Hi Alvin,

Please see the replies below :

1. Which solution is better?

Amit Singh : Personally, the option 2 is better. They both are same but option 2 provides an extra HA by introducing another switch. If you have budget go for option2. These switches will ideally be used a pure L2 connectivity and the ASA's will point to the routers as the next hop gateways.

   2.    At the router level, I  understand that if I use HSRP, there needs to be an Active router and a  Standby router. If both routers need to be active, what kind of  configuration needs to be done?

Amit Singh : Use GLBP to have both the routers work as active/active.

http://cisco.biz/en/US/prod/collateral/iosswrel/ps6537/ps6554/ps6600/product_data_sheet0900aecd803a546c.html

   3.     In Soution 2, are the equipments  correctly cabled? Are there too many links? Is there a need for a  direct router to router or switch to switch connection?

Amit Singh : No you dont need a direct to direct connection between the routers or switches. Should be fine.

    4.     In  Solution 2, each ASA 5520 will be using 5 network interfaces. The ASAs  need to be equipped with the IPS module, thus the expansion slot will be  used. As the ASA 5520 comes with 4 network cards, is there a way to use  less interfaces when using this type of deployment?

Amit Singh : Use trunking on the ASA lan interface. I would rather use ASA's as active-active and use only one link from each switch to the ASA LAN interface with trunking. There is no need to cross-connect the ASA's on the LAN side.

    5.     What are  RAD modems (Ethernet splitter) and how can 2 RAD modems be integrated to  the router cluster?

Amit Singh : RAD modems are a layer-1 device which encodes the signals from one media and decodes them to a different media or interface. RAD modem will work as individual entities with each router and cannot be clustered.

    6.     The connectivity to the Internet will be  through SHDSL. So each router will each be needing an SHDSL interface.  Will the ISP line first go the RAD modem and then to the router?

Amit Singh : If you have a SHDSL interface on the router, you probably dont need the RAD modems. You can terminate the line dierctly on the SHDSL interface. In case you are not using the SHDSL interface on the router then you need RAD modem and the line will connect to RAD modem which will inturn connect the routers on an ethernet interface.

HTH, Please rate if it does.

Cheers,

-amit singh

Hi!
I
 need to deploy the following:
2 Cisco 2921 routers in Active/Active 
mode
2 ASA 5520 in Active/Standby mode
Cisco 2960G 
switches as required
In Solution 1, I have used 3 switches.
In 
Solution 2, I have included redundancy at the different switch levels.
Please
 see attached.
My
 queries are as follows:
Which solution is better?
At the 
router level, I understand that if I use HSRP, there needs to be an 
Active router and a Standby router. If both routers need to be active, 
what kind of configuration needs to be done?
In Soution 2, are 
the equipments correctly cabled? Are there too many links? Is there a 
need for a direct router to router or switch to switch connection?
In
 Solution 2, each ASA 5520 will be using 5 network interfaces. The ASAs 
need to be equipped with the IPS module, thus the expansion slot will be
 used. As the ASA 5520 comes with 4 network cards, is there a way to use
 less interfaces when using this type of deployment?
What are 
RAD modems (Ethernet splitter) and how can 2 RAD modems be integrated to
 the router cluster?
The connectivity to the Internet will be 
through SHDSL. So each router will each be needing an SHDSL interface. 
Will the ISP line first go the RAD modem and then to the router?
Thanks,
Alvin

Alvin,

Solution 2 is having more high availibilty in comparism to solution 1,If you see in solution 1 if 2960 switch in router zone fails whole network outage will happen in tem of services and same is applicable in inter zone switches,so if you want full reddundacy at each level go with dual deployment of switches at each level.I would suggest rather criss-cross connectivity between firewall and zone switches connect both the switches with etherchannel and remove the cross conectivity.In criss-cross only on link will be available at time as STP will block the redundant paths.

Use router in active/active mode to fully utilization of isp links and configure GLBP for active/active fashion with ASA in cluster mode for local lan routing and policy feature of rules.

Hope to Help !!

Ganesh.H

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