How do I identify cisco switch, router and firewall?

[alemayehu]

Hi Everyone,

How do I identify cisco switch, router and firewall from each other by looking at them at first glance in the server room?

Is there a way to identify them from each other other than how they are connected and where the cable is going?

I may not be shown the front which might say router, switch or firewall. Most likely i will be tested randomly such as, can you tell me which on e is router, switch or fire wall. 

I would really appreciate if there is different ways to identify them by looking at them at first glance. 

If here is a picture, article or video that shows the difference please do suggest. I tried searching everywhere and i couldn't find one.

regards,

Alex

[balaji.bandi]

show version can give you some guidance :

Catalyst - Switches (most of the world) - new Cat 9800 different case.

ASR / ISR - Routers

ASA - firewall

Nexus - DC Switches.

[Rob Ingram]

@alemayehu get to know the names of the Cisco products. For switches they are called Catalyst or Nexus, routers are ASR/ISR and Cisco Firewalls are called ASA or Firepower/FTD/Secure Firewall.

A switch will likely have a lot of interfaces, patched in to endpoints (computers, servers, printers etc), in an enterprise enviroment you'd have more switches than routers of firewalls. With multiple edge/access layer switches, these are uplinked centrally to either a core or aggregation layer switches.

Look at the Cisco website for the relevant section of switches, routers and firewalls and compare the difference.

https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/networking/switches/index.html

https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/networking/sdwan-routers/index.html

https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/security/firewalls/index.html

[RedNectar]

Hi @alemayehu ,

Welcome to my nightmare for the past 30 years. As an instructor, I rarely need to visit Data Centres, but when I do I am bewildered by the arrangement of equipment that I see, some of it still plugged in because "it was part of some deal" but possibly not used. Possibly NEVER used (think Nexus 1000V).

I may well be able to recognise the equipment if a console cable was plugged in (as @balaji.bandi was suggesting) but that is NOT what you were asking.  I may well be able to configure most of it, but visually recognising what is what... that is a real challenge.

To make it worse, some equipment like a Nexus 9300 behaves totally differently if it is configured with ACI Firmware as opposed to NXOS - and even then, it may be configured purely as a L2 switch or may be routing between many networks.  It depends on how it is configured.

So, what you need is EXPERIENCE. And don't be afraid to ask questions, even if it shows your lack of experience. If this worries you, get crafty with your questions. Instead of saying "Which of these is the Firewall?" ask "So which firewall are working on today?"

I hope this helps.

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[Leo Laohoo]

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@alemayehu wrote:
I will be thrown in to the server room to identify which is which and i would really appreciate if you can give me a tip to identify them by looking at them at first glance.

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Alex,

This is cheating.  I am not getting involved in this.