Solved: cisco 3750 switches and non-ip protocol

sarahr202 · ‎12-08-2008

hi every body!

Cisco 3750 switches provide fallback bridging to transparent non ip protocols such as ipx because cef only supports ip.

My question is can switch use layer 3 engine(router) to switch non-ip packets such as ipx ?

thanks a lot!

Jon Marshall · ‎12-08-2008

Sarah

Some L3 switches can route IPX but the 3750 is not one of them. There is no support for IPX other than the use of fallback bridging.

Jon

View solution in original post

Edison Ortiz · ‎12-08-2008

Sarah,

The reason the 3750 does not provide IPX support is not due to the CEF/IP dependency. It's due to lacking the required ASIC to perform this function.

As Jon stated, Cisco provides a line that support IPX (Catalyst 6500) but even within that line, the support is done in software - not in hardware (ASICs) which can result on degraded IPX performance.

If you have an IPX network (I'm sure you don't - you are just hitting those books hard and keeping us in line :)), I recommend going with a regular router with Enterprise software and have this router perform the IPX routing in your network. IPX is a dead protocol and there isn't much testing done on it.

HTH,

__

Edison.

View solution in original post

Edison Ortiz · ‎12-08-2008

SNA, ah good old memories, yeah right...

Two options which are not supported in switches. STUN (Serial Tunneling) or DLSW (Data Link Switching).

You need a good old router.

Never had the pleasure to play with LAT but I'm sure you also need a router for it.

__

Edison.

View solution in original post

Jon Marshall · ‎12-08-2008

Sarah

Some L3 switches can route IPX but the 3750 is not one of them. There is no support for IPX other than the use of fallback bridging.

Jon

Edison Ortiz · ‎12-08-2008

Sarah,

The reason the 3750 does not provide IPX support is not due to the CEF/IP dependency. It's due to lacking the required ASIC to perform this function.

As Jon stated, Cisco provides a line that support IPX (Catalyst 6500) but even within that line, the support is done in software - not in hardware (ASICs) which can result on degraded IPX performance.

If you have an IPX network (I'm sure you don't - you are just hitting those books hard and keeping us in line :)), I recommend going with a regular router with Enterprise software and have this router perform the IPX routing in your network. IPX is a dead protocol and there isn't much testing done on it.

HTH,

__

Edison.

sarahr202 · ‎12-08-2008

thanks a lot Edison and Jon!

Jon Marshall · ‎12-08-2008

Edison

"IPX is a dead protocol and there isn't much testing done on it."

Can i quote you on that ?.

Last place i worked we migrated to a lovely new MPLS network and then had to define GRE tunnels all over the place because of one "mission critical" IPX application. They are always mission critical :-)

Jon

sarahr202 · ‎12-08-2008

Just want to ask about catalyst 4500 and 6500 series switches. If the protocol is not routable such as SNA ,LAT, how can these switches switch such traffic(SNA,LAT) considering layer 3 engine can not be of any use in such situation.

Thanks a lot!

Edison Ortiz · ‎12-08-2008

SNA, ah good old memories, yeah right...

Two options which are not supported in switches. STUN (Serial Tunneling) or DLSW (Data Link Switching).

You need a good old router.

Never had the pleasure to play with LAT but I'm sure you also need a router for it.

__

Edison.

Edison Ortiz · ‎12-08-2008

Sure you can :)

Ask Novell if they are deploying IPX dependent applications internally. Their internal network hasn't run IPX for some time. IOW, it's deader than dead :)

Yes, you will find plenty of networks having those mission critical IPX applications. They are slow on migrating to up-to-date applications that do the same. Usually, the person/group that deployed such application is no longer around in business and no-one understands how the application really works in a different environment :)

__

Edison.