[j-nsp] RE-S-X6-64G & ISSU?

[Clarke Morledge]

I would like revisit a previous thread here:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/nsp/juniper/58555

With the new RE-S-X6-64G routing engine, is part of the goal here to 
provide a method to eliminate the need for a redundant routing engine in 
the MX?

Right now, we do employ redundant routing engines (1300s and 1800s), but mostly 
with ISSU in mind. The failure rate for routing engines, even with the older 
hard disk models, has been rather low, in our experience. So, the primary 
benefit has been to provide support for "hitless" upgrades via ISSU.

Unfortunately, our experience with ISSU has been disappointingly mixed, at 
best. Granted, even with our problems with ISSU, our outages due to ISSU 
failures are much shorter, as compared to trying to upgrade a router with a 
single RE.

But if the prospect of using VM technology on the RE-S-X6-64G includes the 
possiblilty to do ISSU with only a single RE, that would greatly reduce our 
requirement to supply dual REs in our MXs.

It would be pretty sweet to free up that redundant RE slot for something 
revenue producing.

Is this a legitimate expectation that I have; i.e. a single RE-S-X6-64G doing 
hitless ISSU, or am I just dreaming too much? Are there restrictions on the 
RE-S-X6-64G regarding this functionality, and if it is not here yet, is 
there any release train where it is expected to come?

Clarke Morledge
College of William and Mary
Information Technology - Network Engineering
Jones Hall (Room 18)
Williamsburg VA 23187