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stacking over fiber

mrSS
Level 1
Level 1

someone had told me the 6500 switches can be stacked via fiber....does anybody know if this feature is avail for the 3750s?

thanks

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Sergey Fer
Level 1
Level 1

Stacking 65s... WOW!

May be you mean clustering? It is called VSS - virtual switching system. Not only fibers are supported, but definitely 10G interfaces. This technology will appear in 4500/Sup7 in a few monthes, but, I think, never in 3750s. They may be stacked by traditional stacking cable.

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What you are talking about is VSS, which is used with a very specialized supervisor module on the 6500 chassis. This module allows the two 6500's to be interconnected via fiber to create a VSS chassis or one single logical chassis.

This feature is not available in the 3750 series of switches, sorry.

Kyle

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7 Replies 7

Sergey Fer
Level 1
Level 1

Stacking 65s... WOW!

May be you mean clustering? It is called VSS - virtual switching system. Not only fibers are supported, but definitely 10G interfaces. This technology will appear in 4500/Sup7 in a few monthes, but, I think, never in 3750s. They may be stacked by traditional stacking cable.

yeah, that is what i said....it could be VSS, but not sure...i didnt have access to the switch to see for myself...thanks for the reply back...

What you are talking about is VSS, which is used with a very specialized supervisor module on the 6500 chassis. This module allows the two 6500's to be interconnected via fiber to create a VSS chassis or one single logical chassis.

This feature is not available in the 3750 series of switches, sorry.

Kyle

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame
someone had told me the 6500 switches can be stacked via fiber.

It's called VSS.

does anybody know if this feature is avail for the 3750s?

You can stack the 3750 (up to nine physical 3750 into one virtual switch).  There are similarities but it's not the same as the VSS is more of a "hybrid".  You cannot, however, stack a 3750 with a 6500.

yeah, thanks...i know now its called VSS....i understand the stack technology via the stackwise cable...

my initial question was, if there was a way to stack via fiber...looks like the answer is no, for now.....

my initial question was, if there was a way to stack via fiber

The only way to VSS two 6500 chassis together is via copper (not recommended) and fibre.

Joseph W. Doherty
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

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Posting

As the other posters have already described, 6500s can be dual "stacked", although as they also described, it's called VSS on the 6500s.

Unlike 3750 stacking, which uses special copper cables, 6500 VSS is done using 10 gig ports which can use the various 10 gig transceivers for those ports (copper or gig).  Not all 6500 10 gig ports can be used.  Those on the VS-S720 can be (one of the two 6500 Sups that supports VSS; the other is the Sup2T) as can those on the 6708.  If I remember correctly, 10 gig ports on the 6704 can NOT be used.  Don't know about the other 10 gig cards.

I believe VSS can interconnect 6500s at ZX optic distances, but as normal usage is to dual home every other connection to each chassis, having the 6500s other than near each other would make it difficult to dual home all the other connections.

VSS also requires one of the recent vintage IOSs too.  Also note, a "normal" 6500 has a single Sup in each chassis, but 6500 VSS now also supports dual Sups in both chassis.

Normally, only two 10 gig links are used to interconnect 6500 VSS, this to avoid a single point of failure using just one link.  Assuming everything thing else is connected to both chassis, only control traffic normally passes across the VSS connecting links.  (VSS tries to keep data flow egress on the same chassis it ingressed on.)

6500s in VSS configuration add a unit prefix of 1 or 2 to all the interfaces; the 1 or 2 being the physical chassis.  Logically, the VSS configuration functions as one device and is "seen" as one device by other connecting devices (much the same as stacked 3750s.)

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