CatOS vs IOS

[pjstudley]

Hello,

I'm looking at buying a switch with IOS for my CCNP exam and I'm planning on spending about $75. I've been looking on ebay and all switches in this range seem to have Catos on them. I have found a couple that have the Catalyst in the name and are still running IOS. Can you upgrade? Is there a surefire way to know what is IOS based? Thanks.

-P

 

[ADB100]

IOS Switches:
2900XL/3500XL - 12.0 IOS Layer-2 only, no configurable QoS, no filtering
2950 - 12.1 IOS Layer-2 only, L2 QoS on SMI, L2/L3 QoS on EMI versions plus filtering etc
2970 - 12.2 IOS Layer-2 only, L2/L3 QoS
3560/3750 - 12.1 & 12.2 IOS Layer-3 (router), L2/L3 QoS, Full Routing on EMI, restricted Routing on SMI
4x00 Series - IOS on Supervisor II+, IV, V engines, Layer-3 (router)
8500 - IOS on all models, more like a big router than a switch really


CatOS Switches:
4000 - CatOS on Supervisor I and II, Layer-2 only
5000 - Catos only on all Supervisors, Layer-2 only but can have RSFC feature card that adds an integrated Router running IOS

The Catalyst 6x00 series can run either CatOS (Hybrid) or Integraded IOS (Native IOS), but this depends on the hardware. If the Supervisor doesn't have an MSFC then it can ONLY run CatOS and is Layer-2 only. If the Supervisor has an MSFC then it can either run Hybrid where the Supervisor runs CatOS and the MSFC runs IOS, or it can run Integrated IOS where a single IOS image controls both the Supervisor (Layer-2 features) and MSFC (Layer-3 features).

There are also the older 1900-series switches but these can really be dismissed as they sort of ran IOS but these are all EOL now and are not included on any Cisco exams/courses any more.

HTH

Andy