4000/4500/6000/6500 switch, which one?

mikka1984

Hi Guys/Gals
I am looking into getting one of those baby to practice on. Cannot decide which one is the best bang for buck though. I am primarlily looking into experiencing with a switch that has the supervisor engine plus PVLANS and GLBP. I am rather inexperianced in those big switches, and since i am not on the networking team there is no way teh guys would let me touch any of those at work (even though they let me deploy additional distribution 3750s fine). So basically I am looking for the cheapest way to get that exposure to those. I had a brief look at the cisco website and i cannot see any difference in the technology supported between 4000 and 4500 or 6000 and 6500. Any help would be highly appreciated.:)

networker050184

So you are looking to buy one of these for a home lab? Thats not very practical. Its going to cost you an arm and a leg to get any kind of semi-recent modules/sups. Not to mention the noise and power consumption. You'd be much better off going with the 3560/3750.

If you decide to break the bank, you are going to want the 4500/6500 which are the modular switches.

NOC-Ninja

I believe there are websites that will let you rent it out. Why dont you just rent it? I know 6500 are expensive and VERY heavy!

keenon

agreed, 3560 or 3750. i would save the cash

mikka1984

I had a 3560, sold it off to a mate of mine who just got into Cisco, have a 3750, but its running my production network, so don't really want to start messing with it (or rather i had, my production rack is ont the bottom floor, labis on the top, running cables got annoying and not getting any network access cause I forgot to put back the normal config after a long late night lab session got very annoying). I had a brief look at ebay and given that i can pick up a 4506 from an undisclosed source for £150 loaded with 2X 48 port 100 MB Ethernet cards and 1 supervisor engine, it wont break the bank as badly as my previous 3560 has. But I am always open for suggestions, so please let me know . One question though, why 4500/6500 series over 4000/6000 series? On a side not, don't have to worry about space or weight, got a 48U rack recently, so i have a lot of space there. Noise, well the missus already has to live with the rest of the beasts, so how bad could it be? (its a joke, i know they are loud, but wont be running them 24/7 )

networker050184

Does that come with power supplies? What kind of sup? You might end up with CatOS which isn't going to do you much good on the study front. The chassis is going to be the cheap part, filling it with everything you need gets expensive.

As far as the 6000 is concerned its super old and you'd be just as well off getting the 6500 chassis as again thats the relatively cheap part. Not too sure on the 4000 though.

cerberos

Way too pricey, listen to networker... If not price then electricity!!! You don't wanna run something that will at least run over the 1000WAT! Latest Supervisor Engine for the 6500 series is the SUP720, alone costs over the $2000 and no Policy Feature Card and no MFSC (Forgive me if I typed it wrong) search for 720-3BXL, and latest Power supply for this thing runs at 8700WAT MAX! This is not forget about the line cards as well! Keep away! A 3560 or 3750 will do.

viper75

mikka1984 wrote: »

Hi Guys/Gals
I am looking into getting one of those baby to practice on. Cannot decide which one is the best bang for buck though. I am primarlily looking into experiencing with a switch that has the supervisor engine plus PVLANS and GLBP. I am rather inexperianced in those big switches, and since i am not on the networking team there is no way teh guys would let me touch any of those at work (even though they let me deploy additional distribution 3750s fine). So basically I am looking for the cheapest way to get that exposure to those. I had a brief look at the cisco website and i cannot see any difference in the technology supported between 4000 and 4500 or 6000 and 6500. Any help would be highly appreciated.:)

We got a High Roller in the house. My friend, I've had a lot of experience with these big boys.

They are big, heavy, EXPENSIVE, EXPENSIVE to operate (Your eletric bill is going to sky rocket) let alone having to make some electrical outlet changes in your house, where the switch will be plugged into. Loud as hell. If none of the above is an issue, then by all means go for a 6506 with a SUP720, dual powersupplies, a few PoE blades.

If all the above is an issue, then like someone else suggested before, you'll be ok with a range of Layer2\3 switches. 3550's - 3750's with an EMI image in them.

BTW...

The 4000 and 6000 switches are older than dirt. Don't even bother with them.

DPG

You can easily build a 6500 for less than the price of a 3560. This includes redundant supervisor modules and a few fastethernet modules. It will use more power (and a lot of space) but you wouldn't need it running 24/7 for lab use.

networker050184

DPG wrote: »

You can easily build a 6500 for less than the price of a 3560. This includes redundant supervisor modules and a few fastethernet modules. It will use more power (and a lot of space) but you wouldn't need it running 24/7 for lab use.

