Catalyst 9000

[Orianrm49@gmail.com]

What are the Pros and Cons of the Catalyst 9000 series?

[Julio E. Moisa]

Hi

I think there are no cons. The new catalyst 9000 have many new great features, the following links could be useful:

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-9300-series-switches/nb-09-cat-9k-faq-cte-en.pdf

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-9300-series-switches/nb-09-cat-9k-aag-cte-en.pdf

:-)

[Orianrm49@gmail.com]

What are some of the risks I face by upgrading from a catalyst 6500 or 6800?

[Julio E. Moisa]

Hi

I don't see any risk upgrading from 6500 to 6800, they have similar features, now if you are going to upgrade i suggest this link, you can get a better point of view from Cisco's recommendations:

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/assets/prod/switches/cisco-switch-selector-how-to/index.html

Select Campus & Branches, then select Upgrade > backbone, based on your current device it will tell you what device is proper to upgrade.

Hope it is useful

:-)

[Leo Laohoo]

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Orianrm49@gmail.com wrote:

Why would I as a customer want upgrade from a catalyst 6500 to a catalyst 9000?

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1.  The cost of the maintenance contract for 6500 has increased recently.  

2.  Support for 10-, 40- and 100 Gbps links.

3.  EoS for the chassis, supervisor card and associated line cards

4.  If you need features are only found in IOS for the 9K, then you've got no choice.  

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Orianrm49@gmail.com wrote:

And what risks do I face by upgrading?

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1.  Instability of the code. 

2.  Hardware bugs.  

3.  Instability of the code.

[Toivo]

One con is the lack of VSS or VPC on the 9300 and 9400 Catalysts, so you need a L3 routed path from your closets to the core switches. Can't do multi-chassis LACP. Hoping this will get fixed sooner rather than later, but it's a pretty huge limitation right now.

[Alessio Andreoli]

As i heard, Stackwise Virtual is de facto replacing pretty well VSS-like systems. So this might not be a true cons..

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@Toivo wrote:

One con is the lack of VSS or VPC on the 9300 and 9400 Catalysts, so you need a L3 routed path from your closets to the core switches. Can't do multi-chassis LACP. Hoping this will get fixed sooner rather than later, but it's a pretty huge limitation right now.

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[Leo Laohoo]

No one knows your network more than you. To some people they are happy to jump into and invest in the 9K regardless of the purchasing cost and on-going cost. To some people the 9K is too expensive. There are some people who are reluctant to go to this model because of a lot of uncertainties. There are also concerns about how unstable the code is and how long it will take before it becomes mature.
9K is a significant leap.
If your company has money, the 9K is the way to go.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

In summary:

For Pros, with the 9K series, you generally get the latest and greatest, for the price, and often more performance/capacity for the same price. Also, being new, such equipment might have the longest remaining support life.

For Cons, you get to effectively become a Cisco gamma tester for hardware and/or software.

Usually, FCS releases don't have glaring bugs, and when bugs are found, Cisco also usually fixes them pretty quickly.

If your network is such that you can accept a possible impact, buying into the latest is often the better long term strategy. However, if stability is crucial to your network, you'll probably want to hold off in jumping into a brand new series.

The decision becomes difficult if you cannot postpone your purchase. An alternative might be to see if you can lease newly obtained older equipment until you feel the stability of the newest equipment is such you believe it's stable enough to acquire.

[tweep9141983]

Hello,

Adding into this, my situation is upgrading from the below switches.

Core Switch - WS-C4948

Access Switch - WS-C3750G-48PS

to this new 9K switches..

Core Switch - C9500-40X

Access Switch - C9300-48P

Upon getting the quotation for the switches, we are instead planning to just get more Cisco 9300-48P and use it as Core Switches due to costs.

Now my questions is, can Cisco 9300-48P handle the core capabilities as the current core switch we have WS-C4948?

Let me know your thoughts and thanks in advance.

[Julio E. Moisa]

Hi

Yes, a C9300 can easily replace a Cisco 4948. Now if you are going to use all the routing suite, I suggest request it with Network advantage license. You could consider a C9300-48T model, the model 48P include PoE on its ports, not sure if you want to use this capability in the Core layer, it is more seen in access layer. Other suggestion to consider could be the model: C9300-48UXM, it includes multigiga ports. 

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-9300-series-switches/datasheet-c78-738977.html

Hope it is useful

:-)

[tweep9141983]

Thanks so much!  Great info and help!

Another question, just a quick one (hope it's ok to put in this thread as well).

We also have 2 x 4 stacked switches below.

Stack1

Cisco WS-C3750G-48PS
Cisco WS-C3750G-48PS
Cisco WS-C3750G-48PS
Cisco WS-C3750X-48P
Stack 2

Cisco WS-C3750G-48PS
Cisco WS-C3750G-48PS
Cisco WS-C3750X-48P
Cisco WS-C3750X-48P

You will notice the combination of G and X in the switch stacks.  We will only be replacing the G due to end of support (JAN 2018), and will retain the X until OCT 2021.  Can I easily replace the existing G switches in the stack with the 9300s and get it to work with the X switches?

I am also open to other suggestions.  Thanks so much in advance.

[Deepak Kumar]

Yes,
You can replace easily without any issue. Only you have check the switch priority and switch number configuration.


Thanks,
Deepak

[Joseph W. Doherty]

You're saying you can stack the 9300s with 3750s?

I didn't find a note about that, but did find on the Cisco Q&A (https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-9300-series-switches/nb-09-cat-9k-faq-cte-en.pdf):

Q. Can I stack Cisco Catalyst 9300 with the 3850?
A. These switches do not stack together. Features are packaged differently between these platforms, they use different CPU architectures, and the platforms do not have the same scaling, making stacking with them impossible.

So, I would be a doubtful that you could mix them in the same stack.

[tweep9141983]

Hi Guys,

I know this is going a bit out of topic but since you guys were able to help me quickly, I will ask the question anyway.

The situation is our budget proposal was denied for getting the Cisco 9300 switches.  Our company is a bit tight at the moment (sigh).  Can the WS-C2960X-48FPD-L replace our existing WS-C3750G-48PS?

I am also looking at the Cisco SG model switches, anything that would be cheaper than the 9300s actually.

Now I am out here again trying to make ends meet for both managers (Finance and IT dept). :(

Any help will be appreciated.