Minimum New Router Needed for BGP

[aggie2004]

Looking to run Full tables on 2 routers running HSRP and multihoming BGP connections between 2 ISPs...I know I need at least 256 megs of ram...Whats the minimum router model I can use?

[sachinraja]

It depends on what routing tables you are being sent and who you are peering with.

I suspect that all you are wanting to do is dual home. In this case, ask your upstream provider to send "default routes only" and not the entire routing table. you can filter all internet routes as well. In this case, you can go off with a 2800/3800 kind of router.. Peer with anyone else or get full routes and you could be in trouble...

In case you need the full routing table entries (like the one ISP does), you might have to look at something like 7200/7600 etc...

Hope this helps.. all the best..

RAj

[nikolasgeyer]

As written above, if you want to take full tables from both providers I would start looking at the 7200VXR series so you keep decent performance. You can pick up great condition second hand 7200VXR/NPE-G1's from authorised cisco resellers for great prices at the moment.

If youre taking less routes (e.g. provider directly connected and default) then depending on the provider, a 3800 series will suffice.

[jackyoung]

In additon to the Netrpro above, it also depends what other features are using in the router. I believe 3800 will be good enough if for BGP Internet routing only. If there are some features like,QoS, VPN, etc. and high throughput in the router, you may consider higher model.

In your case, I think you will also consider the policy-based routing, if this is the case, you better consider higher model.

Just my 2 cents.

[tdrais]

Have to agree with jack on this one. 3800 are more than big enough to handle 2 ISP with full BGP feeds. I have a couple of location running with a pair of 3800. These routers can have more than enough memory it more depends on how much traffic you intend to pass through them. The 3800 is somewhat limited in the largest wan interface is a ds3/e3 but I'm not too sure I would try to run these if I was going to run at the full line rate.