input on a decision for a core purchase in next 30 days (4500, 6500, 6800)

[VOIPaintEASY]

The 6800 line will not be shipping in time for me to make the decision and use the budget funds by Dec 1 on a 6800 solution. Thus, I am left to decide between a dual core running either 4500’s or 6500s. Port capacity/ density is not and issue as the 4500 has 10 slot chassis and we are offloading a ton to 10G stacks in the racks for virtualization anyhow. So, it boils down to wanting a rock solid core that runs VSS well and will last 7-9 years without needing forklifted. One concern I have is it is obvious Cisco realizes everyone loves the 6500 line and thus came out with the 6800 line. I sense they may EOL the 6500 line sooner than the 4500 line forcing folks to refresh to the 6800 and having them feel more comfortable there the decision to stay with Cisco will be easier. (My Cisco SE affirmed that too)

 

[baddos]

Is this going to be a core switch or collapsed core? I would look at using a Nexus if it's collapsed.

 

[imbadatthis]

i've had fairly bad experience with the 4500s .. we purchased a couple of 4500xs awhile back and VSS config was pretty easy however they are very picky on he kind of sfps you can use with them - cisco pretty much only - HP and panduit twinax did not work very well.
Also its easy for the 4500s to go split brain, they do not have the ability to handle with broadcast storms very well.

so in short either go for the 6x00 series which are solid, or go for the N5596UPs and get the L3 module for them. OR look into HP's 10500V series (stack-able).. they are beasts.. and around the same price depending on how much you can convince them to bend on the pricing..



We must go always forward, not backward
always up, not down and always twirling twirling towards infinity.

 

[vipergg]

The 6500's aren't going anywhere, cisco has stated they will be around well into the years 2020's .

 

[VOIPaintEASY]

It is for a core application to replace two Nortel 8600's. I will take a look at the 6500. My Cisco reps advised me toward the 4500 line as they seem certain the 6800 line will cause the 6500 to EOL sooner.

 

[stubnski]

We also looked into replacing our cores with 6500's this year and our Cisco reps stated that because the 6500 was so integrated into so many businesses (huge, big, and smaller big) they were certain the 6500's will be supported for at least another 10 years. Plus they haven't heard any rumors of it going EoS which is the first step to EoL. The 6800 will help with the EoL of the 6500's since the 6800 chassis supports almost all 6500 line cards, but the 6500 won't die anytime soon.

Personally, I would go with the 6500 for my core since VSS was made for it, plenty of documentation, and it is a sort of jack of all trades with the variety of line cards available. Eventually you will need to migrate to a new core, and with the 6500 you just need to buy the 6800 chassis, move your current line cards over, and power up.

Stubnski

 

[VinceWhirlwind]

Price it up. If you want this solution to last, you will need to have 10Gb everywhere, with redundant links. Cisco 10Gb solutions are massively expensive. (At least they used to be - I stopped bothering getting Cisco quotes several years ago, as they were never coming out as anywhere near competitive on price with anything else).
As for Nexus, uh-uh - I don't like them at all. All sorts of things about them make me very uneasy, and the way to configure redundancy with them feels extremely bodgy to me.
I'm still looking for an opportunity to put IBM 10Gb switches (eg the 8124) in for Data Centre use somewhere - haven't had the opportunity yet, but I do think you get massive performance at no great cost with these. Can't be sure until I've tried them though. But on paper they give you a tiny fraction of the latency those horrible Nexus switches give you.

I recently installed some HP 12000s, and the 10Gb transceivers I bought came to $130/each. Don't forget to price in the transceivers - Cisco's "Cisco only" policy on transceivers is probably the reason I have seen very little new Cisco on any customer site for the last 5 years.
And as mentioned above, these HP core switches are beasts. Working very well, too. HP IRF is far less limited than Cisco VSS.

 

[VOIPaintEASY]

I ended up ordering the 6500's. Agree on the optics, though at the core whatevr it takes I guess. I like HP but have a position of having had Nortel and know what it is like to not be able to find decent local support techs, forums, etc. When the chips are down and you need sound advice I wanted mainstream at my core this time. Thanks all.