Cisco 6500

I am reading Network Warrior right now and I am on the section about VSS. This is very interesting and I would really like to lab it. Does anybody run 6500s in their lab? Seem very expensive but the labs would be nice to do.

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shodown

just at the real work labs, I have never seen any 6500's in anyones home lab. They have different power requirements though i'm sure there are ways around that and different power supply modules.

Trifidw

I don't think many of us could afford to purchase and run 2x 6500's to try out VSS and a theoretical understanding will suffice. Incidentally, I am looking forward to upgrading ours at work to VSS.

chrisone

I just got done implementing 2 6513's at our datacenter using VSS. VSS makes life so much simpler! I had to learn from the tech pdfs off cisco's website. I also did a lil studying from various outlets like , youtube examples, tech blogs, and the network warrior book as well. It is very easy to understand and config.

Follow these links if you would like to understand the 6500 and VSS a bit more.

1. The Q&A on VSS is excellent! Virtual Switching System (VSS) Q&A* [Cisco Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System 1440] - Cisco Systems
2. VSS white paper http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps9336/white_paper_c11_429338.pdf
3. This is the main and only PDF you need for 6500 related stuff. Its is 1400 pgs deep, I have read most of it. A lot of it covers stuff already covered in other cisco professional level cert studies. I would say i have read like 800 plus pages from this pdf. Catalyst 6500 Release 12.2SX Software Configuration Guide - Cisco Systems

Enjoy my friend!

Shanman

I know they have different power requirements. That was in the earlier chapter. lol

Thanks for the links. I hope some day I get a chance to get hands on experience with VSS. This looks sweet!!!! I know I know... I am a dork

but I love this stuff. Just wish we were running something like this at work.

Does anybody else feel like I do? The more I read and the more I learn new concepts and deeper foundation of concepts that was taught with the CCNA the more I realize I don't know crap....

cisco_trooper

Shanman wrote: »

Does anybody else feel like I do? The more I read and the more I learn new concepts and deeper foundation of concepts that was taught with the CCNA the more I realize I don't know crap....

LOL. Just wait. It gets worse before it gets better.

chrisone

It becomes an addiction for real!

earweed

It gets a lot worse. Then you'll find yourself working somewhere with Cisco Nexus devices. They are on a whole nother level.

The 6500's wouldn't be a good choice for a home lab. Expensive, massive power hogs, heat generating, and the vents are on the sides.

instant000

Shanman wrote: »

Does anybody else feel like I do? The more I read and the more I learn new concepts and deeper foundation of concepts that was taught with the CCNA the more I realize I don't know crap....

Yes. We really don't know much. But, the positive is that you can continue learning

Fiah

earweed wrote: »

It gets a lot worse. Then you'll find yourself working somewhere with Cisco Nexus devices. They are on a whole nother level.

QFT

My Uni is upgrading to Nexus units and moving the 6500's out of core duty.

Shanman

I am on the chapter of Nexus right now. Very interesting stuff. It seems that everything is a service with Nexus that must be turned on before you can use it. Again I feel like I am falling down a hole and never going to see the light again.

I really do feel stupid the more I learn. If you don't love this stuff I don't know how you could survive. I work as a network tech with one other guy for school district for about 2 years now and I still feel like a baby cutting his teeth. Maybe after I finish the CCNP I will feel different but then again their is always VoIP and MPLS to learn.

Someday I would like to experience the CCIE journey but it will be years before I am ready for that.

ColbyG

VSS scares me too much to implement by choice. Sharing a control plane in my core/distribution terrifies me.

down77

I actually have a coworker who was given a 6509 with Sup720 (and various line cards) for use at his house. A large retailer we did a migration project for (6500s with VSS, migrated to Nexus 7k) signed off on allowing him to keep one of the chassis as long as he was able to provide a certificate of destruction for the flash cards on the sup modules. We ended up taking out more than a dozen of those units! I would hate to see his power bill

Keep up with the studies! The more you learn/lab the less it feels like a black hole and more like a familiar friend.

Shanman

After reading about nexus I was very impressed. The flexibility and redundancy is amazing. I wish I could get my hands on some of these 7ks

earweed

Shanman wrote: »

After reading about nexus I was very impressed. The flexibility and redundancy is amazing. I wish I could get my hands on some of these 7ks

$$$$$$$$$$$

Kelkin

I am playing with a pair of 7010s as we speak.. mmm VDCs.. mmm 10G Line rate cards.. drool.. annoying my wr mem doesnt work anymore but thats ok!

Shanman

Yeah I read that they did not bring that command from IOS to the nexus os. I also seen that the range command is gone too. You just put a - between the interface numbers. The is cool instead of typing range.

VDCs look really cool. Kinda crappy that you can only have 4 tho. Maybe if I am lucky I will get to touch one

earweed

I've gotten to touch a lot of nexus gear where I've been working. Unfortunately my job description doesn't include configuring them, just installing and cabling.

Trifidw

ColbyG wrote: »

VSS scares me too much to implement by choice. Sharing a control plane in my core/distribution terrifies me.

But they work fine as a single unit with milliseconds in the fail over time IIRC? Cisco have been pushing us towards VSS on our 6500's for a few years now and we've always replied back "do they support dual sups yet?" and they have finally (although half arsed) added support for it.

Are people starting to use the Nexus 7000 for core and distribution then?

Kelkin

Trifidw wrote: »

Are people starting to use the Nexus 7000 for core and distribution then?

Ive been in a few environments where they used 7ks as core/distribution layer.. a vdc for each on the same chassis and have 5k/2ks for access layer.

Shanman

Kelkin wrote: »

Ive been in a few environments where they used 7ks as core/distribution layer.. a vdc for each on the same chassis and have 5k/2ks for access layer.

I am assuming that this is a datacenter. Do larger companies ever deploy them? Just curious what is the price tag on a 7k?

ColbyG

Trifidw wrote: »

But they work fine as a single unit with milliseconds in the fail over time IIRC? Cisco have been pushing us towards VSS on our 6500's for a few years now and we've always replied back "do they support dual sups yet?" and they have finally (although half arsed) added support for it.

Are people starting to use the Nexus 7000 for core and distribution then?

Right, they work great on paper and in most situations (with mature code). My fear is that a bug/issue affecting a single chassis now has the potential to affect both chassis. So, IMO, this takes away from your redundancy. One of our customers had a ~4 hour outage due to some VSS issue/weirdness. Every port on the pair was affected. TAC eventually had them reboot the chassis in the right order and things came up.

The 7K is very popular. My company sells many more 7Ks than 6500s at this point. IMO, the 7K has many benefits over the 6500. The first, and probably most important, is 10g density. The 6500 doesn't come remotely close to the 7K. Another, which fits this discussion is vPC. vPC is the Nexus solution for multi-chassis etherchannels. Though it differs from VSS in that each 7K is still logically separate. They aren't sharing a control plane which, theoretically, makes them more resilient to a single bug. vPC is more complex and has a lot more knobs as well, which could be considered a bad thing, depending on your outlook.