Cisco Switches

[FN-GM]

Hi,

 

We are looking for some Cisco Chassis Switches. These will be for the core and for hub rooms. The ones in the hub rooms will have lots of devices connected to them. I am looking at switches with 10 - 13 slots for cards. We are after something with dual PSU, Dual Supervisor engines, 10GB Uplinks & Gigabit POE (48 port cards). I have experience with the Cisco 6513/

 

What sort of thing would you recommend going for these days? To be honest i am not so hot with whats new with side of things. Would you recommenced the 4500 series?

 

Thanks

[bio]

As you might know the 4500 series have a maximum of 10 slots. If you need more then you'll need the 6500 series. We have 2 cisco 4506 that handle our core traffic. Untill now they can handle traffic with ease. So a 6500 series might be a little overkill for a school environment. But i don't know you're infrastructure. We handle about 3000 wireless devices and 1000 pc's with those 2 cores.

 

regards

bio..

[FN-GM]

Why is the 6500 better than the 4500 please?

[twin--turbo]

6500 serise has greater throughput, it can also do more than just L2/3 switching and routing. it can have other cards for media content etc...

 

Do you realy want to run everything of a core switch?

 

We have 2x 4507RE but with 10GB or 1GB links to Distro switches.

 

Rob

[Millgate]

Hi FN-GM,

 

We have Cisco specialist here if you need someone to bounce ideas off etc. Let me know

[FN-GM]

We have Cisco specialist here if you need someone to bounce ideas off etc. Let me know

 

Thanks, but we wont be allowed to purchase it from your ourselves, this is BSF money.

 

Do you realy want to run everything of a core switch?

 

It wont be there will be 3 in total. 2 edge and one core. Although a few IT rooms will run from the core.

[Duke5A]

I can't make any recommendations, but we just replaced our core with a new 6506 and it cost $40,000 USD. This was with dual power supplies and a single supervisor module. The cards from the old core were reused. I think a total overhaul with dual supervisor modules and new 10GB blades was somewhere between 70k - 80k USD.

[twin--turbo]

On 4507RE

 

A SUP-6E will cost near £6K so if you want them redundant across 3 chassis that's 6x3x2 £36,000 for the supervisors.

 

PSU's were 1K a pice for the 2800VA ones , so that's 2x3x1 £6K

 

Full Compliment of 5 WS-X4548 line cards ( non poe ) 2K a pop so £30K

 

Chassis £3k each so £9K

 

So the basic build is going to be just over £80K........

 

for 720 Data Outlets.

 

This excludes any CX4 10GB Links, Fibers, Etc...

 

Rob

[FN-GM]

Cheers, just what we want

[Edu-IT]

So the basic build is going to be just over £80K........

Cheers, just what we want

Ah, BSF money still being spent wisely then?

[twin--turbo]

Ah, BSF money still being spent wisely then?

 

LOL...

 

bot our sites have twin 4507's but with just one sup6 in each, long story that includes rather a lot of waste! I counted 13 2960 switches with 3 or less connections to them recently!!

 

the 4507's are redundant to each other with HSRP so only having one supervisor is not a massive issue except for devices that are single homed on one core ( wan link, meru )

 

Not many clients are on the cores at all.

 

 

 

 

If your not using POE then you can opt for lower power output PSU's,

 

On the 4500, don't drop below a SUP6 as the lower model supervisors don't support 10Gb line cards. ( oh yeah our sister site invested in the wrong kit.. More money!

 

 

 

Rob

[FN-GM]

Ah, BSF money still being spent wisely then?

 

If we dont spend it, we loose it.

[twin--turbo]

If we dont spend it, we loose it.

 

spend it on storage, near line backup and blade servers.

 

one 4507 with 2 sups, 2 psu's and then just fixed config 2960's and 3560's for distro and edge would be gr8, 2 4506's with one supervisor and HSRP would be better. 3 Cores doing edge work is massive overkill...

 

 

 

Rob

[twin--turbo]

also.... cable density ,,,

 

You could look at RJ21 connected modules but spanning 240 RJ45's out of the standard modules gets very untidy or difficult to work with.

 

Rob

[FN-GM]

spend it on storage, near line backup and blade servers.

 

one 4507 with 2 sups, 2 psu's and then just fixed config 2960's and 3560's for distro and edge would be gr8, 2 4506's with one supervisor and HSRP would be better. 3 Cores doing edge work is massive overkill...

 

 

 

Rob

 

Yep already got that eyed up as well as all the Cisco gear. All servers and switches to be replaced and 66% of our clients will be replaced.

 

We are looking at 3570's for edge so we have have dual PSU and stack 9 of them.

[twin--turbo]

Yep already got that eyed up as well as all the Cisco gear. All servers and switches to be replaced and 66% of our clients will be replaced.

 

 

don#t waste too much on 45xx or 65xx overkill, or even edge overkill......

 

There has got to be better ways to spend the money..

 

over killing switching is a massive waste which I guarantee you will regret as you cant make it benefit you.

 

6hr near line backup has saved staff from disaster( 4 staff ) 3 times in the last 8 working days.

 

Rob

 

 

We are looking at 3570's for edge so we have have dual PSU and stack 9 of them.

[FN-GM]

We have the money to get some good stuff. Might as well go for it or else it goes down the drain... Anyway the thread isn't for talking finance.

 

Did you meant to quote of the 3750's post?

[twin--turbo]

p.s.

 

Cisco is generaly very very very reliable. .. if i was running the FT stock exchange , then having dual psu on the edge would be paramount.

 

in a school, if computer services go down ofsted expect this, they expect an alternate lesson plan. you will not fail an ofstead on a computer systems failure. you will fail ofstead if a teacher has not got a backup lesson,

 

rob

[twin--turbo]

We have the money to get some good stuff. Might as well go for it or else it goes down the drain... Anyway the thread isn't for talking finance.

 

Did you meant to quote of the 3750's post?

 

 

 

get 2 4506 cores in your server room with hrsp.

 

diverse link them on 10Gb to distro rooms. with twin 3560v2 on 10gb

 

then link the 3560's to 2960 edge switches...

 

 

 

 

 

ps... judgement clouded by cisco-wsx-vino-red-btl-vsn2.2

 

rob

[FN-GM]

Hi,

 

If anyone is interested. We went for a pair of Cisco 4500X for the core. And then used stacks Cisco 3750's for the client machines, some POE some not. As we have loads of power problems each switch has 2 power supplies. Have had loads of PSU failures over the last 2 years!

 

Thanks for the advise.

[twin--turbo]

Hi,

 

If anyone is interested. We went for a pair of Cisco 4500X for the core. And then used stacks Cisco 3750's for the client machines, some POE some not. As we have loads of power problems each switch has 2 power supplies. Have had loads of PSU failures over the last 2 years!

 

Thanks for the advise.

 

Cool,

 

Do you have the EDGE stacks on a UPS?

 

Appart from 2 450x PSU's blowing in the first 5 months back in 2008 we have had no other issues , I think that was a faulty batch ( not good a t £1k each! ) .

 

Rob

[FN-GM]

Yep we have whole rooms UPS's on the rooms hosting the edge stacks. On the core stack (server room) we have a UPS and diesel generator protecting things.

 

Hopefully should help things!

[PotNoodleTech]

So your spending £100k+ on core switches?

 

Outstanding!!!

[twin--turbo]

Outstanding!!!

 

Indeed they are.

[FN-GM]

So your spending £100k+ on core switches?

 

Outstanding!!!

 

not quite £100k. Infact way less then that.