Modular Switches & Routers

Supervisor/Console is the brains of any modular switch or router.

2part question
1. When you telnet into a switch or router, then do a "sho mod" or "sho ip int" to view ALL of that switch or router's modules & ports - Are you telnetting into the Supervisor Console then asking the Supervisor Console for it's attached Modules & ports?

2. How are all the modules attached to the supervisor console? Or are they at all?
And if they aren't attached, then how does the Supervisor console know what modules & ports it contains?

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Comments

DerekAustin26

Like for instance.. I work in the NOC. I dont have much experience with Switches/Routers physically.

Like say you have a switch named "Switch-A1" with IP address of "192.168.10.1" - That IP & Name represents all the modular switches attached to it. You cannot remote into any of the modular blades or view any of their configurations without first telnetting to the mgmt console which is "Switch-A1". I mean.. Am I correct? The entire modular switch is managed via the management console. None of the blades have a name or IP. Just a MAC.

networker050184

When you log into a modular switch/router like a 6500 you are logging into the active supervisor engine. All of the blades communicate with the supervisor via the back plane. Think of it as the supervisor is the brains that control all the interface cards.

Check this link out for more information.

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Architecture.

DerekAustin26

ok cool... thats what i thought. Thanks

Bl8ckr0uter

DerekAustin26 wrote: »

Supervisor/Console is the brains of any modular switch or router.

2part question
1. When you telnet into a switch or router, then do a "sho mod" or "sho ip int" to view ALL of that switch or router's modules & ports - Are you telnetting into the Supervisor Console then asking the Supervisor Console for it's attached Modules & ports?

2. How are all the modules attached to the supervisor console? Or are they at all?
And if they aren't attached, then how does the Supervisor console know what modules & ports it contains?

I thought Id share this as well.
On Thursday I picked up an alarm on a 3750 switch. You can connect many of these switches together in a configuration explained here. Any way the only reason why I bring this up is because I learned some interesting things about this type of configuration: It is basically the same configuration as a 6509; All switches are considered 1 logical switch; In a Vlan configuration, all of these switches keep the same vlan configuration (for example if 1 is a server, all are a server). The reason why I said all of this is that one of the seniors told me that the same apply facts apply for the 6509.