C9500 L3 switch - Pro/Cons disable ip routing

[Charlie Grey]

if i got a C9500-24Y4C, but for so reason to be use only as L2, (no L3 routed links and no SVIs), should i run 'no ip routing' to convert it to L2 or keep ip routing enabled?

what is the recommended?

[balaji.bandi · Accepted solution]

If this switch does no hold any Layer 3 VLAN (other than management vlan) and not perform any Layer 3 routing  (as per information you do not need it)

if you using no ip routing, use default gateway for the Management vlan to access switch to make configuration changes using SSH.

Pros - always if you do not need feature disable it, it increase performance of the router, less security risk, 

cons -not that i can think of any .

[MHM Cisco World]

This high end SW' and use mainly as Core SW

The Core SW need to have ip routing inorder to do some inter-vlan and run IGP or BGP.

Disable it make it as l2 SW (which is low end such as 9200 and 9300)

MHM

[Charlie Grey]

if the switch is to be used as L2 only to extend more distribution ports,  but the downstream number of access switches ~60-80, w this load, do u think it's safe to go w 9300 Vs 9500?

from the datasheet, the 9300 is position more as an access layer switch and not at distribution layer.

any comments?

[MHM Cisco World]

check this below 
the 9000 family where it used and notice 9500 is fixed but 9400 is modular 

MHM

[Charlie Grey]

already thought abt this, but due to space constraint, cannot deploy chassis switch.

So is 9300 model robust enough to use to add more distribution ports?

[MHM Cisco World]

the 9500 as I show is fixed not modular 
and in SW you need to know number of downlink which I check there is 9500X series can have up to 60 ports 
and there is Uplink that can handle all this traffic and again the 9500X <<- X is powerful

But to get correct answer contact cisco, they have sales engineer can help you to decided which series of 9500 will meet your requirement
Thanks for understanding 
Goodluck

MHM

[Joseph W. Doherty · Accepted solution]

Pretty much most, if not all, later gens of Catalyst Enterprise switches, such as 9Ks, are wire-speed on all ports (concurrently).

Where they mostly differ, concerning performance, is buffering capacity.  Buffering often is important for core and/or distribution devices, sometimes less for server access, and often even less for user access.

The need for buffering can be offset by providing likely bottlenecks with additional bandwidth.  For example, an edge device with gig edge ports with its uplink being 10g and/or multiport Etherchannel.

In your case, if most to all traffic will be north-south L2 is fine, but if traffic desires to go east-west, possibly there would be benefit to routing on this switch.

BTW, cannot say for 9Ks, but some Cisco L3 switches will not allow routing to be disabled.  If so, that's not much of a problem if you don't have multiple IPed interfaces.