Catalyst 5500's and Catalyst 6500's

[netmxk0]

I currnetly have 2 Cat 5500's with RSM's providing fast ethernet and gigabit uplinks to servers. However we are running low on port density. We will have access to 2 Cat 6500's with routing modules. Should I replace the 5500's with the 6500's to do the routing and provide switching and then connect via fiber the 5500's to provide addtional port density only? Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks

[angel.trujillo]

The core would be your 6500 boxes, so you can have your enterprise services such as email, shared file servers, your WAN router, and common application servers on it making a Server Farm. And you could have different segments with inter-VLAN routing on your 6500, and have port density on your 5500 boxes. So your keeping the hierarchical model acccess - distribution (WAN routing) - core (fast switching). I hope this recommendation helps

[#3]

Angel has a good idea. You may want to use the 6500 for your core and still keep some servers on the 5500. Since you have the rsm's in the 5500 you may want to provide some redundant routing using HSRP between the rsm and the multi switch feature card on the 6500.