12-09-2009 02:12 AM - edited 03-04-2019 06:55 AM
Hi,
I'd like some advice on choosing a router for our 100Mb internet connection. I'm going to have two routers one to ISP1 and the other to ISP2. Both will allow for full bgp peering. Can you please help me to decide a router. What questions and features shoudl I be looking out for.
Additionally these routers should they sit in front or behind my Cisco ASA firewalls?
Thanks
Dan
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12-09-2009 02:21 AM
Hello Dan,
you need routers with enough cpu power and memory to handle a full BGP table that nowdays is in the order of more then 300,000 routes.
You should go for C7200 VXR with NPE-G2 or C3845 with 512 MB (adding all the possible memory chips).
I recommend the first, other colleagues have reported to have used C3845.
you may evaluate also ASR 1000 series
Usually border routers are placed on the outside of firewalls
Hope to help
Giuseppe
12-09-2009 03:22 AM
dan_track wrote:
Hi,
I'd like some advice on choosing a router for our 100Mb internet connection. I'm going to have two routers one to ISP1 and the other to ISP2. Both will allow for full bgp peering. Can you please help me to decide a router. What questions and features shoudl I be looking out for.
Additionally these routers should they sit in front or behind my Cisco ASA firewalls?
Thanks
Dan
Dan
I agree with Giuseppe, a 7206vxr with NPE-G2 would be a safe choice for what you want.
As for location, well they pretty much have to be on the outside of the ASA firewalls otherwise you may face problems such as BGP peering through the firewalls. You can do it but it's not recommended. Internet connectivity should always be terminated so that the traffic has then to go through the firewalls.
Jon
12-09-2009 02:21 AM
Hello Dan,
you need routers with enough cpu power and memory to handle a full BGP table that nowdays is in the order of more then 300,000 routes.
You should go for C7200 VXR with NPE-G2 or C3845 with 512 MB (adding all the possible memory chips).
I recommend the first, other colleagues have reported to have used C3845.
you may evaluate also ASR 1000 series
Usually border routers are placed on the outside of firewalls
Hope to help
Giuseppe
12-09-2009 03:19 AM
Many thanks for that. I'll go down the 7200 route. Can the 7200 take fiber with LC handoff?
Thanks
Dan
12-09-2009 04:32 AM
Hello Dan,
yes GE ports on NPE-G1 or NPE-G2 can use the fiber SFP but you need to specify it using media type command
conf t
int gi0/x
media-type sfp
router(config-if)#media-type ?
rj45 Use RJ45 connector
sfp Use SFP connector
Hope to help
Giuseppe
12-09-2009 03:22 AM
dan_track wrote:
Hi,
I'd like some advice on choosing a router for our 100Mb internet connection. I'm going to have two routers one to ISP1 and the other to ISP2. Both will allow for full bgp peering. Can you please help me to decide a router. What questions and features shoudl I be looking out for.
Additionally these routers should they sit in front or behind my Cisco ASA firewalls?
Thanks
Dan
Dan
I agree with Giuseppe, a 7206vxr with NPE-G2 would be a safe choice for what you want.
As for location, well they pretty much have to be on the outside of the ASA firewalls otherwise you may face problems such as BGP peering through the firewalls. You can do it but it's not recommended. Internet connectivity should always be terminated so that the traffic has then to go through the firewalls.
Jon
12-09-2009 03:23 AM
Dan
Yes 7206vxr can handle fibre connections.
Jon
01-13-2010 01:45 AM
Hi,
I've been away for quite a long time, so have only read the post now. Thanks for your help so far, can the 7204 VXR with NPE-G2 also handle fibre connections i.e multi-mode/single-mode?
Also can the base configuration with NPE-G2 of either 7204 and 7206 handle two copper ethernet connections for data usage, not management, or do I need to purchase something else?
Also what is the difference between a 7204VXR NPE-G2 and a 7206VXR NPE-G2? is it just the slot number difference?
Thanks
Dan
01-13-2010 03:03 AM
Hello Dan,
the gigabit interfaces have a SFP slot where you can put a single mode or multimode SFP on a per port basis.
Remember the media-type command in interface config mode.
the main difference between the two chassis is the number of slots for Port Adapters.
If you have rack space you can take the C7206VXR that supports two power supplies that is a good reason to choice it.
I'm not sure C7204 supports two power supplies but the datasheet says yes.
We have many C7206VXR and some older C7206.
To be honest fast PAs consume the so called bandwidth points so not always the 6 slots can be populated.
However the 3GE on new processors like NPE-G2 should not count against BW points.
the two chassis are compared here in this datasheet:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/routers/ps341/data_sheet_c78_339749.html
Hope to help
Giuseppe
01-13-2010 05:00 AM
Thanks for that,
Few more questions:
1. Thanks, as I understand it the NPE-G2 comes with 3 GE/FE/E ports and 1 management copper port. How many copper ports are there and how many SFP ports are there? Can we use copper SFP’s in the SFP modules or does it only accept fibre SFP’s?
2. Is the 7204VXR suitable for the full bgp peering? I can't see much of difference between the 7206VXR and 7204 VXR with NPE-G2.
Thanks again,
Dan
01-13-2010 05:39 AM
hello Dan,
each GE comes with an RJ-45 plug and an SFP slot, use of copper doesn't require a SFP
don't consider the management port for purposes of generic routing
support of BGP full internet table depends from NPE-G2 processor memory size (1 GB) and cpu power not from chassis used
C7204VXR should be fine
Hope to help
Giuseppe
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