Nexus 3524 vs Catalyst 4500-X

[Harsha A.]

Hello Experts,

I am trying to build a simple lab with collapsed core.

Catalyst 4500-X seems to be an ideal choice for our lab environment but I am also inclined towards Nexus 3524.

Agreed that Nexus 3524 is more or less like an Access switch in the Data Center environment, it fits my budget and meets the following requirements:

1. 10G switchports.

2. Supports Multicast (PIM/IGMP Snooping and Querying)

My access switches are going to be 2960X (PoE).

Now my concern is what features am I trading off if I go with Nexus 3524 instead of Catalyst 4500-X.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Harsha

[Philip D'Ath · Accepted solution]

You use a 4500-X when you can afford it.  You use a Nexus 3524 when you can't.

I am not a fan of Nexus switches.

[Harsha A.]

Thanks Philip. I believe it all comes down to the feature set and the budget :) 

[Florin Barhala]

Hello Philip,

Without starting a flame or a long thread here what are Nexus SWs weak points when compared to traditional IOSs SWs?

Thanks!

[Philip D'Ath]

The 4500 has a lot more buffering for a start.  This is important when you have 10G and 1G connected devices.  When a 10G device starts talking to a 1G device you chew through the buffers very quickly.  The Nexus 3524 is ok for 10G to 10G ports, but the very limited buffering means you can quickly start dumping packets when going from 10G to 1G.

The 4500 can do a lot of access functions, like vlan translation, as well as core functions.  The Nexus 3524 can only do core functions.

You can VSS two 4500-X's together, and Etherchannel across them without thinking twice about it.  The Nexus 3524 uses VPC to the same thing, but there are a lot of complications when it comes to layer 3.  The Nexus design guide is many hundreds of pages long as a result of these complications with the design.

[Florin Barhala]

Copy that - thanks for the feedback!

[Joanna -10Gtek]

Hi Harsha,

I noticed that you used this Cisco switches, it may be necessary for the transceiver or DAC, I hope i can give you the best suggestion and recommended a store: www.sfpcables.com / www.10gtek.com

I hope it's useful for you!