I have found a lot of articles asking the same question on other sites but seems to be there is a lot of back and forth with no agreement.

I am new to networking working with VIRL and trying to learn Cisco stuff.

From what I have read and ASA is limited in certain routing protocols,

However ISO routers and limited in threw put.

  ASA have better security in enhancement.. (I think yes?)

Besides that they pretty much look the same.

  I can setup static routes, NAT, set ACLs on both

I could not figure out if IOS routers and be setup in any kind of active - active failover, or stacked, can they?

Could i have a configuration like below if so what are the pros and cons?

ASA <--> ASA (Active Active)

Router1 <--> Router2 <--> Routern

Switch1 <--> Switch2 <--> Switchn

Node1 <--> Node2 <--> Noden

I have found a lot of articles asking the same question on other sites but seems to be a lot of back and forth with no agreement.

I am new to networking working with VIRL and trying to learn Cisco stuff.

From what I have read and ASA is limited in certain routing protocols, however IOS routers and limited in throughput. But ASA have better security features.. (I think yes?)

Besides that they pretty much look the same. I can setup static routes, NAT, set ACLs on both

I could not figure out if IOS routers and be setup in any kind of active - active failover, or stacked, can they?

Could i have a configuration like below if so what are the pros and cons?

ASA <--> ASA (Active Active)

Router1 <--> Router2 <--> Routern

Switch1 <--> Switch2 <--> Switchn

Node1 <--> Node2 <--> Noden