Catalyst 4500 or 6500 VSS Capabilities

[Bilal Nawaz]

Hello Experts

Id be grateful if someone could help me out

If we were to do VSS with  4500's or 6500's, which models would support it?

Looking to support a line card  that has 48 SFP gig slots for a core/distribution layer.

Chassis	Model No	Supervisor Engine	Line Card
4500
6500

Bilal

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi,

don't about 4500 series, but if you are using sup-2T with 6500, here is the part number for the 48 port fiber blade you can use:

WS-X6848-SFP

HTH

[johnnylingo]

The 4500 with Supervisor 7-E or 7-LE, along with the new 4500-X switches will support VSS in future software versions.  So if you need VSS right now, 6500 is still the only option.

It's the Supervisor card that determines whether VSS is supported or not.  Any line card should work.

[Leo Laohoo]

If we were to do VSS with  4500's or 6500's, which models would support it?
Looking to support a line card  that has 48 SFP gig slots for a core/distribution layer.

Hmmm ... You got a few choices here.  It'll depend on what you are going to do.

6500E

1.  VS-Sup720:  Old but still going.  Will do Layer 3 and MPLS just fine.  If you do get this, make sure you load up the DRAM to it's maximum.

2.  VS-Sup2T:  Same price as the VS-Sup720.  Newest supervisor card of the 6500E.

4500E

1.  Sup7:  Not as good as the Sup2T but slightly better than the Sup720.  Will do a limited amount of Layer 3 but will not do MPLS and only VRF-lite.

2.  Sup8:  Date of "birth" is slated for January 2013.  Built-in wireless LAN controller for up to 50 WAPs.  New wireless architecture involved.  I'd like to call this blade as the Sup7i.  Talk to your Cisco SE for more information. 

[Bilal Nawaz]

I have spec'd out for two 6509E's with one VS-SUP2T in each - VSS capable. The 4500E SUP8 sounds really interesting since wireless is heavily used in our environment. But may be a bit to early in its life to take on... And we need something available sooner.

Do you guys know if there is a limitation with the WS-X6848-SFP line card with the number of portchannels....?

This is going to be used in a large building (around 15 - 20 floors - perhaps more in the future) with 3750's (48prt 7 in a stack) 4gig port channel uplinks for each stack.

6500's will have SVI's (perhaps vrf-light) on them eventually, but initially as a distribution switch (This is more 'spec-ing out for extreme future expansion')

Appreciate your input!

thank you

[Leo Laohoo]

Do you guys know if there is a limitation with the WS-X6848-SFP line card with the number of portchannels....?

Same thing.  Maximum of 8 physical links per channel.

This is going to be used in a large building (around 15 - 20 floors - perhaps more in the future) with 3750's (48prt 7 in a stack) 4gig port channel uplinks for each stack.

Will you be replacing the 3750 soon?

[Bilal Nawaz]

8 physical links per port channel, that's fine - we'll only be using 4 per port channel

But is there a limitation on the number of port channels on the line card itself?

No I don't think we'll be replacing the 3750's - why? is there something more beneficial around?