[j-nsp] Best route reflector platform

[Mark Tinka]

On Monday, April 15, 2013 06:20:15 PM Jeff Aitken wrote:

> Well, it fails my "must run IOS-XR or JUNOS" requirement,
> for starters. ;-) And seriously, who wants to implement
> routing policy in IOS?!  Bletch.

:-), in this particular case, I learned to put that aside. 
But that's exactly my point - if an all-Juniper network 
wants to run an all-Juniper network including route 
reflectors, and not feel like they're having their arms 
twisted, Juniper are really betting the farm that ISP's love 
for Junos transcends common sense; a notion I feel will soon 
run its course. It certainly has for me.

For route reflection, I'm all about the hardware. I've ran 
route reflectors on Junos, IOS and IOS XE. IOS language does 
require extra care given its poorer checks & balances than 
IOS XR or Junos, but for us, that does not outweigh the 
benefits provided by having the right hardware and cost for 
the right job.

> What I want is something based on a generic compute
> platform, ala JUNOSphere/VIRL.  That lets me scale the
> control plane as big as I need to, avoids wasting money
> on purpose-built hardware optimized for forwarding, and
> comes with the added bonus of using the same OS & policy
> language that's already widely deployed in my network,
> so at least I don't get any NEW interop issues.  The
> downside is that neither vendor sells such a thing right
> now, and so we're stuck arguing about which square peg
> fits best into the round hole.  ("small" ASR9k and MX
> here, FWIW)

You're preaching to the choir.

Then again, I wouldn't suggest an ASR9001 for this task 
either. 8GB is not bad, but you can get 16GB on the ASR1001.

Also, the ASR9001 is a PPC-based platform (unlike the Intel 
Xeon's on the ASR9006/9010), while the ASR1001 is an Intel, 
if that makes any difference to you.

> Oh and I also want a two-vendor solution so that I'm
> (hopefully) not completely screwed the next time one of
> them discovers a new attribute- handling bug.

Cisco says ASR1000 line. What does Juniper say?

I'm all for choice. Sadly, I'm not the vendors :-(.

Mark.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <https://puck.nether.net/pipermail/juniper-nsp/attachments/20130416/5b29a35c/attachment.sig>