[j-nsp] M7i

[Michael Loftis]

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 1:24 AM, Jonathan Lassoff <jof at thejof.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 11:49 PM, cjwstudios <cjwstudios at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello Juniper folks :)
>>
>> I'm setting up a remote metro ethernet site (fiber in a closet) that
>> will have 2 x 100mb BGP transit feeds and a smattering of IGP feeds.
>> The traffic will be service provider transit without inspection, NAT
>> or other services.
>>
>> Since everything is cost sensitive these days I initially planned on
>> implementing an ebayish 7206vxr-npe-g1.  Although I was quite happily
>> slinging the 7206 around 10 years ago I realized tonight that it has
>> been 10 years and the 7206 platform is well aged.   M7i (M7i 2AC 2FE
>> w/ RE400,PE-1GE-SFP) are quite common on the secondary market now and
>> likely more than enough to get started.  Although trunking multiple
>> metro FE feeds to a single GE port will be frowned upon I may consider
>> this as an option.
>>
>> I suppose my questions are whether a base M7i config out of the box
>> will support this application or if there are better options out
>> there.  Thank you in advance.
>
> The M7 is an awesome router for small to medium sites. It does have an
> on-board GigE port, so if you can fit everything in that or a
> downstream switch it could work.
> However, it's really starting to show its age and there's not much
> development happening on the M-series routers anymore (at least it
> seems that way to me -- I'm sure they're still supported).
> They're also pretty rock solid with JunOS 9. JunOS code quality and
> feature-completeness has started to really slip since 10.0.

Actually not all M7i's have the on-board GE, it depends on the BASE,
the base will either be M7iBASE-AC-2FETX which includes 2x 100mbit
copper Fast Ethernet ports on the inboard FPC, or M7iBASE-AC-1GE for a
single SFP gig-e port on board.  These ports are seperate from the
100mbit management only port on the RE itself, you can NOT route
packets through the management port, it is only there to talk to the
RE, the RE can talk over it to export flows/etc, OR the RE can use any
of the PICs as normal.  Those are AC power supply versions, there are
DC versions of same (that said I am pretty sure you can trade AC for
DC power supplies IIRC).

The M7i is a very solid platform itself, even though development is
slowing down, I kinda think the main reason for that is the platform
has pretty much reached all it can do.  It can not support 10GE, the
forwarding plane/FPC complex just doesn't have the bandwidth.  Even
the smallest CFEB shipped for the M7i has enough memory for full BGP
feeds.  If you plan on feeding it a LOT fo full views you might
consider an E series CFEB

M7i PIC ports are wire speed (well, almost all Juniper M series ports
are, with a few exceptions of oversubscription in some configurations)
and will very handily push 200mbit of small packets even.

M7i and M10i are essentially the same router, the M10i has redundant
everything and four more PIC slots (on an extra FPC), the M7i only has
an option for a redundant CFEB.

Basically the ONLY time an M7i or M10i might not be able to do wire
speed is when you add services from the ASPIC or ASM (M7i only).  And
if your'e not doing stateful firewalls or NAT (or a handful of other
time consuming not-exactly-router things) you'll never be able to hit
the limits on an M7i.  The M10i if fully packed with Gig-E or other
highest speed ports can be marginally oversubscribed.

What was said later about EX series is true, if you don't need to
support anything but ethernet, and aren't doing advanced services,
it'd be a good fit for you, though they're still teething a little bit
(see other threads on this list).