Native or Hybrid?

todd.martin-02 · ‎02-08-2005

We are a large data center that hosts centralized netwrok services for 15 remote locations. each location servicing 10K-25K users.

Our infrastructure is planning an upgrade to 10G core. The core is made up of 6509's and 6513's. As we plan the migration we need to upgrade to Sup720's to support 10G and we are considering also moving to Native as well.

There have been lots of discussions on this topic with our customers and would like to ping the masses and gather their inputs on the pro's and con's of Native vs.Hybrid in a Enterprise data Center.

Thanks,

MICHAEL WAISBROT · ‎02-09-2005

As far as I know, the Sup720's only support Native IOS. We are also looking to upgrade and have been asking the same questions. Also, I have heard that is doesn't pay to switch to Native IOS before you ugrade to the sup720, because the format of the config is a bit different. So, if you plan to upgrade to the sup720 wait until then to switch to Native IOS

mbinzer · ‎02-10-2005

Hi,

the sup720 does support hybrid aswell.

The configuration format is obviousley different between native ios and a hybrid installation. If you move from hybrid to native your configuration will be lost so you should back it up first.

The format of the native ios configuration between i.e. sup2 and a sup720 are identical as far as i can say. There are some differences depending on what hardware you have. You may see some new commands ect.

Also it depends a little bit what versions of native ios you are running. On a sup2 a lot of people run 12.1(E) based code. The sup720 is only in 12.2SX supported. So you can expect a difference here similar to upgrading i.e. a 7200 router from ios 12.1E to 12.2S.

In respect to what you "should" go to. Native ios or a hybrid installation. As far as i know they are on feature parity. There are some differences, i.e. distributed switching, distributed earls are only supported in native ios.

If you have other cisco gear already in your network running ios than it is easier to have a uniform user interface to configure the devices.

At one point the general direction cisco was pushing for was Native IOS. I dont know if this still holds true or not.

thanks...

Matthias

jigneshr · ‎02-17-2005

Todd, there are bunch of issues related to converting from Hybrid to Native. The real doc you want to look at is at the following link:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_white_paper09186a00800c8441.shtml

This doc will give you everything you are looking for. The main disadvantages moving from Hybrid to Native are:

Failover slows down between SUPS

IOS CLI in the switching world is inferior to CatOS

You loose a lot of security capabilities that exist in CatOS

Hope that helps. If you need further info, you can contact jigneshr@sbcglobal.net.

peter.mark · ‎02-17-2005

The URL is only available to "Partners"

steven.jones · ‎05-19-2005

Click on the link which then takes you to the Message #401 page. In the URL window, replace the word partner with the word customer. Then reload the page. That should work.

paupot · ‎02-18-2005

The preferred way forward is Native (IOS). Less complicated support/maintenance on the configs - you don't need to maintain the switch engine and the routing engine separately, same 'look' and 'feel' as with other devices.

If you intend to move away from CatOS, I suggest to do so before installing the u720s - it will make life a bit easier.

regards

paul

NAVIN PARWAL · ‎03-13-2005

Folks,

How much configuration would be lost when moving from Hybrid to Native??? how much downtime are talking about in fixing the missing parts?

Thanks

paupot · ‎03-15-2005

Hi,

You would lose all config. You will need to install IOS, reboot and either load a pre-created config file or start typing.

hth

paul

charles.kim · ‎05-04-2005

I myself prefer the hybrid version, although there is a lot more functionality and configuration for QoS. One of the main reasons why I prefer the hybrid is that the layer 2 and layer 3 functions as you well know are separate. So in the case of a server farm environment, when you have to do maintenance to the msfc (i.e. code upgrade) you can upload and reload the MSFC without affecting layer 2 connectivity for all the hosts that are connected to the switch. Hosts particularly Microsoft, have a tendency to hang (imagine a microsoft cluster off of the same switch)...

my two cents

dean holroyd · ‎05-05-2005

i believe there is a tool on cco that will convert your catos config to an ios config with one click

jeisert · ‎05-05-2005

The tool is at: http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/Support/CatCfgConversion/catcfg_xlat.pl

It is nice but check line-by-line interface-by-interface comparing old CatOS to the new IOS setup. I am 3/4 through a migration and we "fork lift" our upgrades. By that I mean I prepped the spare sup 2s in our case in our lab recreating the entire box, then when you have your outage window just walk in and swap the sups. This way your backout is just putting back the old ones. We have a mix of trunking and a very complicated Vlan setup and for each pair of 65xx’s we spend about 6-8 man-hours verifying the configuration prior to the outage window this over 95% the mistakes we would have made. Remember more time spent planning and verifying the less the customer is out.

raju · ‎05-23-2005

Hi Jeisert,

This is a great tool. I have a 6509 with Hybrid OS , tried with saved configuration and it converted in to IOS .I'll try the same in Production environment in the weekend and let you . Is there any other precaution steps I need to take apart from backup of current running configuration before I try this conversion in the production setup (6509).

Thanks.

Raju

glgersc · ‎09-22-2005

This is great tool, and makes the conversion easier, but be aware it has a lot of bugs. (unless its been updated in the past six months.)

The conversion tool has issues with:

- token ring vlan config

- skips qos

- skips leading 'switchport' command on switched trunks

- skips switchport mode access

- skips any 6516-ge-tx config

- may skip vlan 1 in allowed vlans

Personally, I think native is the way to go. Yes, I still miss some of the CatOS port commands, but overall its way easier to deal with an IOS switch on a day-to-day basis.

Be sure to get familiar with the '|' and '/' commands to deal with the longer configs.

Two major caveats though:

Cisco does not spare Native IOS Sup2's. If you get a depot spare on 4 hour response, it will be hybrid and you'll have to convert it.

Some of the latest cards, like the 6148A series, are not support by Native IOS. The latest SXF stream has support, but isn't supported on Sup2's.

Greg

spyoung · ‎05-27-2005

My 2 cents..

In our enteprise DC's we have 10Gb cores, and 10Gb core/distribution, all running exclusively hybrid mode Cat 65xx's/MSFC+Sup720s - its tried and tested for us.

I agree with one previous poster who summarised neatly in bullet points. The seperation of L2 & L3 functionalilty is very beneficial - easier to troubleshoot issues, analyse and isolate problems quickly and also manage the devices day to day.

I find IOS at L2 is a pain to work with, and you dont get the same feeling of control and visibility of L2 like you do with CatOS.

Id stick with hybrid mode. But if you have a L3 core with only point to point routed links, I guess you dont care too much about L2 visibility. Then you would consider more carefully other factors like the failover time between Sup's to help decide native vs hybrid.

S