We (Unilogic Networks) are running a Foundry BigIron 4000 as a layer 3 device only in our network. However there are some issues I see people running into that are not that good documented or presented to these people. We ourselves are quite happy with our Foundry as it does the job it handles, but there are some things you should have in mind when deploying them. Here is a short list of problems that may arise when using a Foundry BigIron 4000.

These problems are based on a Foundry BigIron 4000 running a M4 engine and JetCore blades on software version 07.7.01bT53 :

• Foundry's running in route-only will sometimes still switch data to other ports. To avoid this we suggest you put every port in a single vlan so it will not disturb other ports
• Foundry uses some pre-configured defaults for several system values used to calculate how much CAM space it should reserve for certain tasks. Unfortunately the max system routes is only 128000 (140000 in some versions) which is way to low for routers doing full BGP4. Add the following to your configuration to fix this problem: 'system-max ip-route 200000'
• Virtual Interfaces (ve's) on a Foundry will do a lot of work over the CPU! ACL's for example and also some routing. Rate-limits are not supported on VE devices.
• When using as a pure layer3 device always use the 'route-only'  syntax in your config as it will disable almost all layer2 functions (including STP)
• Remember that although the configuration style may look A lot like Cisco IOS, there are some subtile differences, especially when concerning ACL's, BGP, and route-maps. For example Foundry allows the use of CIDR everywhere while IOS only allows quad dot netmasks.

These are probably the most issues people run into when using a Foundry. If you are using a Foundry and are doing BGP on them and have some issues, don't hesitate to contact me.

Another thing about Foundry BigIron series is that these are 100% compatible with HP's 9300 series. This includes Software releases, blades and power supplies. The only real difference is a big s/Foundry Networks/Hewlett Packard/ and the change of OIDs to represent the HP enterprise OID, also HP's EP blades are JetCore blades. We are using Mixed Foundry/HP setups without any troubles.