[j-nsp] One router/two firewalls config question

[Mark Tinka]

On Tuesday 11 March 2008, Chuck Anderson wrote:

> Any my switch has multiple switch fabrics, multiple CPUs,
> multiple fan trays, and multiple power supplies :-)

I've found it's easier to justify this on edge and border 
routers, where the box-level redundancy depends on the 
connectivity density required and where multiple links 
would be aggregated into one chassis without the need to 
multi-home them.

Of course, box-level redundancy goes without saying for core 
routers.

However, for core switches in a specific site/PoP, I've 
always wondered whether having redundant switch fabrics and 
CPU's was necessary, especially if those switch fabrics and 
CPU's don't contribute to the forwarding of traffic unless 
the primary switch fabric has failed.

Since all connections to the core switches are mirrored to 
the corresponding routers, the failure of one switch would 
be mitigated by the presence of another, with a similar 
hardware/software configuration.

On paper, core switches this redundant make sense. In 
practice, however, given the "reliability" of today's 
platforms, having this in a mirrored state seems more like 
just a nice-to-have.

Mark.
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