Re: GSR, 7600, Juniper M?, oh my!

[Rob Healey <rhealey () benjy onvoy com>]

> > Many interesting network solutions that have to be dismissed outright
> > because of IOS limitations, weaknesses or bugs can be easily expressed
> > in newer systems, not just JUNOS.
>
> Example, please.
        Due to a barrage of e-mails I received on the subject I thought I'd
        send a generic reply to the list rather than try to cook up a plethera
        of examples on a one-to-one basis...

        First, if you haven't done so already, I suggest watching the Intro
        to JUNOS web training session on the juniper.net web site:

        http://www.juniper.net/training/elearning/junos_cli/index.html

        Next, the full docs for JUNOS are available without registration at

        http://www.juniper.net/techpubs

        For M series, click on the software link and pick the highest version
        listed their; 6.x would be the most current.

        Once you've looked at the training video and downloaded the docs you
        should be able to drill down to the areas that interst you most. The
        comprehensive index might be good to actually print out for handy
        reference.

        Some areas of interest might include:

        Group inheritance

        Using function/procedure invocation in policys

        Virtual router features; N logical routers in 1 box, more extensive
           than Redback contexts.

        Operational goodies:

        "Auto Chicken mode" - Basically the JUNOS config is a database and
           as such you commit changes. You can do an auto reverting commit that
           restores a known good config after N minutes if the candidate config
           isn't confirmed; i.e. "#$%#%#$, I just downed the infrastructure link
           on a remote router"... See "commit confirmed <x>" for details. This
           feature has been rumored to have saved many a chicken hide!

         You can leave insane levels of debug turned on without killing the
         routing or forwarding engines.

 For Juniper: ( You know who you are! )

         Why not release an "Olive CD" with each new major JUNOS bump? It
         wouldn't hurt to have every schmoe in the universe that can boot
         a FreeBSD ISO also be competant in JUNOS! Place it as an iso download
         in the software docs area.

         For the squemish in the legal dept. you could remove the code that
         handles Juniper hardware from the distro and still have an excellent
         CLI engine and minimal routing platform simulator.

         I bet if you passed out a stack of "Olive CD's" at a NANOG there would
         be plenty of takers!

        -Rob