Advice for internal gateway router

Jan 07, 2006 1 Replies

Hello all,



I have set up 2 older 2600 routers with HSRP to act as an internal router (this router would be the default gateway of all internal hosts before forwarding to the perimiter gateway). The problem is that the amount of traffic it is passing which seems to be about 3-5 Mbps constantly is casuing the cpu to peg (or at least hover above 90%). In researching what to do, I saw recommendations that moving to a more robust router (probably like a 7200 series) would be better able to handle the amount of traffic required to route. So, being as that level of a router is a bit on the expensive side, I was curious about using layer 3 switch instead, but was not sure if the catalysts can do HSRP or something equivalent (and if using a layer 3 swicth was recommended to accomplish this function).



Thanks in advance,



Ted



Hi,

Yes, you could use a Layer-3 switch. For example the 3550, 3560 or 3750 series switches. They all support HSRP and give you wire-speed routing performance. Keep in mind that Layer-3 switches do not offer the full set of features offered by real routers, so no ISDN/Serial/Modem connections, just ethernet ports. No NAT, no netflow, no advanced firewalling, etc. Other than that, they're build to be used in your kind of scenario (internal routing).

Erik

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