6500 Useful for a CCNA Lab?

I may be able to get my hands on a 6500 series device, will this be useful for a CCENT/CCNA lab? Price tag of $100 seemed like it was a good deal.

- Jinuyr

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Comments

Somnipotent

That's a huge switch. Does it come with line cards or is it $100 for just the chassis? Could be useful for CCNP but CCNA, it's a bit of an overkill.

Jinuyr

Bells and whistles. It was a retired core switch.

RTmarc

Do you have a 208/220v plug in your house?

MrXpert

RTmarc wrote: »

Do you have a 208/220v plug in your house?

I think he's American in which case, wouldn't it be 110V?

RTmarc

Most circuits in a residence will be 110v; which is exactly my point. Unless he has a 208/220v circuit in his house he's going to have trouble keeping the switch powered. 208/220v is common in the business setting here.

NetworkVeteran

Jinuyr wrote: »

I may be able to get my hands on a 6500 series device, will this be useful for a CCENT/CCNA lab? Price tag of $100 seemed like it was a good deal.

- Jinuyr

Yeah, a 6500 is helpful for the CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE. The key would be ensuring the supervisor engine it comes with supports a modern IOS image and not legacy CatOS.

Jinuyr

Power is not that much of a problem. So long as it has a form of usefulness towards my certification, it's okay.

Thanks for the input folks!

chrisone

If you mean one 6500 for your CCNA studies then no it will not help you. You need a lab with multiple routers and switches. You need to play with multiple switches for STP, etherchannel, etc. You need multiple routers to recieve routes and test failover scenarios with dynamic routing protocols, etc.

i say get it for 6500 practice and add it to your overall lab that should consist of multiple switches and routers.

NetworkVeteran

You need a lab with multiple routers

GNS3 provides that.

You need a lab with multiple routers and switches.

You can carve a 6500 up into multiple virtual switches, again, with a modern IOS.

chrisone

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

GNS3 provides that.

You can carve a 6500 up into multiple virtual switches, again, with a modern IOS.

Yeah GNS3 is obvious, but it doesnt run inside a 6500 now does it?

Virtual switches inside a 6500? thats honestly pretty cool, how is it done and what IOS does that? Is there a specific supervisor needed? I am eager to know , thanks!

or are you talking about VRF? , which is virtual routing.

NetworkVeteran

chrisone wrote: »

Virtual switches inside a 6500? thats honestly pretty cool, how is it done and what IOS does that? Is there a specific supervisor needed? I am eager to know , thanks!

Yes, VRF-Lite is nifty for getting multiple "routers" out of a 6500. I thought there might be a way to rig a similar thing using L2 VFIs, and there is, but only with the Supervisor 2T. Which he is not getting for $100! And most systems in the wild only have a 720.

It is worth noting that the 6500 reliably tunnels L2 protocols like CDP, unlike the 3550/3560. That'd make it a nice invisible cross-connect for emulated GNS3 routers and real switches.

TehToG

RTmarc wrote: »

Most circuits in a residence will be 110v; which is exactly my point. Unless he has a 208/220v circuit in his house he's going to have trouble keeping the switch powered. 208/220v is common in the business setting here.

That's funny. In the UK we use 220V for home and 110V for business settings. It's pretty common for power supplies to be auto switching though. Infact I just checked and this is. There is an issue perhaps with the fact that this thing has a 16Amp draw. It'll be pricey to run and not ideal, but it'll work.

DPG

I have run 6500's fully loaded and they only used 4A@120V. This was with a SUP720-3BXL. For $100 he is probably getting one with a SUP2 or even a SUP1A.

silverbullet

Wow! That's a fantastic price for a 6500 series switch.
I hope it's not just the power supply

It will help for your CCNA studies but multiple lesser
devices are going to prove more valuable.
It's worth ensuring you get a supervisor with the
switch as that is the most expensive bit (the 720 used
to retail at over $30,000)
Also, make sure you have an Ethernet blade in the chassis -
at least one anyway. Also, as a bonus your may get a MSFC.
This will allow you to practice inter-vlanning.