Is it C6500 series and C4500 necessary need reload every year?

[edgar_pascal]

Dear,

Is it C6500 series and C4500 series  necessary need reload every year?

Can you inform me, i need explaint to my boss due to maintenance schedule.

regards,

Edgar

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello Edgar,

until you don't need to upgrade IOS on a single processor chassis, you don't need such a yearly reload

A system can stay up 2-3 years with no problems.

Hope to help

Giuseppe

[burleyman]

I have 50 - 4500 switches and 3 - 6500 switches and they have been up and running 2 to 5 years with out a reboot. Not sure of the logic in thinking you need to reboot these every year? Are you seeing memory usage increase like a memory leak? or is the CPU rising? What was the reasoning for this?

Mike

[edgar_pascal]

Mike,

i need reset only for the maintenance schedule it is not cause high CPU or memory usage.

can you help me to explain more detail, sometime i hear router/switch need reset every 6 months or 12 month for better perfomance, clear buffer exc.

edgar

[edgar_pascal]

Giuseppe,

any recommendation statement from cisco to reset C6500/C4500 regulary every a year, two year only for maintain schedule?

i need to explain my boss.

edgar

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

Edgar

If it isn't broke then don't fix it. 6500/4500 switches are designed to be highly available so there is no need to reboot if there is no problem. Key thing with all switches is to keep records of what has been changed in the configuration since the last reload/reboot.

I have seen situations where a perfectly working switch has been rebooted and then it has been down for hours. Do you or your boss really want to explain to the CEO why you rebooted a perfectly good working switch ?

Jon

[burleyman]

I do not know of any Cisco or even industry recommendations or documentation that says a reset on a regular schedule is needed for maintenance, performance or any other reason. Can you direct me to anything you have seen that indicates differently?

Mike

[edgar_pascal]

Jon and Mike,

this point to ensure that rebooted switch only for maintainance schedule it is not necessary.

No increase performance except any case of high CPU, Memory, IOS upgrade exc. am i right?

edgar

[Giuseppe Larosa · Accepted solution]

Hello Edgar,

sorry if I have been unclear

as Jon and Mike have noted there is no recommendation/need to reload a switch of this category every year.

If you need to power off them for maintanance on the electrical power grid you can do it, but I recommend to do not suggest or imply that this is a needed /recommended step in networking industry.

It is not.

To be noted that if the devices have two power supplies connected to different lines they can stay up with only one PS (some C4000 models have 3 power supplies that changes slightly). So working on one power line per time allows for keeping up the devices.

And this is what is commonly done.

golden rule: don't touch what is working well for your own sake.

Hope to help

Giuseppe

[burleyman · Accepted solution]

Edgar,

You are correct, you do not need to reboot these switches as a maintneance task. Just rebooting the switches will not gain you anything with performance. The only time you would need to reboot these is is you were upgrading the IOS.

I hope this helps.

Mike

[edgar_pascal]

Hi Giuseppe, Mike and Jon,

it is very clear to me thanks for all suggest and information.

regards,

edgar

[burleyman · Accepted solution]

No problem, glad to help.

Please remember to rate helpful posts.

Mike