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

[Peter Rathlev]

On Thu, 2008-10-23 at 15:10 -0700, Chris Gauthier wrote:
> 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. 

We use currently use stacks of 3750E-24TD-S for our iSCSI network.
Servers and SAN connect to the gigabit ports and the switch stacks are
uplinked with the 10GE interfaces to 6500 core switches.

It seems to work without problems. Only gotcha is that all members of
the stacks have to be upgraded at the same time, so unless hosts/SANs
are connected to two different stacks you can't upgrade without
downtime. A single 4500 isn't better in this regard though.

The 3750E "Stackwise+" is supposed to give you more bandwidth; traffic
between to different ports on the same switch doesn't have to loop
through the stack cables like on the non-E models, and that stack ring
uses destination stripping instead of source stripping.

I don't know about the 4500, but the 3750 only does "flowcontrol
receive" if that makes a difference to you.

Regards,
Peter