[j-nsp] Cisco 7206 replacement

[Jonathan Towne]

For what it's worth, I was about to reply to this thread with almost
the exact same as below, and then this arrived in my mailbox, so
I'll add a bit to my original response :)

Here goes:

We're running on a way overworked 7206VXR with an NPE-300, 256MB of
RAM.. attempting BGP feeds from 3 providers (cherry picking routes
due to a lack of RAM).  When we added the third, I built a pair of
OpenBSD machines running OpenBGPd to prefilter and carve out some of
the bandwidth for a large client that the 7206 wasn't going to handle.

Taking about 300mbit of internet bandwidth, fully spec'd with 6*FE
cards, all >50% utilized.  Average CPU usage is between 40 and 60%
all the time.  We're an all-ethernet shop, no funny TDM business going
on (anymore).

We landed an RUS grant and spec'd 2*ASR1k into that funding, then
managed to land a second RUS grant in the second round.. found that
the ASRs wouldn't have enough port density for how we wanted to lay
things out.  We then opted for a fixed-config MX80 with 40*gigE..
and found an absolutely awesome reseller that enabled us, for a "bit"
more money to jump up to an MX480.

Our goals in replacing the 7206 were fairly simple:
We wanted redundancy beyond 2 PSUs, and the ability to do online OS
upgrades, as well as being able to take full BGP feeds from upstream
and do some traffic engineering and proper filtering alongside that.

Here, too, the MX480 is probably massively overkill: but this was our
chance to get the right gear to grow with, so here we are.

We also got a LOT of life out of our 7206, and expect no less from this
MX480, as our budget might not allow us to buy anything comparable for
some time.  We're adding many thousands of GPON customers, both in the
residential and business market, so the added capacity was necessary.

I can't speak for a 1:1 replacement of the 7206VXR, but if its working
correctly and within its limits, and you don't plan to grow the network,
maybe it doesn't need replacement: maybe a spare chassis, engine, and
some PA's would be enough.  Not so, in our case.

I should be taking delivery of it mid-january, and you can all look
forward to many dumb questions thereafter!

-- Jonathan Towne


On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 03:03:40PM -0800, Keith scribbled:
# Hi.
# 
# We have a 7206 w/NPE-G1 and looked at the ASR as a replacement after
# looking at both Juniper and Cisco and getting quotes from both vendors
# we decided on the MX480.
# 
# MX480 was slightly more than the ASR gear we looked at, but offered
# better redundancy and higher port count. But still overall a better
# deal than Cisco for our needs.
# 
# It was probably overkill for our needs all things considered but we
# should not have to buy a new router for quite a while considering we
# got about 5 years out of our 7206.
# 
# We did not have a need for any of the other WAN hardware so we do
# only ethernet and have a mix of MM/SM and copper. With the 20 port
# MIC card it meets our ethernet side quite well.
# 
# Our 7206 is maxed out with 3xGE and 1xFE port adapter it does about
# 1.5 gigs total of all ports at peak at about 35-40% CPU.
# 
# We will have it online in the next few weeks if all goes as planned.
# 
# Regards,
# Keith
# 
# 
# 
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