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Cisco 6500 vs Nexus 5000

rahulja
Level 1
Level 1

Hello

I wanted to understand , if i use WS-X6748-ge-tx with DFC for Server connectivity and if i use Nexus 5000 for server connectivity.

What is the difference in performance which we can see ?

thanks

6 Replies 6

Giuseppe Larosa
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Hello Rahulja,

first of all, with the Nexus 5000 you may need a fabric extender to be able to connect GE server NICs

in short Nexus provides greater 10GE port density in comparison to C6500

a WS 6748 with appropriate DFC is a good linecard for a server farm and it is targeted to this use.

Hope to help

Giuseppe

Ganesh Hariharan
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

Hello

I wanted to understand , if i use WS-X6748-ge-tx with DFC for Server connectivity and if i use Nexus 5000 for server connectivity.

What is the difference in performance which we can see ?

thanks

Hi,

As far as the comparisns between the two just check out the below link for nexus 5000 and cisco 6500 series switches hope that help.

http://www.b2net.co.uk/cisco/cisco_nexus_5000_switches.htm

http://www.b2net.co.uk/cisco/cisco_catalyst_6500_series_switches.htm

and check out the below link with nexus 5000 given with different Scenario on basis of performances:-

http://www9.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/ns783/white_paper_c11-473501.html

Hope to Help !!

Ganesh.H

1. It is possible but you have to understand what is supported with/by the FEX. Like you said, the Nexus is mainly for DC. FEX fabric interface has a 300m limit (from my memory), no 10mb support and no POE (since you said you have 3750X).
2. See 1.
3. See 1. Also, looks like you need L3. With the L3 module inserted into the N5K, this will reduce the number of FEXs to 8.
4. N5K support both 1G and 10G SFPs. And beside, if you use FEX, there are both models, 2248 supports 100/1000 and 2232 supports 1G/10G.
5. You have to decide if you want Nexus 7000 or Nexus 5500. The Nexus 5500 is less expensive when comparing to the Catalyst 6500.

Joseph W. Doherty
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame
That an "it depends" answer.

The real "performance" difference between switch models is generally overall capacity. Even a small 8 port dumb switch, for one server to a few hosts, might offer the same performance. Or, you mention a 6748 with a DFC. The latter adds forwarding PPS capacity to a 6500/6800 chassis.

The performance attributes of most interest are forwarding PPS rate and fabric bandwidth. As long as you don't exceed either, for the switch being used, wire-rate should be delivered.

However, one "performance" feature of some Nexus ports, not found on a Catalyst, is cut through switching. This feature begins to forward a frame, before the whole frame has been received. This reduces store-and-forward latency (which increases with frame size).

As a footnote to my earlier post, there are other switch attributes that can or do impact "performance". For example, how long does a switch actually take to switch a packet internally, what it's internal architecture regarding "blocking", what are its buffering resources, etc. Again, though, if you have not exceeded one of the capacity limits of the device, any one flow should be able to obtain wire-rate. However, some of switch architecture attributes, can very much impact performance when you bump into them.

Here are some answers.

1. "reload restore" enable the 5K to try restore the vPC after a reload of one or both of the members. the default delay before try is to wait 240 seconds, using " reload reastore delay 300" change the default wait.

2.  You are correct here, We have exact same configuration regarding HSRP and RSTP.

3. If one of the 5K goes down both vPC10 and vPC11 will stay up, remember you have exact same configuration on both 5Ks. The Bandwidth will be reduced becuase some of the interfaces are not available any more.

4. On my understanding peer-link passes no data traffic, it is used to syncroinize state of the vPC membersit also passes Multicast and broadcast traffic. Unicast traffic will pass only in link failures. Do not see the peer-link as another path for traffic, remeber both switches are acting as one. If tracffic is destinated to a specific switch lets say 6513-01 connected to vPC10,  traffic can come from both N5K because both have interfaces members of the vPC10.

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