[c-nsp] 3750 stack vs 4507R-E?

[Yann Gauteron]

Hi,

One thing that is missing here is IMO the current (and forecasted) profile
of your trafic. This would permit to determine the overall bandwidth that is
needed and to finally make an advised proposal.

As I read that you're having a SAN, maybe you should also consider the Cisco
Nexus switches. The Nexus series is the convergence of the LAN and the SAN
environment (much like the voice and data convergence that happened years
ago).

If you prefer to stay in a conservative approach (or your infrastructure is
not sized enough to need a converged LAN/SAN), you can also include Catalyst
4900M in your study.

Have a look at
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9441/Products_Sub_Category_Home.html

However, due to the importance of the data center infrastructure
(performance, availability, sizing, scalability, ...), I would recommend you
to
1) read about the different products and technologies (Cat 3750, 4500, 6500,
4900M and Nexus) in order to make your own opinion about the features and
performances. Have a look about switching performance, chassis slots
performance, ability for the line cards to perform switching with or without
the need of the supervisor (distributed forwarding vs centralized
forwarding), ...
2) determine your current needs and your forecasted needs for the next 3
years
3) approach a local integrator that could take these numbers and make you a
proposal with a shopping list of the boxes he would recommand. Ask him to
justify his choice.
4) Analyze his proposal and compare the justifications about the products
chosen and the information you got in step 1) about the different products.

Just one advice: Do not just think about your current needs... Think today
about your future needs (bandwidth / ports / ...) in order to make the best
investment for the long term. Choosing the smallest boxes that would fit
your current needs is not necessarily the best choice. Maybe the next
upgrades needed to face future needs would make the final bill much heavier
than if the solution was correctly sized from the very beginning.

Good luck,
Yann

2008/10/24 Chris Gauthier <chris at k7sle.com>

> I have 2 SAN boxes and several servers, in addition to the rest of the data
> center's servers to plan a network upgrade for. We are currently using a
> 4006 w/Sup II running CatOS 8.4(11)GLX and several older 2950/3500/3550
> series switches.
>
> All of the equipment is getting older and we are trying to determine what
> would be better...another chassis switch or a 3750 stack? Why would you
> choose one over the other?
>
> Needs:
>
> True Gigabit connectivity for all servers (30-40 of them) and switch
> uplinks. Some switches are using a fiber backbone.
> Redundancy
> Least-cost, best benefit.
> POE on at least 18-24 ports.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Chris
>
>