Difference between SupT2/32/720

[Hemakumar Ramasamy]

What is the difference between SupT2/32/720?

Thanks in advance

[Reza Sharifi]

Sup2T is the latest sup for the 6500/6800 series

data sheet:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/interfaces-modules/catalyst-6500-series-supervisor-engine-2t/data_sheet_c78-648214.html

Sup-720 is older but it is very much in use.  there are several versions of sup-720

see Sup-720 comparison data sheet

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-6500-series-switches/product_data_sheet09186a0080159856.pdf

Sup-32 is very old, EOL and not used as much.

data sheet:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/interfaces-modules/catalyst-6500-supervisor-engine-32/product_data_sheet0900aecd801c5cab.html

HTH

[Jon Marshall]

Reza

Sometimes I just get too bogged down in the details 🙂

Yours is a far better and more practical answer and deserves the rating.

Jon

[Reza Sharifi]

Jon,

Thanks!

It is just so much to cover to answer that question.

It would take me a looong time to type all that 🙂

Reza

[Jon Marshall]

It is just so much to cover to answer that question.

I did think that when I started typing but just stubbornly carried on then saw your answer and wondered why I had bothered 🙂

Jon

[Jon Marshall]

There are a lot of differences, too many to cover here but the primary one is the bandwidth connections and modules that are supported.

I'm going to assume you aren't familiar with classic, fabric enabled and fabric only modules so bear with me if you are 🙂

The 6500 chassis supports two pathways between the supervisor and the modules -

1) a classic bus which is a 32Gbps shared bus meaning all modules in the chassis have to share that bandwidth between them.

This was the original pathway supported when the 6500 was first released.

2) a dedicated switch fabric connection which means each modules gets a certain amount of bandwidth per slot that is dedicated just to that module.

In addition which pathway can be used is not only dependant on the supervisor supporting that pathway but also on the modules and which pathways they can connect to. Put simply there are three main types of module -

1) classic modules. These modules only have connectors to the shared bus

2) fabric enabled module. These modules have connectors to the shared bus and, if available, connectors to the dedicated switch fabric.

3) fabric only modules. These modules only have connectors to the switch fabric for sending and receiving data.

The sup32 only provides connections to the shared bus. So classic and fabric enabled modules will work with this supervisor and the fabric enabled modules would only be able to use their connectors to the shared bus.

Fabric only cards will not work with a sup32.

The sup720 provides connections to both the shared bus and the dedicated switch fabric. So it supports most modules except some of the more recent ones which only work with the sup2T.

The sup2T provides connections to the switch fabric and as it supports some classic modules I assume the shared bus. It has much more limited support for the older modules which is why it is somewhat surprising it supports any classic modules at all.

The sup720 provides a 40Gbps per slot connection to the switch fabric for all chassis up to and including the 6509.  The 6513 is slightly different.

The sup2T provides an 80Gbps per slot connection to the switch fabric.

A module may not necessarily use all the available bandwidth per slot. It depends on the connectors on the module.  Any unused bandwidth per slot cannot be used elsewhere because it is a fixed amount per slot.

So it's important when purchasing or upgrading to understand what combinations of supervisors and modules do what.

None of the above has touched on CFC vs DFC or oversubscription which also play a large part in the performance of a 6500.

It also doesn't cover features supported by the supervisors as that would be too big a subject to cover here.

If you want more information about the supervisors, supported modules etc. then the best place to start is here -

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/switches/catalyst-6500-series-switches/datasheet-listing.html

Jon

[Joseph W. Doherty]

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Posting

Overlapping some with what Reza and Jon have already posted, the sup2T is the latest and best of the 6500 supervisors.  It also can be used in the 6807 chassis.  This supervisor also supports VSS.

The EoL sup32 may have been the best supervisor for working with the classic bus.  It was oriented for edge switch usage.  Its supervisor uplinks, and their queuing support, were better than most of the sup720 variants.  (There were two variants of this supervisor, one having dual 10G links [enough to saturate the classic bus].)

The sup720 is, more-or-less, a sup2 with a better (720 Gbps vs. 256 Gbps) fabric than the SFM or SFM2, also on the supervisor card, itself.  The last variant of this card, the VS-S720, also supports VSS and offers more Mpps than the other sup720 variants.

The sup720 still supports about the most variety in the 6500 chassis, both in features and performance capacity.

Lastly, the sup32 and some of the sup720 variants were supported not only in the 6500 chassis but also the 7600 chassis.