Redundant Supervisor Card Addition to Existing Chassis

Mayank Nauni · ‎08-06-2009

Greetings,

We are planning to add a redundant supervisor engine card to existing Cisco 6504 chassis, it has a WS-SUP32-GE-3B supervisor engine card installed and we are planning to install an additional supervisor card in the chassis. My few queries are:

1. Do we have to install a supervisor card of same make & model (as the existing sup card) as a redundant supervisor card?

2. Do we require same IOS on both cards to achieve redundancy, in case the IOS is different can we upgrade the same while the new sup card is installed in the chassis? What would be the process to do so?

3. Is there any detailed plan available with Cisco for configuring redundancy in a working Switch single sup engine?

Thanks in Advance :)

Regards,

Mayank Nauni

-Regards,
Mayank Nauni
CCIE#48541
Cisco Champion 2019

uwe.kadner · ‎08-06-2009

Hi,

I think http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst6500/catos/5.x/configuration/guide/redund.html is a good starting point. Most of your questions should be answered here.

Regards,

uk.

Mayank Nauni · ‎08-06-2009

Thanks UK,

That was good for a start (it is for CAT-OS, I have native on my switch )... but still I am looking for a detailed explanation on the afore-mentioned scenario.

Thanks and Regards,

Mayank Nauni

-Regards,
Mayank Nauni
CCIE#48541
Cisco Champion 2019

uwe.kadner · ‎08-06-2009

Hi,

just more in detail:

> 1. Do we have to install a supervisor card of same make & model (as the existing sup card) as a redundant supervisor card?

Yes, according to the link I posted, section 'Understanding How Supervisor Engine Redundancy Works', 1st note.

> 2. Do we require same IOS on both cards to achieve redundancy, in case the IOS is different can we upgrade the same while the new sup card is installed in the chassis? What would be the process to do so?

No, according to the link I posted, section 'Understanding How Supervisor Engine Redundancy Works', sentence 'The supervisor engines can have different runtime and boot images. If the boot image and the runtime image are the same, and you change the BOOT environment variable or overwrite or destroy the current boot image on the Flash device that was used to boot the system, the runtime and boot images will differ. Whenever you reconfigure the boot image, the active supervisor engine synchronizes its current boot image with the standby supervisor engine.'

> 3. Is there any detailed plan available with Cisco for configuring redundancy in a working Switch single sup engine?

Don't understand that question. How do you want to configure redundancy with only one sup?

Regards,

uk.

Mayank Nauni · ‎08-06-2009

UK,

Thanks for the answersâ€¦. Anywayâ€¦ my query in point number three wasâ€¦ is there any detailed plan with Cisco which guides us in achieving redundancy in a scenario where I have a working switch with a supervisor engine and I have to install one more redundant supervisor engine in that working chassis as a secondary supervisor engine. Hope that is clear now :-)

Regards,

Mayank

-Regards,
Mayank Nauni
CCIE#48541
Cisco Champion 2019

uwe.kadner · ‎08-06-2009

Hi,

another document you should consider to get your question answered is http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_configuration_example09186a0080a98f3c.shtml.

I'm sorry, but you'll have to read some pages... ;-)

Regards,

uk.

Mayank Nauni · ‎08-06-2009

Thanks Mate,

This document was better.... :-)

Cheers

-Regards,
Mayank Nauni
CCIE#48541
Cisco Champion 2019