[c-nsp] Migrating Cat3550 to Supervisor II on 6506

[Virgil]

On 10/5/05 6:10 PM, "Peter Hicks" <peter.hicks at poggs.co.uk> wrote:

> I'm trying to put a proposal together for replacing the 3550s with
> Supervisor II blades, as the 6500s have Sup1A's and run CatOS 5.5(2).  Some
> questions:

Unless you are buying them second hand, you should be able to get SUP720-3B
for the same price as a SUP2/2.

AU RRP prices:

AU$49,026   WS-X6K-S2U-MSFC2=
Catalyst 6500 Supervisor 2U, 256MB Supervisor, 512MB MSFC2

AU$51,230   WS-SUP720-3B=
Catalyst 6500/Cisco 7600 Supervisor 720 Fabric MSFC3 PFC3B

>   1. In business terms, how can I justify putting the routing functionailty
>      directly inside the core switches rather than on 3550s?  From a
>      technical angle, "It's a lot better" would be enough :-)

"It's a lot better".  Already answered by other posts.
 
>   2. I'm looking at a WS-X6K-S2-MSFC2 (Sup2, 2GE + MSFC2/PFC2), but I'm a
>      bit confused at to the difference between an MSFC and PFC.  Do I need
>      both?  Or just an MSFC?

You need both.

>   3. Will I be able to run IOS natively on the 6506s after upgrading the
      
Yes you can and should, IMHO, run native IOS on Cat6500's.  12.2(18)SXE if
you want the latest feature set, or 12.2(17d)SXB7 for a more 'stable'
environment. 

>      supervisor?  One of the juniors in our team is learning IOS and finding
>      CatOS a struggle (as we don't make many changes to the 6500s), and I'd
>      like to have IOS everywhere if possible.  Are there any caveats to
>      running IOS on the 6506s?

"Read the release notes" for your particular IOS versions. As you should for
everything including CatOS anyway.

Regards
Virgil

-- 
virgil at webcentral.com.au