Process Placement

In Cisco CRS-1 and Cisco XR12000 series routers, additional route processors can be
added to the system in addition to the active and standby RPs. The additional route
processors can be used to offload processes from the main RP (or RP pairs), effectively increasing
the overall processing capacity of the system. The additional route processors
can be paired to form active and standby RPs. The process of moving processes from one
RP to another is known as process placement.
In the case of CRS-1, the Distributed Route Processor (DRP) card provides additional flexibility
and horsepower. The main route processors are placed in dedicated slots.
In the case of XR12000, the PRP used as the main processor can be used as a DRP to provide
additional horsepower. The PRP can be placed in any line card slot.
Process placement allows offloading of resource-intensive processes to the DRP from the
main RP, resulting in system performance improvement. The DRP does not perform any of
the shelf-designated functions normally performed by the RP. Only the main RP can be
the designated shelf controller (DSC) in a single or multishelf system.
The process called placed (place daemon) manages the process placement feature. There is
one placed process per secure domain router. Process placement provides a better distribution
of system resources and increases availability.
Configuring process placement requires few commands and an understanding of affinities.
Affinity can be described as the force of attraction between two heterogeneous objects.
Configuring an affinity value essentially sets a degree of preference that determines
whether a process would be attracted or repulsed to a particular RP. Process placement
can be a triggered event or manually set by an operator. Process placement can also be
configured to trigger when a memory threshold is reached and to avoid instability, a resource
intensive processs affinity is set to be attractive to another node, or repulse on the
existing (D)RP.