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 <[email protected]> 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: [email protected] >> To: [email protected]; [email protected] >> 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 >> [email protected] >> _______________________________________________ >> cisco-nsp mailing list [email protected] >> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp >> archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/ > > _______________________________________________ > cisco-nsp mailing list [email protected] > https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp > archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/ _______________________________________________ cisco-nsp mailing list [email protected] https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/
