Cisco 7206 replacement

[DEENA VERAPPAN]

Hi All,

I'm looking for suggestions to replace our Cisco 7206 VXR router. We are currently running BGP on this router, only, i.e. no voice services, or other features have been enabled. From the Cisco website, the suggested replacement hardware is ASR1000, which seems like overkill, but has redundant power supplies, ISR 4451-X, memory appears adequate, but no redundancy in power supply, or the G2 ISR 3945e.

As anyone used any of the suggested hardware, to run BGP, and has anyone gone through a migration of the 7200 series router?

Thanks for your help and information.

Cheers

Deena

[Marvin Rhoads]

The 4451X (and 4431X) has the option of adding a redundant power supply. See Table 4 in the data sheet.

The part number is PWR-4450-AC/2 (or PWR-4450-POE-AC/2 for the POE version).

They are quite adequate of taking a full Internet routing table. I usually only bump up to the ASR models if my expected throughput exceeds the ISR 4k capabilities (i.e. more than 1-2 Gbps) or if there are some other ASR-only features needed.

If I were doing multiple customer VRFs each with a full table or large number of routes, that would be an indicator for an ASR also. But that's more of a service provider use case than a typical enterprise.

[xthuijs · Accepted solution]

I wanted to suggest to look at the ASR9001 also, which is a very versatile platform, with 4x10G on board and 2 modular bays for 10/100/1000 copper or fiber and extra 10G (and even 40G) ports.

And it has the IOS-XR operating system which is very robust and modular also.

cheers!

xander

[Marvin Rhoads · Accepted solution]

The ASR 9k is a whole other step up. It's primarily targeted at service provider and not enterprise customers (unless the enterprise is VERY large and running their own MPLS backbone).

IOS-XR is a totally distinct operating system and not very similar at all to classic IOS or IOS-XE. that'd be a steep learning curve for replacing a single or just a few routers.

Sure the platform is very capable; but it's priced accordingly as well.

[DEENA VERAPPAN]

Thanks again Marvin, yes price ways heavy on the decision process, hence the reluctance to jump straight to the ASR as a replacement. The fact that we are using our current 7206 as a border BGP router to our service provider only, and we would be considered a mid size enterprise customer, I think the ISR seems suitable to our needs. The uplionk speed to our service provider, is 200Mbps.

Thank you for the information you've provided, it's been really helpful.

Cheers

Deena

[DEENA VERAPPAN]

I didn't consider the options on the IOS/IOS-XE. The IPBase image that these ISRs ship with would be sufficient to run BGP, on correct?

Thanks

Deena

[xthuijs]

that is correct, you dont need anything "fancy" to run an edge router with BGP only. ipbase will suffice.

xander

[Marvin Rhoads]

Yes.

On enterprise routers, Cisco doesn't nickel and dime you for base routing features (like BGP, EIGRP, OSPF) quite as much as they do on switches.

On the service provider routers, they have a whole list of licenses you may or may not need to buy.

[DEENA VERAPPAN]

Thanks Alexander, but the ASR, seems to be overkill for us, since we are using our existing 7206 as a border BGP router. We would be looking at something that would be able to maintain a BGP route table with a maximum of 400,000 route entries. Our current link is 200Mbps, and since we are not a service provider, I think an ISR would be more suitable to our needs. Thank you for the information, and I think I should start getting myself familiar with the IOS-XR.

Thanks again

Cheers

Deena

[xthuijs]

hey deena,

yeah for 200M and 400k routes the asr9k may be a bit of overkill, but still an awesome product to use regardless :) (like a ferrari to go grocery shopping with :).

XR is definitely worth looking into, here are a couple of references for a rainy (sun)day:

XR details and a9k specifics:

 https://www.ciscolive.com/online/connect/search.ww#loadSearch-searchPhrase=2904&searchType=session&tc=0&sortBy=&p=&i%2810017%29=19409&i%2810017%29=16627&i%2810017%29=14187

XR migration guide from IOS to XR:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/92621/asr9000xr-migrating-ios-ios-xr-starting-guide

cheers

xander