[j-nsp] Understanding limitations of various MX104 bundles

[Pavel Lunin]

Yes, it's generally like that with all the absurd licenses on the low-end
> MX. Look at the price of an MX80, then look at the price of an MX5,
> upgraded gradually to an MX80 over time. Pay as you grow, indeed. It's
> actually cheaper to buy multiple other vendor routers entirely than to pay
> the exhorbitant license fees to upgrade one MX5 to support either the 2nd
> MIC slot or any one of the built-in 10G ports.
>
> That said, we have found that original MX80-5, which I believe was the
> original part number prior to Juniper shipping actual MX5 "board branded"
> routers, have no restrictions. Not that we would take advantage of this,
> but it's good information to have in the event of a capacity emergency.
>
>
Yes, originally they were shipping MX80-5G/10G/40G which were pure MX80 not
limited at all. Than you had MX5/10/40, those were actually enforced. MX104
variants like MX104-MX5 are also enforced. Worth to note that the MX104 10G
port licenses have nothing to do with those bundle licenses. Worth to note
that the whole MX104 licensing story is a complete mess. Even the names
like MX104-MX5 are crazy. There are also some tricks but, well, technically
it's enforced and you need a license.

And yes, it's not pay as you grow at all. It's an intentional marketing
barrier. I've never seen a customer who upgraded those bundles, as the
licenses are intentionally overpriced.

And yes, today there is almost no reason to buy an MX104, let alone
MX5/10/40/80. MX204 and MX150 aka vMX-as-an-appliance are your friends.
Only gotcha (apart the currently bleeding edge JUNOS) is that MX204 will
probably never support stateful services.

--
Regards,
Pavel