6500 VSS Line Cards

[paulhughes5]

Hello all.

I am at the initial stages of a new HQ LAN build and would like to get some costs into my head.  I'm tempted to look at deploying a VSS but I need to confirm what line cards are supported in this configuration.

Do all the line cards need to be X67xx?  The basic X61xx cards we normally use for 100/1000 copper connections are half the price of the X67xx version so if I can get away with using them it would be great.

I'm sure this is a simple question but Id prefer to have it confirmed by someone who knows for sure.

Thanks

Paul

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

Paul

Unfortunately no, only the 67xx modules are supported with VSS, see Table 1 from this link -

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps9336/prod_qas0900aecd806ed74b.html

Having said that it does depend on what you are using the 6500s for. For example if you were using for end devices such as PCs etc. these are only single honed so a VSS system really wouldn't help in that instance. If the supervisor failed in the chassis your PC was connected to for example then the whole chassis is dead including the linecards (unless of course you have dual sups in each chassis) so your PC has no network connectivity.

VSS is useful for the situation where you dual hone connections to both chassis such as servers or switch uplinks from the access-layer and in these siituation you would want the 67xx modules anyway as the 61xx and 65xx modules are quite heavily oversubscribed.

Jon

[Jonathancert_2]

I am also looking to implementing VSS in the future.  Since i have the following modules:

Distributed Forwarding Card WS-F6700-DFC3C  

I shouldn't have a problem, correct?

Jonathan,

[Jon Marshall]

Jonathan

You won't have a problem with those cards.

Bear mind though that -

a) you need the VS-SUP720-10G-3C or VS-SUP720-10G-3CXL ie. the normal SUP720 will not work

b) the VSL link is made up of 10Gbps connections. You can use the sup onboard connections but if you also want to use a linecard then you need either the 8 or 16 10Gbps port module because as Leo pointed out the 6704 10Gbps module cannot be used for the VSL link. It can be used as a normal linecard in a VSS system though.

Jon

[Jonathancert_2]

I only have VS-S720-10G-3C SUPs, so I should be good.  Thanks for the info.

Jonathan,

[Leo Laohoo]

One more thing:  If you have the remote plan of upgrading your Supervisor card to a Sup2T some time in the future, stay away form the 6708-10GE or you'll cry.

[Leo Laohoo]

You can't use 6704-10GE to form a VSS link.