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Cisco 7204 Installation and Configuration Guide
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Product Overview
This chapter provides physical and functional overviews of the Cisco 7204 router. It contains physical
descriptions of the router hardware and major components, and functional descriptions of
hardware-related features. Descriptions and examples of software commands are included only when
they are necessary for replacing, installing, configuring, or maintaining the router hardware.
The Cisco 7204 is part of the Cisco 7200 series routers, which consists of the 2-slot Cisco 7202, 4-slot
Cisco 7204 and Cisco 7204VXR, and 6-slot Cisco 7206 and Cisco 7206VXR. The Cisco 7204 supports
multiprotocol, multimedia routing and bridging over a wide variety of LAN and WAN interface types.
Network interfaces reside on port adapters that provide the connection between the router’s three
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) buses and external networks. The Cisco 7204 has four slots
(slot 1 through slot 4) for the port adapters, one slot for an Input/Output (I/O) controller, and one slot for
a network processing engine. You can place the port adapters or service adapters in any of the four
available slots.
There are bays for up to two AC-input or DC-input power supplies. The Cisco 7204 will operate with
one power supply. While a second power supply is not required, it allows load sharing and increased
system availability.
Note
The Cisco 7204 does not support a mixture of AC- and DC-input power.
The Cisco 7204 provides the following features:
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Online insertion and removal (OIR)—Allows you to add, replace, or remove port adapters without
interrupting the system or entering any console commands.
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Dual hot-swappable, load-sharing power supplies—Provide system power redundancy; if one power
supply or power source fails, the other power supply maintains system power without interruption.
Also, when one power supply is powered off and removed from the router, the second power supply
immediately takes over the router’s power requirements without interrupting normal operation of the
router.
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Environmental monitoring and reporting functions—Allow you to maintain normal system
operation by resolving adverse environmental conditions before any loss of operation.
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Downloadable software—Allows you to load new images into Flash memory remotely, without
having to physically access the Cisco 7204 router, for fast, reliable upgrades.
