Design question in regard to the core switches!!!

[yorkhs]

I am currently designing a content switch network to support 125 servers farm with two 1GIG NICs in each server.

My dilemma is to choose between the core switches: Catalyst 6509 with Supervisor 720 Fabric MSFC3 PFC3A or Catalyst 4507R with Supervisor IV. A switch would have to guarantee none blocking switch fabric for 125 switches and high performance – the servers will have to able to transfer data at 1 GB without blockages and network performance degradation. This network has to be able to handle 150,000 concurrent sessions to the server farm.

Please advice on an appropriate switch for the core – price of the switch defiantly is a factor.

Thanks in advance!

[Prashanth Krishnappa]

Sup4's have 32 Gig backplane. So if you need wire speed with a 4507, you will need to buy 5, WS-X4306 cards which gives you 30 wire speed gig ports plus 2 Supervisor uplinks to a total of 32 non blocking ports.

In my opinion, unless you plan on buying multiple 4507s, you would be better off with 6500 with Sup720 and CEF720/DFC3 line cards.

[fullerms]

Catalyst 65xx platform with Sup 720 is a good choice. Even with the Cat65xx / Sup 720 combo, you need to invest in Fabric enabled line cards like the WS-X6748-GE-TX with Distributed forwarding cards (WS-F6700-DFC3A) to get the full rated performance.

If budget is a major factor, I would advise you to look at the Catalyst 4948 or the Catalyst 4948-10GE. These switches are full wire speed switches with non-blocking architecture. When you work out the cost pe port, you would be suprised considering the performance.

[aservin]

With the 6500 you can also add CSM blades for content networking.

-as