Deploying Cisco 9300 to existing infrastructure

[Vincent37599]

I have an existing Cisco 3850s network infrastructure and planning to add an additional network switch. I am not technical. Since 3850 will be replaced by 9300, are there any issues when I deploy Cisco 9300 on my existing 3850 infrastructure?

[chrihussey]

Hello, 

In the most simplest form, no, there should be no issues. In my current environment, we are using both models with no issues.

Hope this helps

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello @Vincent37599 ,

you can introduce the Cat9300 as a standalone switch.

You cannot add it to a stack of C3850, this is the only limitation I am aware of

Hope to help

Giuseppe

[Steven Case, MBA-ITM]

While the devices are nearly identical in deployment, I want to point out one thing as I'm not sure it will impact anything or not: Licensing.

The Cat9K will require smart licensing past an imaging version point (think 16.11a). If you do not have a connection to the Cisco Smart cloud for your appliances, reservations set up for a Smart Account (requires both a Smart Account and … permission? I guess from Cisco.. it's an email or call...), or an internal Smart Licensing platform, this will impact your deployment.

Other than that, and as others have mentioned, these things are basically identical - though the packet forwarding speeds were significantly lower when I first saw them, I'm not sure if that changed, or if that really matters (it's still over 100Gbps for a Gigabit 48-port switch).