[j-nsp] Understanding limitations of various MX104 bundles

Fri Jan 5 10:16:05 EST 2018

One could utilize the MX204's 10GE interfaces for 1GE as well, I suppose?
Is this a bad idea?

On Fri, Jan 5, 2018 at 9:54 AM, Edward Dore <
edward.dore at freethought-internet.co.uk> wrote:

> The MX204 seems to be amazing value for money if it has the right port
> combination for your workload (i.e. not great if you need lots of 1GE). The
> RE is also significantly more capable than the somewhat underpowered one in
> the MX104.
>
>
>
> I would be extremely hesitant about deploying a new MX104 today given the
> poor CPU and relatively small amount of RAM on the RE.
>
> The RE CPU is also a PowerPC, which seems to be a bit of a dead end for
> Junos with new development work seemingly focussing on x86 (last time I
> looked, the MX104 is stuck on FreeBSD 6 and so has no SMP support despite
> having a dual core CPU for example).
>
>
>
> We ended up going with the Cisco ASR 9001 instead of MX104 due to the poor
> performance when converging multiple full BGP tables thanks to the
> underpowered RE CPU and interesting design choices in rpd.
>
> We’re very happy with our ASR 9001 (although IOS XR isn’t as nice to use
> as Junos), but if the MX204 had been available at the time, then we would
> quite likely have ended up using them instead.
>
> There is an ASR 9901 “coming soon”, which might also be worth a look at
> for new deployments.
>
>
>
> For our use case (border router terminating peering/transit), having dual
> RE isn’t particularly important as we achieve our redundancy using separate
> routers. YMMV.
>
>
>
> Edward Dore
>
> Freethought Internet
>
>
>
> *From: *Josh Baird <joshbaird at gmail.com>
> *Date: *Friday, 5 January 2018 at 14:42
> *To: *Edward Dore <edward.dore at freethought-internet.co.uk>
> *Cc: *"alexander.marhold at gmx.at" <alexander.marhold at gmx.at>, Juniper List
> <juniper-nsp at puck.nether.net>
>
> *Subject: *Re: [j-nsp] Understanding limitations of various MX104 bundles
>
>
>
> I believe this is what we are finding as well, which is unfortunate.
> Maybe we should look at the MX204 instead?  Although, it's 2X the cost
> (MSRP) and only has one RE.  Thoughts?
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 5, 2018 at 9:18 AM, Edward Dore <edward.dore at freethought-
> internet.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Beware the bundle upgrades on the MX104 – when we looked at these in 2016,
> for some reason that our VAR couldn’t explain it was cheaper to just throw
> the MX104-MX5-AC away and buy a brand new MX104-40G-AC-BNDL bundle rather
> than purchasing the MX104-MX5-40G-UPG license.
>
>
>
> Edward Dore
>
> Freethought Internet
>
>
>
> *From: *Josh Baird <joshbaird at gmail.com>
> *Date: *Friday, 5 January 2018 at 14:08
> *To: *"alexander.marhold at gmx.at" <alexander.marhold at gmx.at>
> *Cc: *Edward Dore <edward.dore at freethought-internet.co.uk>, Juniper List <
> juniper-nsp at puck.nether.net>
> *Subject: *Re: [j-nsp] Understanding limitations of various MX104 bundles
>
>
>
> Actually - come to find out (from my reseller), the MX104-MX5 package
> gives you two MIC slots.  Not sure if the "locking" is actually enforced or
> not on the other two.
>
>
>
> Supposedly, the overall throughput of the chassis is also limited to
> 20Gbps - again, not sure if this is enforced.
>
>
>
> Options for 10Gbps include purchasing a single MIC-3D-2XGE-XFP and
> installing it in the one open MIC slot providing two 10Gbps interfaces or
> purchasing MX104-MX40-40G-UPG to open two of the four built-in interfaces
> while also bumping overall capacity of the chassis to 40Gbps.
>
>
>
> The S-MX104-UPG-* licenses to activate the 4X10GE fixed interfaces don't
> appear to be usable on the MX104 bundle packages (like the MX104-MX5-AC).
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 5, 2018 at 4:34 AM, Alexander Marhold <
> alexander.marhold at gmx.at> wrote:
>
> Hi !
> IMHO Edward is right with his assumption:
>
> Those are the available licenses for the MX104
>
> Upgrade license to activate 2x10GE P2&3
>         MX104
>         S-MX104-ADD-2X10GE
>
> Upgrade license to activate 2X10GE P0&1
>         MX104
>         S-MX104-UPG-2X10GE
>
> Upgrade license to activate 4X10GE fixed ports on MX104
>         MX104
>         S-MX104-UPG-4X10GE
>
> License to support per VLAN queuing on MX104
>         MX104
>         S-MX104-Q
>
> Chassis-based software license for inline J-Flow monitoring on MX5, MX10,
> M40, MX80, and MX104 Series routers
>         MX5, MX10, M40, MX80, and MX104
>         S-JFLOW-CH-MX5-104
>
> With best regards
> alexander
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: juniper-nsp [mailto:juniper-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net] Im Auftrag
> von Edward Dore
> Gesendet: Freitag, 5. Januar 2018 10:21
> An: Josh Baird; Juniper List
> Betreff: Re: [j-nsp] Understanding limitations of various MX104 bundles
>
>
> I believe that the MX104-MX5 bundle is supposed to be locked to only
> allowing you to make use of a single MIC slot, like the MX5 version of the
> MX80. As to whether or not that is actually enforced…
>
> Edward Dore
> Freethought Internet
>
> On 04/01/2018, 18:34, "juniper-nsp on behalf of Josh Baird" <
> juniper-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net on behalf of joshbaird at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>     Hi all,
>
>     Given the MX104-MX5-AC bundle which comes with 1 20x 1GE MIC
> pre-installed
>     (and none of the onboard 10Gbps interfaces enabled), is this box
> actually
>     limited to 20Gbps overall throughput?
>
>     Can I install another MIC (say the MIC-3D-2XGE-XFP) in an additional
> slot
>     to gain 2 10Gbps interfaces without purchasing any additional
> licensing?
>     If I do this, is overall throughput of the chassis still locked to
> 20Gbps
>     (due to the original bundle)?
>
>     I can't find anything (ie "show system license") that states there is
> an
>     overall capacity restriction, but I'm hearing mixed things from various
>     sources.
>
>     Thanks.
>     _______________________________________________
>     juniper-nsp mailing list juniper-nsp at puck.nether.net
>     https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/juniper-nsp
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> juniper-nsp mailing list juniper-nsp at puck.nether.net
> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/juniper-nsp
>
>
>
>
>