switch lab suggestions 3550 EMI - SMI ...

GOZCU

Hello, today i have started to study for Switch exam.Also I am about to build/ renew my lab. Currently i have 2 x 2950-24 switches. How many switches do i need more ? which layer 3 switch is your recommendation ? will 3550 series be enough ? there are more than 1 version of 3550, and which one is your recommendation ?

I am trying to spend as low as it is possible. And there is a big difference at price between 3550 and 3560 on ebay. what are your experiences and solutions ? GNS3 looks like will not work for my switch exam, it emulates routers...

bermovick

I picked up a 3550 for about $100 on ebay about a year ago - I think they've gotten cheaper since then. It was a non-PoE version since I don't need PoE, so that saves some.

If memory serves, the hardware didn't change between the EMI and SMI versions, only the ios image, and since the 3550 images are freely available from cisco now, I just upgraded myself to EMI . I only bought one. A second wouldn't have hurt, but if you can configure one and imagine what would happen if you configured the other the same way, you can manage without (layer 3 etherchannels)

The only real difference between the 3550 and 3560 you'll encounter for the SWITCH exam is that the 3550 can't do private vlans. Not really enough for the extra $400 a 3560 costs in most people's opinion.

GOZCU

thx. looking for 3550 now. it is about 90 dollars.

inscom.brigade

GOZCU wrote: »

thx. looking for 3550 now. it is about 90 dollars.

I remember 3550 has some trunking commands that the 2950 do not. I have not used a 2950 for awhile, i think it is somethinthing about dot1q, different encapsulation available. 2 3550 would be nicer to do the trunking commands. I think 2950 had a default encapsulation only.

RouteMyPacket

inscom.brigade wrote: »

I remember 3550 has some trunking commands that the 2950 do not. I have not used a 2950 for awhile, i think it is somethinthing about dot1q, different encapsulation available. 2 3550 would be nicer to do the trunking commands. I think 2950 had a default encapsulation only.

Correct, you have no option to trunk with encap dot1q because it is the only option available so a "switchport mode trunk" is all you need. You will also find this on 2960

bermovick

Ah, I forgot about ISL encapsulation, but I'll still put that under "imagine what would happen if you configured the other the same way" heh.

Roguetadhg

I have a question. I'd like to build a -overall- lab. Less equipment to buy, that would help me go with other tracks - Wireless, Voice.

With that said, I've been looking at the 3550-24Port inline power-SMI. My question, are they any operational differences between what's suggested -

3550-48-EMI and a 3550-24-EMI/PoE

I've been reading the product sheet, and it seems to be the same: Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series Intelligent Ethernet Switches  [Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series Switches] - Cisco Systems.

Minus, less ports.

networker050184

Ports and power are the only differences that I am aware of.

GOZCU

hey guys, thanks a lot many times i learned a lot. I will try to get 2x3550. unfortunately here in poland, users are selling them more expensive. It is around 220 - 280 dollars. Same ones are 90 dollars at ebay...

astrogeek

I have three 3550 48 port switches and one 3550 24 port switch - all were bought as SMI but upgraded to EMI.

I can't tell the difference except the 24 port version I have supports POE, which I'm not even using right now. You really don't need any more than 24 ports so I'd just go by what is cheapest. SMI switches are usually cheaper and a lot of people on ebay tend to upgrade them to EMI then resell them at a premium....but you can do the upgrade yourself very easily.

Having two 3560's would be nice because they support private Vlans while 3550's do not, but for the price I don't think it's really worth spending that much more - If you want you could always rent a rack online of 3560's for what the 3550's don't support. 3560's also auto-detect if you are using a straight or cross-over cable between the switches, whereas 3550's don't. So a 3560 can use a straight cable with another switch, which is good to know when ordering custom cables. I had to cut the heads off of mine and recable them because I thought the 3550's would auto-detect the cabling type. I think the same is true for 2950's and 2960 switches.

Just one comment, you can still use GNS3 with your physical switches if you are interested. You would just need some additional NIC cards on a PC or server to connect the physical switches to the emulated routers in GNS3. But most labs only deal just with routers or switches so that's not a must have, but if you are interested that is possible

Nate--IRL--

astrogeek wrote: »

Just one comment, you can still use GNS3 with your physical switches if you are interested. You would just need some additional NIC cards on a PC or server to connect the physical switches to the emulated routers in GNS3. But most labs only deal just with routers or switches so that's not a must have, but if you are interested that is possible

Just got 2 3550s and I'm looking into trunking to my Laptop and using the Linux 802.1Q driver to map multiple VLANs to virtual interfaces in Linux. But of course, I forgot to buy a console cable, so I just gotta wait for that to get going.

Nate

GOZCU

astrogeek wrote: »

3560's also auto-detect if you are using a straight or cross-over cable between the switches, whereas 3550's don't.

wow, nice to know. thx.

Roguetadhg

Yeah. I've heard it's possible to break out and use a physical switch along side with GNS3. I'd have to invest in a new motherboard (not enough pci-express ports)

Im sure there's a way to virtualize hosts, along side with GNS3. It would be a heck of a lot easier to move than a rack full of equipment! And more of a multasker.

I'd still like to get the equipment to get hands on time with it.

Nate--IRL--

I use VPCS to simulate hosts in GNS3 - Also, as I mentioned above, if you use a 802.1q driver you can turn your computer/laptop single NIC interface into many virtual interfaces, as it will become a trunk port on your computer. No idea how to do that in windows however.

Nate

wave

I'm near the end of my SWITCH studies and have had no problems with the SMI to EMI upgrade, it worked fine. Save yourself some $ and go for the SMI switches.

irex

upgrade SMI to EMI question. For Catalyst
3550
can you upgrade the image without a service contract with cisco? For free that is?
I have 12.3 routers I wanted to upgrade to 12.4 and a few months back when i was trying to
do this I realized to do it legitimately was going to cost a bit more than I wanted to spend
for a non production setup i only meant to use as a study lab

ciscoman2012

Roguetadhg wrote: »

Yeah. I've heard it's possible to break out and use a physical switch along side with GNS3. I'd have to invest in a new motherboard (not enough pci-express ports)

Im sure there's a way to virtualize hosts, along side with GNS3. It would be a heck of a lot easier to move than a rack full of equipment! And more of a multasker.

I'd still like to get the equipment to get hands on time with it.

You can always use USB to NIC adapters. I bought three of them for $15 each and they work great.

Amazon.com: TRENDnet USB to 10/100Mbps Adapter TU2-ET100: Electronics

bermovick

irex wrote: »

upgrade SMI to EMI question. For Catalyst
3550
can you upgrade the image without a service contract with cisco? For free that is?

I'm guessing since the 3550's are EOL or something. I know for all my switches (2950, 3550), the IOSs were freely available last I checked.