Adding to the core

[jdamon113]

Should not be to hard, I have tried several different configurations but, I'm looking for someone whom might have been in the same type of situation.

Here is the scope. I have a small Data center and due to bad advice, I have 3 Cisco 3850's as my Core and distribution Stack. I am in the process of acquiring a more robust solution but that will take another 6-8 months.

The Stack houses about 60 servers physical and Virtual, plus about 40 other network aware devices.The issue is my switches are hammered, all the time. They have dropped a few times and according to cisco tac This is normal.  cpu process history shows 70-95% all day. So my question is , I have a brand new Cisco 3650 with a 10G connection, is it possible to incorporate this into the core that would make it a useful addition and help take the load off the 3 3850's.

Thanks for anyone's help.

[sarabsin]

Hello,

You cannot have a switch stack containing a mix of Catalyst 3850 and Catalyst 3650 switches.

Where is layer3 routing happening? if its core switch stack , you may offload routing function by extending vlans  to probably  a good router or  maybe 3650 but that depends how much throughput of traffic for routing.

keeping 3850 core only layer 2 and inter vlan routing on 3650.

maybe even  move some servers  to 3650 depending on the load on 3650.

[jdamon113]

Thank You , that's a good Idea, I do have a new Router as well

The core is where Layer 3 takes place . Traffic is high 250 users with IP phone system

[sarabsin · Accepted solution]

No problem. Please make sure you have right model of router depending on throughput.

If throughput is Ok and the High CPU moves to new router then you may have to re-investigate High CPU , it could be due to other reason rather than throughput issue which is suspected by cisco tac.

Do you see High CPU interrupt? or just CPU high due to processes like "IP input" or arp.

can you post " show proc cpu sorted | ex 0.0"

Thanks,

Please rate it if helpful.