[c-nsp] 6500/SUP2 conversion from hybrid to native

[Tassos Chatzithomaoglou]

I'm thinking of converting an old 6500/SUP2 from hybrid mode to native IOS.

This is the current setup:

MSFC2 - 256 MB DRAM, 32MB FLASH - IOS 12.1(26)E8 - ROMMON 12.1(11r)E1
SUP2 - 128 MB DRAM, 32MB FLASH - CatOS 7.6(19) - ROMMON 7.1(1)

This 6500 does basic L2 switching, L3 routing (OSPF), HSRP and has a FWSM module installed.

I would prefer to avoid upgrading the DRAM on SUP2 (if that's possible).

I cannot use 12.2SX due to mem/flash requirements, so i'm planing to use either 12.1(26)E9 or 
12.1(27b)E3 (according to the release notes of 12.1E there shouldn't be any problem with my 
hardware). Btw, 12.1(26)E8 is working fine until now.


So, here are some questions for all cisco gurus:


1) Is there a difference between hybrid 12.1(26)E9 and native 12.1(26)E9 in terms of functionality & 
operation?


2) There is something i cannot understand on the following table:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst6500/ios/12.1E/native/release/notes/OL_2310.html#wp253856

What does "per CEF Path" refer to? The interface used for reaching next-hop plus the next-hop?

This 6500 has around 13000 OSPF routes consuming less than 3MB of memory, but all of them are 
through the same svi interface using the same next-hop. Do i need to worry?

6500>sh ip route summary
IP routing table name is Default-IP-Routing-Table(0)
Route Source    Networks    Subnets     Overhead    Memory (bytes)
connected       2           28          3560        4800
static          1           13          1508        2240
ospf 1000       195         12408       806592      2019540
   Intra-area: 0 Inter-area: 203 External-1: 15 External-2: 12385
   NSSA External-1: 0 NSSA External-2: 0
internal        477                                 562860
Total           675         12449       811660      2589440

6500>sh ip cef sum
IP Distributed CEF with switching (Table Version 17065623), flags=0x0
   13307 routes, 0 reresolve, 0 unresolved (0 old, 0 new), peak 14
   13310 leaves, 816 nodes, 2658800 bytes, 17011076 inserts, 16997766 invalidations
   0 load sharing elements, 0 bytes, 0 references
   universal per-destination load sharing algorithm, id 8401BF36
   2(0) CEF resets, 72621 revisions of existing leaves
   Resolution Timer: Exponential (currently 1s, peak 1s)
   54549 in-place/0 aborted modifications
   refcounts:  234955 leaf, 209152 node

   Table epoch: 0 (13310 entries at this epoch)

Adjacency Table has 564 adjacencies


3) Do i need to upgrade the MSFC ROMMON too? 12.2(17r)S5 is the latest version and it seems to solve 
some serious bugs. Would there be any problem using ROMMON 12.2(17r)S5 and IOS 12.1(26)E9?

I would be very grateful if someone from Cisco had a look at CSCec69349 and tell me if 12.1(26)E9 or 
12.1(27b)E3 IOS versions are affected.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst6500/rommon/OL_2440.html#wp157780


4) Lastly, is anyone using 12.1(X)E on 6500s nowadays?

-- 
Tassos