 
vSR, just for a better account management situation, if nothing else.

Mark.