06-21-2021 07:36 PM
Dear Community
Kindly ask, can Cisco Catalyst 9300-24UX-A connect and work with Dell Storage DD3300?
is 9300 support iSCSI
I design the 9300-24UX-A as the Server Farm Switch is it possible?
Thank you all in advanced
any suggestions are appreciated
Best Regards,
Solved! Go to Solution.
06-22-2021 01:07 AM - edited 06-22-2021 03:17 PM
@febryoponcosulistyo wrote:
could you please explain furthermore what the meaning of SLOW things down is when we use C9300 as the Server Farm Switch?
Catalyst switches have very shallow per-port buffers. This is intentional because Catalyst switches were not meant-to nor designed-to service high-speed and "hitless" data traffic from servers.
Even with these facts, it does not stop people from deploying Catalyst switches to do DC work. QoS is an effective system of "balancing" the amount of traffic entering and leaving the switch. Without a suitable QoS configuration once the port buffer gets full any un-policed incoming traffic will get dropped by the truckload. If the port buffer is about to get full, QoS slows down the incoming traffic thereby giving the switch time to process the egress traffic.
This is what I mean by "slowing things down".
Cisco's Nexus portfolio of switches are on a class of their own. They were designed specifically for DC work and push server traffic at line rates or no QoS involved.
06-21-2021 11:39 PM
@febryoponcosulistyo wrote:
I design the 9300-24UX-A as the Server Farm Switch is it possible?
Yes, as long as the Catalyst 9300 series family of switches is configured with the correct QoS.
And yes, it will SLOW things down.
06-22-2021 12:12 AM
Hi Leo
Thank you for your response
could you please explain furthermore what the meaning of SLOW things down is when we use C9300 as the Server Farm Switch?
and can C9300 connect and server storage such as Dell DD3300?
Thank you
06-22-2021 01:07 AM - edited 06-22-2021 03:17 PM
@febryoponcosulistyo wrote:
could you please explain furthermore what the meaning of SLOW things down is when we use C9300 as the Server Farm Switch?
Catalyst switches have very shallow per-port buffers. This is intentional because Catalyst switches were not meant-to nor designed-to service high-speed and "hitless" data traffic from servers.
Even with these facts, it does not stop people from deploying Catalyst switches to do DC work. QoS is an effective system of "balancing" the amount of traffic entering and leaving the switch. Without a suitable QoS configuration once the port buffer gets full any un-policed incoming traffic will get dropped by the truckload. If the port buffer is about to get full, QoS slows down the incoming traffic thereby giving the switch time to process the egress traffic.
This is what I mean by "slowing things down".
Cisco's Nexus portfolio of switches are on a class of their own. They were designed specifically for DC work and push server traffic at line rates or no QoS involved.
06-22-2021 06:07 AM
Hi Leo
thank you for you kind help I mark your answer as solution
once again thank you
have a nice day
06-23-2021 09:38 AM - edited 06-23-2021 09:42 AM
Although, as Leo notes, the Nexus series are the switches designed for DC usage, some Catalyst switches don't perform too badly in such a role (remember there was a time before there were Nexus switches). Generally, the Catalyst chassis switches, with the "right" line cards and/or supervisors, again, worked fairly well. Catalyst "fixed" switches, (most of such, but not all [i.e. there were a couple of "fixed" switches which had the guts of a chassis Catalyst, e.g. 4900M, 6840]), were really only suitable for user edge deployments where the traffic, per port, is usually much less than found on a server edge port. The 9300, basically, is one of the current gen Catalyst "fixed" switches.
Not ignoring the foregoing, it is possible/practical to use something like a 9300 connected to a busy server? Perhaps, perhaps not (also possibly more the latter than the former).
Sometimes "tuning" the switch's port buffering and/or using "uplink" ports, rather than using "ordinary" switch edge ports, can allow the switch to better support a very busy/active edge device ports.
Most Enterprise 21st century switches' ports are capable of "wire speed" with, or without, QoS enabled. What's often lacking in "user edge" switches is port buffering resources and/or "better" QoS support (for "better" management of congestion).
BTW, there is a "kind" of switch, that often has better/more hardware support for supporting high capacity Ethernet than a "LAN" edge switch, but possibly not as well as a "DC" switch, nor possibly not as expensive, either. That would be a "MetroE" kind of switch.
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