[c-nsp] Some advice on switches....

[Geoffrey Pendery]

You might want to look at 4500 Series switches, rather than 6500.
If 2960's were sufficient for your requirements (no advanced routing,
Netflow, NBAR, etc) then 4500 is closer to an apples-to-apples
comparison than 6500.
4500 will generally be cheaper than 6500, especially when taking
maintenance/Smartnet into account (though YMMV).
The other upside to chassis based is that if the day ever comes you
want to move your 10/100 ports up to 10/100/1000, it'll probably be
cheaper/easier to swap blades than to buy all new stackables.

Also, if you decide to stick with the 2960's, my two cents would be
just buy 6 x 48 Port, instead of 2 x 24 and 4 x 48.
Where possible, it's nice to work on a single model.  You can purchase
a single spare which would swap in for any failed unit.  You can work
off a simpler standard config template.  You only have to become
intimately familiar with one hardware platform (though obviously
2960-24 would be pretty similar to 2960-48).  It just helps to
simplify things, making your "building blocks" more interchangeable
and uniform.  Also leaves room to expand or test or "hot cut" existing
connections.


-Geoff


On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 7:44 AM, Chris Knipe <savage at savage.za.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We are looking currently to deploy a large scale network with 288 x 10/100
> Ports.  Currently, we are basing this equipment on a configuration of 1 x 24
> Port 2960, 2 x 48 Port 2960 in one cabinet, and 1 x 24 Port 2960 with 2 x 48
> Port 2960 in another cabinet.  This is then tied together at a 3560 24 Port
> 10/100/1000 switch with 4 SFPs for future expansion (naturally, running
> things like EtherChannels between all the 2960 switches).
>
> Based on the large amount of 10/100 Ports required, I am believing that it
> would be cheaper to invest into a modular switch, such as a 6500 and just
> add a few blades.  So far, the bit of pricing I have seen on the blades are
> very, very cheap.  Our requirements would be for 288 10/100 Ports, and a few
> (no more than 16, 24 max) 1GB ports, and hey, fantastic if we can later
> upgrade to 10GB interfaces by installing a module.
>
> What I am wondering, is how close to EOL is the 6500 series?  Those switches
> has been around for quite a while, and I see that certain models are already
> at EOL.  What could I possibly look at?  We don't require a massively fast
> backplane, nor long distance capabilities at this stage - frankly, the
> network would perform very well with the 2960s and 3560s as mentioned above
> - I am looking at a modular switch at this stage, purely from a pricing
> perspective.
>
> If I am to look at a 6500 (or another model), what kind of modules would  I
> need to look at?  I've seen lots of different modules for the 6500 already,
> but apart from the actual blades with the Ethernet ports, I'm a bit lost as
> to what is required....
>
> Thanks allot, and I look forward to some constructive criticism as always :)
>
> Regards,
> Chris.
>
>
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