6500: How to speed up ACLs TCAM programming?

[ovt]

Is it possible to speed up TCAM programming in the Native IOS (Sup720) for QoS ACLs? Some external software changes them dynamically on the box and sometimes it takes minutes for the FM to program ACLs into the TCAM.

[Edison Ortiz]

Lots of things happening under the hood when that's taking place, take a look at this URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_white_paper09186a00800c9470.shtml

[ovt]

I've read this :( It just scratches the surface... For example, it doesn't give any clue what does the "mls aclmerge odm optimizations" mean. It is definetely not the CatOS CRAM. Can disabling this feature help?

[Edison Ortiz]

"mls aclmerge odm optimizations" allows you to fit more ACLs into the limited numbers of entries in the TCAM.

Disabling this feature will limit the amount of hardware based ACLs you can enter in the switch.

I disagree the document just scratches the surface. It's very well detailed and addresses all the nuisances of implementing ACLs in the Cat6k.