mahdi makkawi, I would strongly recommend that you look at the latest 16.9.x release as this will have the same features as 16.8.1 and it is a long-lived release. 16.8.1 has already passed the End of Software Maintenance : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/routers/asr-1000-series-aggregation-services-routers/eos-eol-notice-c51-740983.html (yes that says routers, but this is the link you get to from the Catalyst 950o End of Sale page as well). To get an understanding of the different timelines associated with the different IOS XE 16 release, see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/ios-nx-os-software/ios-xe-16/bulletin-c25-741178.html . One you have chose your release, please follow the upgrade procedures outline in the Release Notes for that release. Cheers, Scott Hodgdon Senior Technical Marketing Engineer Enterprise Networking Group ... View more

ergonullu, You need 3 DNA Centers to build a cluster. If you have only 2, then you can have one active and on as cold standby (no cluster). If you need to restore a backup, it must be restored onto a system with same version (system and packages) as the system from which the backup came. When building a DNA Center, you need to use a CA-signed certificate and not a self-signed certificate. When you back up a cluster, you do not back up each member.  Cheers, Scott Hodgdon Senior Technical Marketing Engineer Enterprise Networking Group ... View more

Mohsen, How many links of each speed are required in this VSS setup ? Do you require large buffers for any specific applications ? We now have the Catalyst 9K series that supports StackWise Virtual (SWV) which is the same functionality as VSS. The Catalyst 9K will have a longer lifespan and higher scale than the Catalyst 6880-X-LE. Cheers, Scott Hodgdon Senior Technical Marketing Engineer Enterprise Networking Group ... View more

Andrew, To determine the best platform, we need a little information to understand the design and ultimate goal for the network. To that end, please answer a few questions: 1. How many links of each speed will be required to be connected to the core ? 2. Is the ultimate goal to go down a software-defined path, utilizing something like Cisco SD-Access ? 3. What level of resiliency is required here ? 4. Is segmentation / micro-segmentation in the campus a requirement now or down the road ? 5. Do you have a diagram of the current network you can share ? Cheers, Scott Hodgdon Senior Technical Marketing Engineer Enterprise Networking Group ... View more

Jookez, At this point in time, we only support embedded wireless controller (eWLC) function in Catalyst 9000 family switches when those switches are part of a Cisco SD-Access architecture. If you are not deploying SD-Access, then you cannot enable the eWLC function in the switch. Cheers, Scott Hodgdon Senior Technical Marketing Engineer Enterprise Networking Group ... View more

Cory, No change since my previous statement. Cheers, Scott Hodgdon Senior Technical Marketing Engineer Enterprise Networking Group ... View more

gntrshn, Attached is a section of a document I wrote when I was focusing on the power aspects of the Catalyst 6500. I hope this addresses your question. Cheers, Scott Hodgdon Senior Technical Marketing Engineer Enterprise Networking Group ... View more

Michael, L3 Port Channel between VSS pairs is supported. The key is to make sure that all VSS members are dual-homed, so it should be 4 links in the port channel.  You are running code that has reached End of Support (12.2(50)SY) as of July 2017 (see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-6500-series-switches/eol_c51-698004.html ). Cheers, Scott Hodgdon Senior Technical Marketing Engineer Enterprise Networking Group   ... View more

rrobinson2191, You should focus on Catalyst 9000 series for any replacement. The advantage of a chassis is that you have backplane power redundancy (not possible with 3650 as it has no StackPower support),  single license to deal with (not possible if you use a stack) and modularity for growth. The lifespan of a chassis is much longer than a stackable (as you know from your 6509-E as well, probably :-) ). The Catalyst 9400 would fit all your needs and would be cheaper than stacking once you get above 3 or 4 in a stack. It has 1G fiber and 1/10G fiber options, as well as several 10/100/1000 and 100/1000/2.5G/5G/10G copper options. Cheers, Scott Hodgdon Senior Technical Marketing Engineer Enterprise Networking Group ... View more

osw200051, If you go to ciscolive.com and search for "BRKARC-2007" in the On-Demand Library, you can see the deep dive session for the Catalyst 9500 series from Cisco Live Orlando 2018. Everyone with a Cisco login has access to this resource,  even  if they have never been to Cisco Live. There is also a video of the session you can watch, so you can hear the presenter's comments instead of just reading the PDF. Cheers, Scott Hodgdon Senior Technical Marketing Engineer Enterprise Networking Group ... View more