7-4
Cisco PIX Firewall Hardware Installation Guide
78-15170-01
Chapter 7 PIX 535
PIX 535 Product Overview
PIX 535 Network Interface Description
There are three separate buses for the nine interface slots in the PIX 535. The interfaces are counted from
right to left on the PIX 535.
The slots and buses are configured as follows:
• Slots 0 and 1–64-bit/66 MHz Bus 0
• Slots 2 and 3–64-bit/66 MHz Bus 1
• Slots 4 to 8–32-bit/33 MHz Bus 2
For optimum performance and throughput for the interface circuit boards, use the following guidelines:
• A total of eight interfaces are configurable on the PIX 535 with the restricted license, and a total of
ten are configurable with the unrestricted license.
• For best performance, the PIX-1GE-66 (66 MHz) circuit boards should be installed in a
64bit/66 MHz card slot, before they are installed in a 32-bit/33 MHz card slot. You can install up to
nine PIX-1GE-66 circuit boards in the PIX 535.
• If Stateful Failover is enabled for PIX-1GE-66 traffic, the failover link must be PIX-1GE-66. The
amount of Stateful Failover information is proportional to the amount of traffic flowing through the
PIX Firewall and if not configured properly, loss of state information or 256 byte block depletion
can occur.
• The PIX-1FE circuit board (33 MHz) can be installed in any bus or slot (32-bit/33 MHz or
64-bit/66 MHz). Up to nine PIX-1FE circuit boards, or up to two PIX-4FE, circuit boards can be
installed. The PIX-1FE circuit boards should be installed in the 32-bit/33 MHz card slots first.
• The PIX-4FE card can only be installed in a 32-bit/33 MHz card slot and must never be installed in
a 64-bit/66 MHz card slot. Installation of this circuit board in a 64-bit/66 MHz card slot can cause
the system to hang at boot time.
Note On the PIX 4FE card, port 0 is on the top and port 3 is on the bottom.
• Do not mix the PIX-1FE circuit boards with the PIX-1GE-66 circuit boards on the same
64-bit/66 MHz bus (Bus 0 or Bus 1). The overall speed of the bus is reduced by the lower speed
circuit board.
• The PIX-1GE circuit board is not recommended for use in the PIX 535, as it can severely degrade
performance. It is only capable of half the throughput of the PIX-1GE-66 circuit board. If this circuit
board is detected in the PIX 535, a warning about degraded performance will be issued.
• The VPN Accelerator (PIX-VPN-ACCEL) should only be installed in a 32-bit/33 MHz card slot.
• The VPN Accelerator Card+ (PIX-VACPLUS) should be installed in a 64-bit/66 MHz card slot.
Performance will be degraded if this recommendation is not followed.
Table 7-3 lists the relative throughput of the Gigabit Ethernet combinations.
Table 7-3 Relative Throughput of Gigabit Ehternet Combinations
Gigabit Ethernet Card Bus Type Shared with 33 MHz Device Speed
PIX-1GE-66 64/66 No 100%
PIX-1GE-66 64/66 Yes 50%
PIX-1GE-66 32/33 No 25%
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