I've seen people make this claim, but its usually outdated hardware that doesn't support the features of a 3560/3750.

viper75

networker050184 wrote: »

I've seen people make this claim, but its usually outdated hardware that doesn't support the features of a 3560/3750.

+1 Therefore, it's wasted time, space and most important of all MONEY!!!

DPG

I am primarlily looking into experiencing with a switch that has the supervisor engine plus PVLANS and GLBP.

...........

networker050184

So why don't you spec it out for us?

DPG

2x Cisco 6509 Chassis = ~$200

4x Cisco WS-X6K-SUP2-2GE = ~$120

4x Cisco WS-X6348-RJ-45 = $75

2x Cisco WS-CAC-1300W = $50

2x 120v Power cables = $20

networker050184

I meant actual sources haha. Besides, I don't think you can even get one 6509 chassis for $200 on ebay much less a reputable seller. Maybe hunt and bid for a while you might get one.

DPG

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Nine Slot Chassis, WS-C6509

Also, OP might want to check Craigslist. I regularly see 6509's fully loaded for $100 to $250.

networker050184

Nice. That's cheaper than an ebay chassis plus a one year warranty. I'll have to price the whole thing out to see what it comes out to.

Either way, you are going to need a sup720 to get full GLBP support I believe. Could be wrong on that though.

Forsaken_GA

Yup, the chassis themselves aren't too terribly expensive. The real cost of all the modular chassis is in the supervisor, and the more advanced line cards. sup2's are common as hell, but won't have the feature support. Sup720-3bxl is pretty much the bare minimum for deployment these days in a 6500, and they're stll pricey. Line cards can get up there as well, all depends on what you need for features. fabric capable cards tend to run a whole lot more expensive than the ones that will use the internal backplane.

For study purposes, I'd aim for 3750's or 3560's (3560-E 's if you can get them at a reasonable price). The chassis modules gain you some geek cred, but that's about it. They're also a huge pain to resell once you no longer need them, due to the shipping considerations.

I'd also seriously do cost comparisons about renting rack time vs. buying hardware for practicing on the advance features. If you have large enough blocks of free time to actually make use of rental rack sessions, this is probably your better bet.

DPG

networker050184 wrote: »

Nice. That's cheaper than an ebay chassis plus a one year warranty. I'll have to price the whole thing out to see what it comes out to.

Either way, you are going to need a sup720 to get full GLBP support I believe. Could be wrong on that though.

I think you can only have one GLBP group with the SUP2.

DPG

The experience you would get using a real 6500 can be invaluable. They are EVERYWHERE and even though Cisco is moving away from the platform, I don't see them going away any time soon.

Forsaken_GA

DPG wrote: »

The experience you would get using a real 6500 can be invaluable. They are EVERYWHERE and even though Cisco is moving away from the platform, I don't see them going away any time soon.

It really depends. There aren't that many unique differences when working with the module chassis as opposed to the fixed configuration switches. Not since CatOS went away, anyway. Most deployments are moving away from the use of service line cards, such as FWSM's, NAM's, and Content Engines, preferring to move those out to separate devices. Most of the gains from going up to a modular switch are performance gains, not feature gains, and while that knowledge is certainly useful, it's not exactly trivial to emulate enough traffic in a lab setting to notice a difference. It's really not that steep of a learning curve. VSS and the ability to span port channels to different devices (I cannot for the life of me remember what Cisco calls this) are the major feature differences that pop off the top of my head.

Edit: Ah, now I remember, Multichassis Etherchannel, and it's part of VSS. I like VSS as a technology, but the split brain problems are damned annoying

mikka1984

Lol, quite a debate going on there. Still not sure which way should i go. I know for certain that if i ask the missus she would defo go for the smaller factor ones. She is already annoyed about the whole lab on our bedroom . Decisions, decisions

mikka1984

Oh, and thank you all who contributed

viper75

mikka1984 wrote: »

Lol, quite a debate going on there. Still not sure which way should i go. I know for certain that if i ask the missus she would defo go for the smaller factor ones. She is already annoyed about the whole lab on our bedroom . Decisions, decisions

Go for the smaller switches!!!!!!

mikej412

mikka1984 wrote: »

She is already annoyed about the whole lab on our bedroom. Decisions, decisions

Remember, it's not the size of the switch that matters -- it's how you use it.