Hi there, A few performance evaluation papers on the J-Series are available from Iometrix:
http://www.iometrix.com/site/pdfs/CA-Iometrix-Juniper-J4350.pdf http://www.iometrix.com/site/pdfs/CA-Iometrix-Juniper-J6350.pdf In general it is as important to be as aware of performance limitations in packets/sec as bandwidth, and especially so with any centralised CPU-based forwarding platform as the same CPU is handling both forwarding and control plane functions. The Iometrix papers have a note at the end on "IMIX and Stateful Traffic" that explains the packet size distribution used in their testing methodology that will be helpful in determining the real load that these routers can handle in a production environment. A few things to be aware of with the J-Series that are not necessarily clear from the spec sheets: - Juniper doesn't recommend exceeding 40 BGP peers on the J2320, but in real life it all depends on the number of routes/peer and how much you're willing to let control plane processes use the CPU instead of forwarding packets with it. Several folks here seem to be running double that number without incident. YMMV. - With a gig of RAM, these things are supposed to be good to 700K FIB routes and a million in the RIB. I haven't tested a box with more than two full views on it, but I think it's safe to say that for the purposes you describe you're OK memory-wise for a good long while, esp. w/J4350 & 2 gigs. It's worth pointing out that unlike an M/T/MX routing engine there's no hard drive, so if you run out of physical memory there's no swapping, only pain. - There are EPIM (PCI Express) slots on the J4350 (2) and J6350 (4) that allow for approx. 7x the bandwidth of the normal expansion slots. When using a UPIM card (the new multi-GigE cards) in one of these slots I think it's safe to say that as traffic increases, the packet forwarding will kill the CPU before the bus runs out of bandwidth. These slots are a good argument for springing for one of the beefier routers, and the presence of only 2 of them in the J4350 is a good argument for choosing the 16 port GigE card from the beginning if you need copper ports. - As of JunOS 8.5 there exists a version of JunOS called "JunOS ES" (enhanced services), which begins the integration of JunOS with ScreenOS (you'll notice that the many J-series and SSG products are identical). This is useful if you indend to use the box as a stateful firewall or an application accelerator, but if you're primarily looking for a router, stick to normal JunOS. JunOS ES has a stateful mode & a packet-based mode, and both are a compromise WRT which features are available. Obviously the state tables use memory in stateful mode as well, leaving less room for routing. - A good part of the reason for the box's performance WRT certain other expensive blue CPU-based platforms is the scheduling & interrupt handling, which seems to have been extensively reworked for the J-Series. The "downside" of this is that ICMP (ping & co.) will never get priority on the CPU, so if you're monitoring devices with ping & traceroute you should be prepared to not take the information you get back too seriously. Best of luck. -Blake --- Blake Willis Network Engineering Consultant blake at 2112 dot net "Education enabling individuals to overcome their reluctance or inability to take full advantage of technological advances and product innovation can be a means of increasing economic opportunity." --Alan Greenspan _______________________________________________ juniper-nsp mailing list juniper-nsp@puck.nether.net https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/juniper-nsp