[c-nsp] cisco-nsp Digest, Vol 148, Issue 64

Fri Mar 27 12:26:58 EDT 2015

I'll second the recommendations for looking at the 4500X.  We've been running 4500X's for over 2 years and they've performed quite well.  We selected them for many of the same reasons already outlined.

We've recently started working with the Nexus 9K line (9732PX), which is actually cheaper than the 4500X for more ports, lower latency, etc.  We only have a small sampling of them currently but they've worked out quite well in thus far.

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 13:35:01 -0700
From: Blake Dunlap <ikiris at gmail.com>
To: "cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net" <cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net>
Subject: Re: [c-nsp] "Core/AGG" switch for small DC
Message-ID:
	<CAJvB4tmZ8F8KC6qAZZ6Q-hxz0hhwSN+o34qTQD1PrrGkeWx25Q at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

I wouldn't ever do a stackable for a core, that is just asking for down time for various scenarios for no appreciable reason. If anything the 4948 is an upgrade for the 3xxx gear. I would also suggest either the X or the n5600 like two previous suggestions, with leanings to the
n56 depending on what you're doing. (Need for exotic multicast or mpls are big red flags).

Also, I personally hate VSS in the core. Independent control planes is a good thing if you care about redundancy. It's fine in dist, but I'd be weary of it in core without a really good reason.

The above are just my personal suggestions though, the best thing to do is if you don't know yourself is to hire someone who does on a contract basis to design it, and have them document the reasons and educate you in the process.

-Blake

On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 12:53 PM, CiscoNSP List <cisconsp_list at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks very much for the info....got a couple of 4500X's(In VSS, and 
> hasnt missed a beat in 2years), and I do like them...but price is 
> getting up there...same with the Nexus kit...never used them, and 
> would be a nice option to go with what you have described...just would 
> mean replacing all the existing 4948's...unfortunately not an option 
> at this stage :)
>
> Ill re-check the 4500X's price....havent bought one in over 2 years, 
> so I may be pleasantly suprised ;)
>
>
>
>
>> Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 14:24:19 -0500
>> From: brez at brezworks.com
>> To: cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net; p.mayers at imperial.ac.uk
>> Subject: Re: [c-nsp] "Core/AGG" switch for small DC
>>
>> On 3/26/2015 11:35 AM, CiscoNSP List wrote:
>> >> For a datacentre, I'd pay attention to buffering. Cisco stackables 
>> >> tend to have tiny buffers (not sure about 3950), which may or may 
>> >> not be a problem for an agg switch, depending on your traffic 
>> >> patterns and link speeds, and whether the device does cut-through switching.
>> >>
>> >> How many ports and of what media/speed do you want? Do you need 
>> >> any DCB / FCoE stuff? Layer 2 or layer 3?
>> >
>> > Purely L2, all eth...Id like 2 separate agg boxes, but dual links from TOR switches, to 2 "independent" switches would be difficult (i.e. how to have all vlans go to both switches, and handle a failure of one of them "automatically"...all the cust vlans are trunked up to ME's and ASR's for L3.
>> >
>> If you've been happy with the 4948s, I'd look at the 4500X as a 
>> possible aggregator for them.  16/32 ports of 1/10G (plus 8 on an 
>> expansion module), support for all the optics and twinax options 
>> (with a few caveats for ZR optics, but shouldn't be an issue within a DC).
>>
>> They do support VSS, and it's been stable for us for ~18 months 
>> running
>> 10 floors worth of heavy users from closet 4507R+E's via 20Gb 
>> port-channels as well as a large port-channel via EWDM boxes to our 
>> data-center.  Mixed L2/L3 on ours, and other than having to order 
>> some 3rd party PDU cables (C15s on these, not C13s, same as the PoE 
>> 3560X's) they've been great for our use case.  We've got another pair 
>> running in a colo space for circuit handoffs, and they've been rock 
>> solid boxes for us.  They're basically a Sup7E from a 4500E with 
>> 16/32 ports of 10G built into a 1U chassis, same code image and 
>> feature support as you'd have on those.
>>
>> The other option for a more traditional data-center switch would be 
>> the Nexus 5500/5600 lines.  These are NX-OS rather than the IOS-XE of 
>> the 4500X so there is a learning curve there if you aren't familiar 
>> with it, but are 90% of the functionality you'd get out of a Nexus 
>> 7000/7700 device in a 1-3U package.  The 5500/5600s do VPC which 
>> allows you dual-active forwarding and are a cut-through instead of 
>> traditional store and forward switch.  The 5600s also have 40Gb ports 
>> available and would allow you to use FEX's to replace some of the TOR 
>> 4948s and have all management from one central point (can configure 
>> master/slave for configs on the 5Ks in VPC mode, so you configure 
>> both switches as one unit, same with VSS on the 4500X's).  The 
>> 5500/5600 are more limited on their optics support (don't support any 
>> CWDM/DWDM or ER/ZR optics), but are a solid data-center/TOR switch.
>>
>> I've worked with both of these for several years, let me know if you 
>> have any specific questions about either of them.
>>
>> Jeremy "TheBrez" Bresley
>> brez at brezworks.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> cisco-nsp mailing list  cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net 
>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp
>> archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/
>
> _______________________________________________
> cisco-nsp mailing list  cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net 
> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp
> archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/

------------------------------

Subject: Digest Footer

_______________________________________________
cisco-nsp mailing list
cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp

------------------------------

End of cisco-nsp Digest, Vol 148, Issue 64
******************************************