[j-nsp] Enquiry on J4350 RAM/FLASH

[Lawrence Wong]

Thanks Jared for the details.

I was looking at the below mentioned CompactFlash from Kingston...

http://www.kingston.com/flash/cf_standard.asp


Do you foresee any issues with using it?

On hindside, is there any hardware limitation that limits the flash to only 1GB or can I use (for example 2GB) flash for the J4350?


Thanks and best regards,

----- Original Message ----
From: Jared Mauch <jared at puck.nether.net>
To: Eugeniu Patrascu <eugeniu.patrascu at gmail.com>
Cc: Lawrence Wong <lawrencewong72 at yahoo.com>; juniper-nsp at puck.nether.net
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 4:32:38 AM
Subject: Re: [j-nsp] Enquiry on J4350 RAM/FLASH

On Mon, Nov 19, 2007 at 10:10:55PM +0200, Eugeniu Patrascu wrote:
> Lawrence Wong wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I currently have a J4350 with 1GB RAM and 256MB FLASH in my lab. I'm thinking of upgrading it to 2GB RAM and 1GB FLASH to do further testing, but the "original" Juniper parts are too expensive for my lab tests.
> >
> > Does anyone know what sort of RAM and FLASH is used by the J4350? The memory looks like some normal DIMM?
> >  
> Hi,
> 
> The CF is from SanDisk and the RAM is normal one, as the router is based 
> on a Intel Celeron at 2.53GHZ. It's easy to open up the router and check 
> out to see what kind of RAM it's inside.

    There's been a few posts here about upgrading the CF(and ram) in the
J-series.  (i suggest checking the archives)  Generally i'd say:

    1) Stick with a reputable CF brand.  While most of the no-name
brands are actually OEM someone else that will show up (eg: my no-name
stuff tends to actually be Toshiba).  This likely will cost you a
few bucks more but may pay off in the long run for a network device that
you actually care about staying up vs a Camera or something else.  They
tend to be better built to last through more write cycles than you
might expect.

    2) When swaping stuff, don't bother with a usb drive and booting
from usb.  Connect some generic USB -> CF adapter to the port and
snapshot to that.  Then shut down and swap the CF in.  No sense making
the procedure long and painful having to reboot too many times,
snapshot a bunch, fiddle with other stuf, etc..  This worked well for me
and as long as your usb -> cf adapter isn't too fancy (i think mine was $9
and *not* usb2.0), you will have good results.

    3.1) Memory - Watch the timing, etc.. closely.  I screwed up and
ordered the wrong ram for my J2300.  I matched everything else but forgot the
CL2.5 part :(  Oops, small mistake, but if you don't have someplace else
to use it, then it may be more of a problem for you if you're trying to do
things on the cheap.

    3.2) remember that sometimes vendors hedge themselves on the hardware
side.  If it says it can only do 1GB of ram, try putting in 2x1GB dimms.  It
just may work.  lots of folks figured this out with the NPE-225 stuff and
Cisco finally said "Ok, it's certified and works".  Their level of risk for
their customerbase may be different than yours.  If you're going aftermarket
this is likely true, and you may see additional wins from a few extra bucks
on ram.

    - Jared

-- 
Jared Mauch  | pgp key available via finger from jared at puck.nether.net
clue++;      | http://puck.nether.net/~jared/  My statements are only mine.


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