Is configuring VSS in Core switches good practice

[ciscoravikiran]

We have two cisco 4500-X series switches in Core with HSRP running. Two WAN routers are terminated on these along with two routers used for InterDC communication as shown in the diagram.

Can you please provide your inputs on if we can enable VSS on these Core switches and if its a good practice to do so. 

[David Castro F.]

Hello CiscoRavikiran,

I hope you are doing great,

Looking at your query, take into account the following, when you have the VSS set up you are unifying the control plane of both siwtches into 1, In VSS, both active and standby chassis use active chassis burnt-in MAC address and VLAN IP address. HSRP is no longer required. Basically you have one big logical switch the config is the same on both. So if SW1 goes down the SW2 will keep responding for the SVI and viceverza. Check the following link:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/switches/catalyst-6500-virtual-switching-system-1440/109573-vss-migration.html

With Nexus switches you could have vPC with HSRP and in different designs HSRP anycast since Nexus do not unify the control plane, but in the case of VSS it is shown as one switch.

keep me posted, I hope this clarifies your doubt,

Please rate the helpful answers!

Thanks,

David Castro,

[nazimkha]

VSS good practice and recommended option if you can port-channel the dual links from the WAN router and other devices.
The advantages of doing this is more aggregate bandwidth, no hsrp among others

If you cannot port-channel, I will just keep the way it is setup now