Catalyst 6800 Series Switches Announced

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25 June 2013

Cisco have today announced a range of new high end Catalyst switches designed to placate customers who have invested in the 6500 series. Described as a “game changer” by Cisco the 6800 series feature a set of fixed an modular chassis systems with some backwards compatibility to the 6500.

The full announcement is here

Game changer? Not really. Just more of the same, and according to Cisco, at a lower price point. Same OS, same restrictions with back plane speed.

How does this compare to Nexus? According to Cisco, the new models will be cheaper (which is not hard, Nexus systems should come with gold plated power supplies for how much they cost) and have the same set of features that is supported in the 6500 series. This presumably means that like in most 6500 deployments, 99% of them won’t be used by most customers.

However, for customers with an installed based of 6500s who are looking for some investment protection, the 6800 series could be something to look at.

The models:

  • 6807 – 7 slot modular switch 
  • 6880 – 3 slot modular switch with 16 fixed 10 Gbps ports
  • 6800ia – 1 RU “instant access” switch – provides similar features as the Nexus 2000 FEX and acts as a “remote line card” switch when attached to a core 6800.

The 6800s are expected to be shipping by the end of the year.

Barry Hesk
Intrinsic Network Solutions

Cisco 2960X Switch Range Announced

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As of 4th June 2013, Cisco have announced the 2960X range of switches. Building on the existing 2960 and 2960S ranges, the 2960X is a fixed configuration gigabit switch available in both PoE and non PoE models.

The 2960X offers a number of configuration options including:

Flex Stack Plus modules (compatible with existing Flex Stack modules in 2960S switches)

A range of software options including LAN Lite, LAN Base and IP Lite.

IP Lite provides basic L3 IP connectivity including unicast routing, and other features such as PIM, HSRP, OSPF and PBR. Redundant power supplies are available for some of the models.

A data sheet on the 2960X is available here.

The 2960X is also meant to be Cisco’s first production switch to support the Cisco ONE API which will allow the unit to be integrated into SDN networks. SDN is the hot buzz word at the present time, and brings Wireless Controller-like architectures and topologies to wired infrastructures.

 

Barry Hesk

Intrinsic Network Solutions

Cisco ASA SSL VPN Bug – CSCug23031

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Just come across a nasty bug in version 8.4(6) that stops clientless VPN sessions from working.

Basically any session that needs to use extended plugins such as RDP won’t work following an upgrade – with a simple blank screen being displayed when clicking on the link.

Solution is to downgrade to 8.4(5) or upgrade to 9.1(2) or higher.

Cisco bug ID is CSCug23031

Barry Hesk
Intrinsic Network Solutions

Copying System Log on Cisco Devices

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28 May 2013

Copying System Log on Cisco Devices

Small amount of geekieness on a wet Tuesday.

To copy the running log off a Cisco device, do the following:

show log | redirect ftp://_ip_address_/_file_name_

You can actually do this to redirect the output of any command.

Barry Hesk
Intrinsic Network Solutions