From: jsaxe@Crutchfield.com
Date: Wed Oct 08 2003 - 12:21:54 GMT-3
My two cents: We have two 6500's, one Layer 2 only (original Sup-1) and one
Layer 2/3 (Sup-1A / MSFC2) running hybrid mode. Both of the Sups have 64MB
DRAM, what they shipped with, and I'm running 8.1.2 on one and 8.1.1 on the
other. No problems at all! I was concerned about this issue, so when we
first bought the more recent one, I did some "show ver" and carefully wrote
down the RAM free before and after the upgrade from 7.x (not 7.6) to 8.1.x.
It consumed about 5 to 8 more MB, so free RAM went down from about 21-24MB
to about 15-17MB free. Once the machine is up, the RAM requirements seem
utterly stable over time, so I figured I was safe.
I agree with Kelly, it's all a matter of what the RAM is actually used for.
These are company-internal switches, so they do not have an MLS table
corresponding to bazillions of routes. (In fact, the Sup-1's don't do CEF
onboard; they do create MLS entries on demand (after the first packet is
routed by the MSFC), so they'd use more RAM depending on how many
connections are snapped at any given moment, and our network is not very
busy. The Sup-2's perform CEF, so they'd use RAM according to how many
routes were being fed by the routing protocols -- regardless of traffic load
-- so yes, a full Internet BGP table would require lots of RAM.) Also, we
have only about 15 VLANs, a small number of security VACLs, modest QoS
remarking, etc. I think the kinds of features we use don't tax the
supervisor very much.
I should also note that I'm using the base version with crypto (so I can SSH
to the switch), but without CiscoWorks; the release notes fall all over
themselves to recommend more RAM with the CiscoWorks-capable images. The
precise image name is "bootflash:cat6000-supk9.8-1-2.bin", and it fits in
the internal 16MB flash with about 4.9MB to spare.
By the way, "highavailability" switchover on the Layer 2 only with 8.1.2 is
astonishingly fast now. If you intentionally issue a planned "switch
supervisor" or "reset 1" command, it doesn't even miss one ping going
through it (one-second intervals) -- just delays a fraction of a second. If
you walk up and yank the active module, it's slightly longer, missing one
ping, so under well 2 seconds. I'm quite impressed. If you're running 8.1.1,
I'd recommend the 8.1.2 update. I haven't yet gotten to bring the Layer 2/3
one to 8.1.2, but I plan to soon.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kelly Johnson [mailto:kelly080180@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 1:35 AM
To: Church, Chuck; CCIE Lab group (E-mail)
Subject: Re: 6500 question
one thing you have to notice, the mem on the sup is consumed by mls cef
table, if you have a full Internet routing table, 256MB is recommended on
SupII.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Church, Chuck" <cchurch@wamnetgov.com>
To: "CCIE Lab group (E-mail)" <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 7:01 PM
Subject: OT: 6500 question
> All,
>
> Sorry about the OT, but since I can't reach CCO, I figured I'd ask you
all.
> Is there any reason to upgrade the memory on a 6500 Supervisor (2 or 720)?
> I'm talking about the layer 2 portion, not the MSFC memory. Other than
the
> CAM table, MAC multicast info, and other small stuff, I can't see what
it'd be
> used for. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Chuck Church
> CCIE #8776, MCNE, MCSE
> Wam!Net Government Services
> 13665 Dulles Technology Dr. Ste 250
> Herndon, VA 20171
> Office: 703-480-2569
> Cell: 703-819-3495
> cchurch@wamnetgov.com
> PGP key:
>
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=index&search=cchurch%40wamnetgov.com
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