Cisco ASR920

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AndreiL

New Member
Jun 30, 2019
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I am considering this device to replace software routers (Vyos) that are not cutting it anymore. The main requirement is to terminate 4 10Gbps links and route between them at full line rate, 40Gbps in total. Production traffic on all 4 links can be very bursty. The routing table is pretty small, about a dozen /20 prefixes.

Does anyone have this device in production under similar load? How is the performance, can this thing route 40Gbps worth of bandwidth?
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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If your buying new I would look at the C8500 over the ASR’s in the 2020’s.
They do everything an ASR does just a new platform (and more functions but they route as you need), note that 40G and 100G ports are available on these devices.
 

chicken-of-the-cave

New Member
Mar 13, 2020
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Any production router from any vendor will do the trick. If the routing table is small, then you should be good with ASR920.

Out of curiosity, what is the hardware that you are running VyOS on? Routing on software should be very easy with modern hardware. Things will bog down as you add "networking features", such as stateful firewalling (anything that uses Linux conntrack or BSD pf state tracking), NAT, etc. However, pure routing is very easy on the CPU.
 

AndreiL

New Member
Jun 30, 2019
23
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Having done a bit more research, Cisco Nexus 3K is looking pretty good to me. We actually run a pair of 9Ks in one of our data facilities and they've been rock solid, but we only use L2 features on these 9Ks.

Any feedback on Cisco Nexus 3K? Am I heading in the right direction there?

The current VyOS box is pretty old hardware and I don't feel like springing for new box, would rather redirect those funds towards an enterprise-grade device.
 

azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
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Based on your requirements I think all the new Nexus 3K line of products will handle 40Gb of routed traffic without breaking a sweat. the 3600 line even have 8gb of buffer to absorb those bursty traffic. However buffering on line rate switches really only happened when you have ports with different speeds like 10Gb ports sending data to a 1Gb ports, or when you have multiple of 10gb ports trying to egress to one 10gb ports.
 

nickf1227

Active Member
Sep 23, 2015
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Nexus 3k sounds like a great option, and it will do the trick all day long with no issues.
Catalyst 9500 or even 3850/4500-X is another option if you prefer IOS
 

AndreiL

New Member
Jun 30, 2019
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OK, got a new 9396PX, got a pretty good deal I think. Does anyone know if these come with 4post rack rails included or do I have to buy those extra; the vendor doesn't know.
 

azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
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Most of cisco switches will come with the rails necessary, 9396 have a 4post rack rails so hopefully they are in the box :)