I'm about to gain a 7206VXR that's being decommissioned from its current purpose and plan to utilize it not for routing, but to provide centralized services to other routers in the enterprise. My initial thoughts are as a primary NTP server and an IOS Certificate Authority server.
Does anyone have experience with the 7200 platform as an NTP server using an external GPS time source through the AUX port? I've read that this is a platform-specific capability of the 7200 series and wanted to get some feedback about real-world experience. The two possible locations are in a data center (thick cement walls, tons of possible sources of interference) and on a middle floor of a 70-story skyscraper (in the center of the building). Would any of the compatible GPS receivers be able to get a signal in either location? Are any of the GPS devices better than the rest?
Beyond NTP and CA functionality, what other services would be worth exploring for this router? We're running a traditional (AKA very little above basic configuration of routers) WAN and looking to start using the functionality available in the gear we already have out there. If a 7200 would be a good platform to host some enterprise service other than NTP and CA, I'd love to know how else it could be useful.
Thanks.
-Mason
