Redundant service via T1 & 802.11 1

[NCBrit]

We currently have a 3645 with a csu/dsu card for a T1 from our phone company, and an Ethernet port for the 802.11 connection from our Wireless ISP. BGP is set up so that we have redundancy in case one connection fails.

Is it possible to change this setup to one which utilizes two routers, and two pix firewalls with failover setup between the firewalls? We would like to acheive as much redundancy as possible so that we can cope with equipment failure as well as communications failure. Which Cisco routers would be best suited to this task?

 

[tschouten]

Sure, seeing as you are already using BGP it wouldn't or I say shouldn't be too difficult a task. Depending on your network demand a router of the same type would work fine. If you're looking to upgrade the 3700 family isn't too bad either.

 

[NCBrit]

Thanks.

I was wondering if ti would also be feasible to use two lowercost routers instead of the fairly costly 3645.

Would each pix be connected to each individual router, with only the failover cable between them, or would I have to connect the two pix' to a small network between them and the routers?

 

[rcasta]

Why not using HSRP on the routers. And yes, I would suggest placing pix's into a small network (guess they can also do HSRP...not sure though).

cheers,

 

[tschouten]

You could fail them over each other (the pix's that is) or have them seperated via a network. Depends truley on what you need to do in all actuallity. As for a lower scale router sure you could use one, just depends on the level of service you plan to provide (ie. how many users). Not to mention going below a 2600 and using BGP isn't too advisable, not saying it can't be done. Saying you need to keep in mind, BGP is memory and cpu exhausting so you want something that can handle it well.

As for Rcasta's question why wouldn't I use HSRP for redundancy in this case? Well for one reason in particular BGP (if set up properly with your ISP's) will allow you to recieve all traffic destined to you if one of you routers dies on you. Where yes, HSRP supplies a redundant connection but it doesn't announce your connectivity to the interenet. BGP was designed for external use and HSRP is designed for internal redundancy.