Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Cisco's Fast Ethernet Support

Well Cisco has huge database of its lively documentation. I guess they seriously require some solution for handling it. I have personally see many contradictory information on there site. They do update on one site but forget to synchronize on other locations. Few months back i have face a situation where a customer need 4 Ethernet port on 2801, to my surprise cisco router 1841 and 28XX do not support 2 port FE card and eventually i end up with giving two 1 port FE cards. Similar requirement arise and i again check website to make sure to cover any change happening. I found following link which says



Q. Is the 2-port HWIC supported on the Cisco 1800 and 2800 Series Integrated Services Routers?
A. No, the 2-port HWIC is supported only on the Cisco 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers. The Cisco 1841 can support only a single additional Fast Ethernet interface. The Cisco 2800 Series can support up to two additional interfaces, but this density must be attained using two 1-port HWICs

After making sure i presented my solution and inform the customer about cisco inabilty to support 2 port FE card. I were told that cisco do support 2 port FE card on 2801. As i had already double check so i were sure. I were surprise when i got the link


Now what to do after searching a bit, i found that the cisco latest IOS start supporting it and eliminate the previous limitation. I were again surprised but can't to any thing about it. Cisco keep it up (:
. You Rocks !!!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Redundancy when there is no redundancy



Redundancy is must!!!
Today one of my customer asked me whether 3750 support RPS(redundant power supply) !!! no worry man it do, i replied, but very soon i found it to be partially true. I have seen in datasheets about RPS but i decide to dig it deeper. Cisco is offering a separate 1 RU device 2300, its basically a redundant power system for internal power supply failure. It can support up to six device at a time (you need to plug the special cable to appliance to the router/switch) and at max can provide two active backups (if u purchase two power supply). One cable come with the bundle and you need to purchase spare if u need to backup other devices too. hmmm the appliance is not very cheap but i think its worthy it cost near about 3000 USD. the coolest thing you can even prioritize fail over, means say core switch has more priority then access layer so if both failed at same time it will backup core first.

What models did it support
Switches: 3750-E, 3560 E, 3750, 3560, 3550, 2960, 2950, CE 500 (Select models)

Router: 3825, 2851, 2821, 2811


The catch is you need to go for right power supply for example 700 Watt AC PS donot support support 3750E series but do support plain 3750 so watch it out first.

Part Number:

1- PWR-RPS2300 RPS 2300 chassis

2- C3K-PWR-750WAC Catalyst 3750-E/3560-E 750W AC power supply

3-C3K-PWR-1150WAC Catalyst 3750-E/3560-E 1150W AC power supply

4- CAB-RPS2300-E= Spare RPS Cable RPS 2300 Cat 3750E/3560E Switches

5-CAB-RPS2300= Spare RPS Cable for Cisco Redundant Power System 2300


FAQ

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

cisco extending 90 days warranty to life time for switches


As of right now cisco is leader in switching world. Juniper with introduction of there ESX switches are newbie in this industry. Nortel already in worst condition. But HP is consistent competitor of cisco in the switching world and already snatch a significant market share from cisco. Cisco is trying to give extras to beat to competition now a new announcement from cisco for extending its warranty

Effective May 1, 2009, Cisco is extending the warranty period for Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and Cisco Catalyst 3560-E series switches from the previously offered 90-day warranty to a limited lifetime warranty (LLW).

This is not the end in a seperate bullitein simlar announcement for 4500 series switch:
As of May 1, 2009, Cisco is offering a limited lifetime hardware warranty on the Cisco® Catalyst® 4500 E-Series and Cisco Catalyst 4500 Switches. This LLW is 5 year warranty in which cisco will make sure to ship the equipment within ten days of RMA request.

Similarly to better survive at access layer switching cisco has come up with LAN LITE image software of 2960 that offer prices that are almost equal to CE500. This was announced back in 2008
Details

Let us hope for some other better moves (: in the beneficiaries will be whom customer (: