How to evaluate a Cisco switch's performance?

[cooperchien]

I have a 3550 switch and it is handling 6 vlans with 60 computers in each vlan. I am wondering if the switch is overwhelmed by the network traffic.
What is the best way to check a switch's performance?

 

[chipk]

Are you seeing some specific symptoms?

One thing you can do is use the button on the front to toggle between modes: System, Status, Utilization, etc.

If you switch to Util mode and all lights are green, then your switch is running very close to capacity.

You can also use show commands like show proc cpu and show proc mem.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1828/products_tech_note09186a00800a65d0.shtml

You also want to show interfaces and look at your physical interfaces looking for collisions, input/output errors, interface resets, etc.

 

[cooperchien]

I hit the mode button to Util and found all ports on my switch are green. Does that mean my switch is running at its full capacity?? However, when I typed sh proc cpu on the switch, the switch told me that the CPU utilization is 1% for the last 5 seconds.
Please tell me your interpretation.
Thank you very much.

 

[vipergg]

That would tell me all your traffic is being hardware switched and not hitting the cpu which is good . I doubt you have any kind of traffic problems with the cpu that low .