Campus design question

[nunoscosta]

Hi guys,

I have a campus (warehouse) with 60 access switches to connect wireless access points, printers, computers and picking devices.

My core is collapsed with distribution and I have two separated rooms for high availability with one Cisco 6509 chassis in each room. In there we have also less than 10 servers with 1 vmware cluster and other systems (small server farm). Performance is not an issue neither bandwidth (currently 1G for campus and 10G for server farm).

I am considering refresh the core.

Make sense to separate the servers form the CORE, even less than 10 servers? In this case what type of access switches do you recommend?

Should consider the new Catalyst 6807 or can I consider the Nexus 9500  that is cheaper and have more I/O cards choices and more bandwidth in the long run.

Regards,

Nuno

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi,

For core, the 6807 is the replacement for the 6500 series.  They are pretty solid. Sup 2T is also pretty good too and now there is sup 6T. If the price is the same, I would go for 6T, as it is newer. BTW, I have never used 6T before. You can configure 2 6800 as VSS and logically manage one device with one IP.

As for the Access switches, the 3650 series seems to be also very solid when it comes to hardware and software.  If you want to use a different switch for your server farm, the 9200 or 9300 series should work well.

HTH

[nunoscosta]

Thank you very much for your answer.

You are considering physical separation of server farm with cat3650 even with 10 servers?

I agree SUp6T is better, but i don't have performance issues. In that case SUP2T is cheaper :)

9200 and 9300 nexus is a good idead, but again, without strong arguments seems to be a heavy cost because i can put the servers directly on the CORE, don't you agree?

[Reza Sharifi]

You are considering physical separation of server farm with cat3650 even with 10 servers?

No, I was thinking 3650 for the user side. For 10Gig server farm, Nexus would be a good choice but since you don't need the performance and if it is a hard sell to your management,  you can connect the servers directly to the core.

HTH

[Francesco Molino · Accepted solution]

Hi

In terms of Catalyst switches, I would go with 6807 if VSS is needed or Catalyst 9000 if no need of VSS (HSRP between switches, 1 on each room).

Nexus 9500 are great switches as well and you have the ability to support FEX (remote switches acting like remote linecards). However, in your design with only 10 servers, this doesn't make sense for me.

You have 60 access switches and I guess you want some STP loop free design, then you have to choose between VSS (catalyst) or VPC (nexus). If I recall, Nexus 9k are cheaper with more high bandwith ports (10G).

Later on, if you grow and want to go with ACI design, it's better going now with Nexus 9k.

Personally for not large network where price has high importance, I'm going with Catalyst 9k or Nexus 9k depending on what features are needed in the network

[nunoscosta]

Thank you very much for your answer.

In fact i never had considered the new cat9000. Is the cheapest choice considering 10G network? I need to take a close look.

ACI on campus will be difficult, maybe Cisco SD Access, don't you agree? In that case I must go with Catalyst because nexus is not supported.

regards

[Francesco Molino]

As i said ACI will be difficult in your environment, i agree with you.

I'll definitely go with sd access with cat 9k switches. Very good choice!

[hadelmahmoud]

Hi ,

just I'm asking if you have any document state that Cisco nexus 9K can be used as a campus core switch.

BR;

Hany Adel

[Francesco Molino]

I was saying catalyst 9k for sdaccess and not nexus 9k.

To answer your question, nexus is more datacenter oriented but can also be used as core switch for your lan, it'll depend on what features you need to run. Some are available in catalyst family but not in nexus and vice versa.

Here a link for nexus 9k: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-9000-series-switches/guide-c07-730115.html

Here a short sample from this link:

With their exceptional performance and comprehensive feature set, Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches are versatile platforms that can be deployed in multiple scenarios, including the following:

● Layered access-aggregation-core designs
● Leaf-and-spine architecture
● Compact aggregation-layer solutions