[c-nsp] ME-C3750E ES ports vs. regular ports

[Mikael Abrahamsson]

On Thu, 22 Apr 2010, Jason Lixfeld wrote:

> I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with the 3750 Metro switches.

Yes, of course. Please refrain from using this phrase.

> The datasheet says the switch supports MPLS voodoo on the ES ports, but 
> what about the other ports?  Are the ES ports similar to the ports on an 
> 6500/7600 ES+ linecard which do things like local VLAN significance 
> while the copper ports are similar to a 6500/7600 6748 linecard which 
> can still terminate an xconnect?  Can an SVI terminate an xconnect on 
> these boxes?

The 3750ME is basically two devices in one. It's a 3560 with two of the 
ports internally connected to a network processor which in turn has two 
external ports (the ES ports).

So the whole idea is to have the two ES ports as uplinks towards your MPLS 
cloud and do the pure IP stuff on the other ports. There is no MPLS 
support on the other ports, so your analogy is fairly correct.

I don't know for sure about your questions, have never needed to do local 
vlan significance and we always redundantly connect these to the ntework 
so we never use the ES ports for anything else. About the xconnect I 
believe it works, but don't take my word for it, it's been quite a while 
since I last worked with an 3750ME.