I've been looking around for some time now, as to where to start as it comes to buying hardware for a small AS.
We are talking 50-100Mbps bandwidth and generally speaking, mostly web-/hostingservers with appr. 60-80% exchange (ams-ix).
We are not generally addicted to a brand, so all brands are possible. There would have to be enough spare to keep the thing going, but used is an option.
I have been looking for some options, and this is what I have been thinking sofar:
Foundry BI4k: nice to start with, and with the jet core sufficient for some 50 Mbps? But, there are supposed to be BGP issues with the BI?
Roverstone e.a: hard to get good stuff, in Europe not to much experience with these switches.
Cisco 720xvxr: a good router, but I'm not to sure about how to get the latest ios without being ripped off
Juniper m5/m7i: probably the best choice, but for now out of budget. How to get software upgrades (service contracts?)
Quagga e.a: not my preference. The kernel tweaking and maintaning would probably take to much time.
The advantage of a switch is, that with upgrading later, you can place a router in front and use the switch as core switch. The network is not really attracting ddos-es, but I would like to have some margin on to get through a ddos. The AS would probably have (at start) a NL-IX or AMS-ix 100Mbps, and two or three carriers. including a backup.
If this all means that the budget is to tight, then we move the step backwards.
Any thoughts on how to come to a conclusion on this? Am I missing an option?
From my own experience I would say use a BigIron 4000 to start with; we are running 200Mbit on a BI4k right now and I don't see any majore problems. Do make sure however that you are running the latest or a stable firmware because older versions might have some big problems with routing.
Once you are growing and going to push more Mbits traffic you might want to go for a Juniper and use the foundry only for switching; this way you wont have to throw away your 'old' router but you can still use it as a very good switch.
I wouldn't go for cisco; the price according to what you get ins't right imho.
One thing why I wouldn't suggest to use Foundry for routing is that you can't measure traffic for Virtual Interfaces but there are ways to work around this.
If you would like more info you can hit me up on msn or call me; still got that info right?
I'd have to say BI4K would be the best for the money and most reliable right now, but when you have the money you deffinatly want to get a Juniper as your network grows.
I don't know much about the Big Irons, but I like Cisco and just got a Cisco GSR, so my preference would be the 7206 as it would be enough for you now and give you plenty of room to grow. I know quite a few other people with them and they are happy with them, another option would be a cisco 7507..
Thanks for you reply all. You are not making it any easier
I am still doubting between the BI and the Cisco. They are different offcours, but so is the financial aspect. If anyone has a strong argument for the one or the other, I'll be reading.
Does anybody know how the Cisco licensing works? Suppose one buys a used Cisco without any licensing. Can you upgrade the ios without a direct license from Cisco (technically) ? Has someone got hands on experience with that?
You need a cco login to download the ios (see cisco's explanation below), if you can get the ios elsewhere then you can upgrade without any licensing.
Guest Users
Guest users of CCO are limited to seeing only publicly available files, such as Cisco's Management Information Base (MIB) files for SNMP-based management applications. Operating system software such as Cisco IOS releases are not generally available to guest users.
Guest users can be granted special file access to Cisco software files if they contact their Cisco support representative to obtain support and instructions.
Registered Users
End-user customers with Cisco service contracts, such as SMARTnet or Comprehensive Maintenance, as well as Partners with service agreements, can become registered users on CCO. Registered users have a much broader range of content available to them through the Software Center.
Registered users have access to all files in the Guest system, plus access to operating system software, drivers and related files for Cisco's internetworking products.
Choose switch/router
