Basic Cisco questions
I'm currently involved in the acquisition and basic design of a very typical Cisco core/distrubution/access layer campus network. But since I'm rather new in this area I have a few basic design questions.
1. Can anyone explain me why you strictly need one (or better 2) core switches (Catalyst 4500 or 6500) with a supervisor module?
2. What is the supervisor doing exactely?
3. Why do you need 2 of them?
4. What happens when you only have one and lose that one? Your network stops working?
5. Can you build the network without a 4500 or 6500 core switch? What would be the consequence of not having a core switch?
6. Why is it so expansive?
7. What is the difference between the Base and the Lite image in the 2960 and other series? Is there a big difference in price? In what cases is the Lite image sufficient?
Thanks a lot.
1. Can anyone explain me why you strictly need one (or better 2) core switches (Catalyst 4500 or 6500) with a supervisor module?
2. What is the supervisor doing exactely?
3. Why do you need 2 of them?
4. What happens when you only have one and lose that one? Your network stops working?
5. Can you build the network without a 4500 or 6500 core switch? What would be the consequence of not having a core switch?
6. Why is it so expansive?
7. What is the difference between the Base and the Lite image in the 2960 and other series? Is there a big difference in price? In what cases is the Lite image sufficient?
Thanks a lot.
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Hi Billy,
Thanks for your answers again. That's the list I found too. But it dates back to jan 2010. It's hard to find both Cisco and Juniper official list prices. They handle it like it's the biggest secret apparently. I don't understand why though...
PS: only now I get the reference of your username http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/r
Thanks for your answers again. That's the list I found too. But it dates back to jan 2010. It's hard to find both Cisco and Juniper official list prices. They handle it like it's the biggest secret apparently. I don't understand why though...
PS: only now I get the reference of your username http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/r
ASKER
Hi Billy,
I just took a second look at the pricelist. It mentions 12/1/2010 but it also says "Effective March 09". So I guess it IS up to date. They also have a juniper price list. Very handy !!!
I just took a second look at the pricelist. It mentions 12/1/2010 but it also says "Effective March 09". So I guess it IS up to date. They also have a juniper price list. Very handy !!!
ASKER
In this case none of these conditions are met. It's an organisation that does not loses a 1M a day when the network is down and no ones life is threated when the network is down.
Of course the vendors try to sell us the most expensive solution they can and I wanted to make a more informed choice since I'm not designing a Cisco network every week. :-)
I know it's all about requirements but sometimes it's difficult to define and hard to find out. And since I wanted to keep the question general I didn't elaborate on the specific situation. But at least now I know a little bit more.
One other question: Both the Juniper and Cisco vendors are juggling with "special" discounts (since we are an public academic institution) on the products. I found a website that has Cisco list prices for the US. But can I find them somewhere for Juniper products? I mean real official list prices?
Rgds,