Force10 E Series at the edge?

Tue Mar 27 22:00:22 UTC 2012

I was very happy with the E300 as a data center core switch handling multiple full feeds (around 15) with about 10x the traffic you are talking about.  The only problem I had was that Force10 didn't have a useful (basically forklift) upgrade to get more IPv4 prefixes, and the more I talked to them and the more I showed them the graphs demonstrating what we'd need for prefix space assuming even the most conservative assumptions at depletion, the more I realized they really Did Not Get It.  In fact, their brand new architecture recently announced had only 500k prefixes allowed, at a time that the Juniper MX platform handled 2million easily.

So I would be fine using Force10 again, given the following changes:
	1. Large limits on IP prefixes allowed
	2. Reallocation of useless memory from stupid things like MAC tables to prefixes (data centers have very few MACs, very many prefixes)
	3. Command line logging 

The units worked great at failover, never had any problems gracefully failing over from one RP to another, but if you have to cold boot them for any reason it takes like 5 minutes :(

On Mar 27, 2012, at 2:21 PM, Roberts, Brent wrote:
> Is anyone running an E300 Series Chassis at the internet edge with multiple Full BGP feeds? 95th percent would be about 300 meg of traffic. BGP session count would be between 2 and 4 Peers.
> 6k internal Prefix count as it stands right now. Alternative are welcome. Thought about the ASR1006 but I need some local switching as well.
> 
> Full requirements include
> Full internet Peering over GigE Links.
> Fully Redundant Power
> Redundant "Supervisor/Route Processor"
> Would prefer a Small Chassis unit. (under 10u)
> Would also prefer a single unit as opposed to a two smaller units.
> 
> 
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Jo Rhett
Net Consonance : consonant endings by net philanthropy, open source and other randomness