[130444] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: router lifetime
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brandon Kim)
Sun Oct 3 09:57:06 2010
From: Brandon Kim <brandon.kim@brandontek.com>
To: <franck@genius.com>, <nanog@nanog.org>
Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2010 09:56:51 -0400
In-Reply-To: <7283831.782.1286090963775.JavaMail.franck@franck-martins-macbook-pro.local>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
I'm tasked to replace our core switches which run Extreme 6800's. You are r=
ight that some older gear says they support IPv6=2C
but then you find out it's not 100% fully compliant. Our switch is about 6-=
8 years old I beleive so it's time to update them.
We're thinking about the Cisco 6504e. Anything that is pretty modern that w=
e feel will yield us another 6-8 years.
I only have a handful of juniper firewalls laying around for lab equipment=
=2C so I don't really have that much experience with them.
We also need to get IPv6 space from ARIN so that we can fully support IPv6 =
natively. Our plan is to dual-stack our edge routers=2C
so it is ultimately up to the endpoints to support IPv6. We don't want to d=
eal with any tunneling protocols like Teredo for IPV6.
> Date: Sun=2C 3 Oct 2010 00:29:27 -0700
> From: franck@genius.com
> To: nanog@nanog.org
> Subject: Re: router lifetime
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
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> From: "Brandon Kim" <brandon.kim@brandontek.com>=20
> To: franck@genius.com=2C nanog@nanog.org=20
> Sent: Saturday=2C 2 October=2C 2010 6:22:27 PM=20
> Subject: RE: router lifetime=20
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> Well a lot of routers even 3 years ago support IPv6. You can dual-stack p=
retty much any router today if you have=20
> the right IOS. But I do understand your concern=2C if you want to future =
proof your purchase=2C I'd think any modern=20
> router today with a good support contract will take care of you for quite=
some time.=20
> Make sure it's not close to EOL.=20
>=20
> What kind of router are you considering? Is this for a large network? Wha=
t are the network needs?=20
>=20
>=20
> Well it is not for me really. It is a kind of a survey. In your environme=
nt=2C how often do you replace your gear?=20
>=20
> I found out that switch gear from cisco with layer 3 routing=2C which are=
EOL today do not do IPv6 (at layer 3). Cisco Firewalls do not support well=
IPv6 unless you have upgraded this year=2C and for load balancers=2C you a=
re out of luck. So basically anything which is EOL today has IPv6 issues wh=
ile still much in use in production environment. Is that a fair assessment?=
I found out also that some gear with fancy IPv4 stuff do not do the same i=
n IPv6=2C What about Juniper?=20
>=20
> Then there is the IPv6 is not done at hardware level=2C because software =
is fast enough for the current IPv6 bandwidth=2C but then if you expect to =
keep your gear for 8 years... Will you have to replace it much earlier than=
expected?=20
>=20
> It seems to me on the desktop/server=2C IPv6 is there free of charge (ena=
bled by default)=2C but on the network=2C switching to IPv6 is not free nor=
trivial.=20
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