ASA 5510 - Question about the 4-Port Gigabit Ethernet Module

[leoruben2308]

Hello,

We have an ASA 5510 which currently connects on its built in 100Mb ports to the Inside and Outside interfaces. We have just recently had an upgrade to our ISP and now recieve a 1Gb connection, we also have 1Gb switches inside our LAN.

So we are wanting to upgrade the current ASA 5510 to be able to use gigabit interfaces, and the "Cisco ASA 5500 Series 4-Port Gigabit Ethernet Module" seems to be the part for this.

However I want to know does the 5510 actually handle the 1Gbps throughput going through it? Or do we need to buy a new firewall alltogether?

[shillings]

No, it's only up to 300Mbps. If running IPS or VPN, then even lower.

You need the new 5512-X for 1Gbps and much bigger firewall if you want 1Gbps VPN or IPS throughput. There is a handy table on this webpage:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/vpndevc/ps6032/ps6094/ps6120/data_sheet_c78-701253.html

However, it's only a problem if you've purchased over 300Mbps bandwidth on your new 1Gbps bearer. If you've purchased 300/1000Mbps, or lower, then you'll be fine for all non-VPN/IPS traffic.

The 'Security Plus' license will increase 2 of your existing ports from 10/100 to 10/100/1000. And you're likely to need a memory upgrade to facilitate the IOS upgrade. But again, do you actually need this? Is your Internet bandwidth over 100Mbps? If not, then ask your ISP if their NTE device will autonegotiate down to 100Mbps port speed.