CatOS vs CiscoIOS

[qwertys21]

Hi All

Please can you give me points on why CiscoIOS is a much better OS than CatOS. Also if you could give me links to supporting documents.

Thanks

[burleyman]

Well CatOS is end of life...see this link.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps708/prod_end-of-life_notice0900aecd80699e1a.html

Mike

[ivarth]

Another thing is that CatOS is layer2 only.

If you have for example a 6509 box, then you basically have CatOS which takes care of the layer2 part and then you have IOS which takes care of the layer3 part.

This means that you cannot create a layer3 interface on a port (gigabit or fastethernet).

This also means that you have two configs in the same box, the IOS and the CatOS config.

CatOS is can also be a pain in the behind and it can be difficult to clear out config lines that you do not need anymore.

By having the 6509 box in pure IOS you have all the config in one place and you can configure layer2 and layer3 in the same place so to speak.

[glen.grant · Accepted solution]

Its mostly because it is EOL and they are no longer developing it and you have to deal with 2 OS's when using both layer 2 and 3 . Catos was the layer 2 side . I actually found it much faster to do things over multiple ports on catos on the layer 2 side. It you understood it it was a breeze. This was an aquired OS when cisco bought Kalpanna back in 1994 and was a staple until like 2-3 years ago . I would guess it will be totally gone even on the 6500's within 2 years.

[qwertys21]

Thanks Glen

I also found another link which threw more light on what you said. Thanks once again. To me the CatOS was kind of friendlier. Oh well.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps708/prod_white_paper09186a00800c8441.html