03-15-2010 04:34 PM - edited 03-06-2019 10:09 AM
I'm currently studying for my BCMSN, I keep hearing a lot of talk about Supervisor engines. As I work for a small-medium sized company ~100 employees, I don't have much exposure to higher end switches using supervisor. The best switch we have is a Catalyst 3560 ( I love these ).
My question is, what do the different Supervisor engines do? In laymen terms. What benefits do they offer? Any good documents?
03-15-2010 04:41 PM
The Supervisor Engines, in the simplest of sense, is the heart and brains of the chassis. It's like the 3560 that you so love minus the ASICs and ports.
03-15-2010 04:47 PM
So is it like a module added on top of a switch? Like do you buy a switch with 48 ports but it also has a supervisor engine (another bit of hardware built into it for added features and functionality, or is standalone?
03-15-2010 04:54 PM
It's like buying a car. You buy the chassis then add the Supervisor Engine (as the engines). Next you choose whether you want a two or four seater (24 or 48-port line cards). Do you want leather seats (PoE enable and/or 10/100/1000Base)? How about airconditioning (Wireless Service Module or others)?
Another analogy is akin to buying an airplane from Boeing, Airbus, Gulfstream, ARJ or Bombadier.
03-15-2010 04:57 PM
lol, wasn't expecting that analogy. Thanks, leolaohoo, that was very helpful.
03-15-2010 04:59 PM
Thanks for the ratings. Glad to be of some assistance.
03-15-2010 04:58 PM
Hey Leo,
I like your car analogy
Reza
03-15-2010 05:04 PM
Thanks Reza. I was thinking of using the MacDonalds analogy but I'm afraid of offending some people.
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