[e-nsp] Using Extreme for BGP border router?

[Samit]

I am frightened to know that Extreme is not recommended as a border 
gateway with full bgp route along with its lethargy in support and bug 
fixing. I have almost made up my mind purchasing BD12804R and 12802R 
along with X450.

Hey Rhett, what is your take in  Force 10's E300 bundle with 24port GbE 
in price and performance comparing with BD12804R with  20port GbE?

Regards,
Samit


Jo Rhett wrote:
> On Jun 24, 2008, at 12:43 PM, Swen Wulf wrote:
>> I would be interested if anybody out here is using an Extreme Networks 
>> box in an ISP environment and is using BGP with multiple peers. I 
>> wonder how the argument goes with Cisco customers/peers and any other 
>> issues that one might run into it.
> 
> 
> In general Extreme works, but we migrated away from using them as border 
> peers for the following reasons:
> 
> 1. When the BGP table overflows the unit falls down dead.  No other 
> failure mode, it just falls flat on its face and stops routing 
> entirely.  This is entirely useless as a failure mode.
> 
> 2. It can't do uRPF so you can't filter your peers appropriately.
> 
> 3. Memory size limits as you've noted.  No way to change much memory is 
> given to the BGP table.
> 
> 4. Extreme doesn't seem to care much about BGP problems.  I have 4 open 
> bugs with them that are mission critical problems that they still 
> haven't gotten around to fixing.  One of those bugs is leaking routes 
> that are explicitly blocked (or implicitly - doesn't matter) that they 
> confirm is a bug and just can't be bothered to fix.
> 
> In summary, I wouldn't use an Extreme box in a BGP border situation 
> unless it was L2-only, which brings about the question of "why bother?"
> 
> Get a Force10 system for less money and much better support.
>