Supervisory engine, backplane switching,line cards

Hello,
i have a couple of questions and they are thus:
1.Is the line card a module or are they different parts of the switch. What is the function of the line card ?
2.From my understanding the supervisory engine is like the brain of the device. It controls all or most of the software related functionality of the device. Am I correct?
3.What is the difference between the SUP720 and SUP32?
4.Is the CatOS solely for layer 2 switching while the IOS is for routing?
5. when we refer to backplane does that mean how fast a switch switches packets ?
Best Regards,
DJ.

Hello,
Please find below answers inline,
1.Is the line card a module or are they different parts of the switch. What is the function of the line card ?
Yes, Linecards/Modules are different part of the switch. You can insert multiple cards into the Chassis. You can also have service moduels like Wism/FWSM/ACE
depends upon the business needs.
2.From my understanding the supervisory engine is like the brain of the device. It controls all or most of the software related functionality of the device. Am I correct?
Yes, Supervisor is the brain of the switch controls each function. A typical Supervisor consists of PFC which has TCAM L2/L3 Engines and RP/SP Processor and A replication engine (Hyperion) for Multicast. TCAM is the area where the RP/SP programmes the switch. There are multiple things that get programmed in TCAM like QoS/ACL/Netflow etc.
They have their respective hardware entries in the TCAM. If the entry is not found that is when the packet gets punted to CPU. If the linecard has a DFC on it then it can download the information from L2/L3 Engines from TCAM and switching gets fast as everytime the lookup happens in the Linecard instead of the Supervisor.
3.What is the difference between the SUP720 and SUP32?
SUp 32 : 32Gb backplane supporting hardware accelerated Layer 2 and 3, QoS and Security policies up to 15Mpps…
Sup 720: 720Gb backplane supporting hardware accelerated Layer 2 and 3, QoS and Security policies up to 400Mpps…
4.Is the CatOS solely for layer 2 switching while the IOS is for routing?
If you have a hybrid switch with CATOS/MSFC(IOS) CATos represents the switching part and MSFC represents the Routing part of the network.
5. when we refer to backplane does that mean how fast a switch switches packets ?
Backplane is used for communication between SUP - LC's.The area divided into three subsections,
1) D-bus - Used for data flow
2) R-bus - Used for result lookups
3) EOBC - Control communications like IPC/ScP which is helps the Supervisor to maintain the other line cards.
Depends on the line card the backplane can work in three different modes,
1) Flowthrough
Between non fabric modules and between a non fabric and a fabric enabled linecard
Throughput – 15 Mpps (@ 64 byte frames)
Bandwidth – 16 Gbps of bandwidth shared throughout
Data Bus frame size is variable; min of 4 cycles (64B Data) on the DBus for every frame +1 wait cycle
2) compact
When only ALL fabric enabled linecards in a chassis
Throughput – 30 Mpps (@ any frame size)
Bandwidth – 8 G CEF256; 20 G/channel CEF720
Data Bus frame size is constant (compact header); 2 cycles (32 B Data) on the DBus for every frame + no wait cycle
3) truncated
Between fabric linecards when a non fabric linecard is in the chassis.
Throughput – 15 Mpps (@ 64 byte frames); independent of frame size for CEF256 and CEF720
Bandwidth – 16 G shared for classic; 8 G per CEF256; 20 G/channel CEF720.
Data Bus frame size is variable; min of 4 cycles (64 Bytes Data) on the Data Bus for every frame.
Thanks,
Ricky Micky
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High response time on one line card in Cisco 6513 Catalyst Switch

I am facing a wierd issue with one of the line card in the Cisco 6513 switch. All the servers, desktops and trunks connected to this line card are showing high response time (>500ms) locally. But those IP phones connected to the same line card is working fine and the repsonse time is always 1ms. I am unable to find any root cause as i am not seeing any errors or logs, please help me to fidn the root cause.
Anyway i ahve a plan to reboot the line card and test it, but i am just looking for a fix that would help us to avoid the reboot.
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No errors for the following commands.
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#sh fabric error
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#sh module <slot>
#sh interface counter errors
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Compiled Fri 14-Sep-07 21:50 by kellythw
Image text-base: 0x40101040, data-base: 0x42DB89D0
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CISCOCORE-6513 uptime is 4 weeks, 4 days, 18 hours, 35 minutes
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SuperLAT software (copyright 1990 by Meridian Technology Corp).
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What supervisor are you running ?
Be aware that the 6548 module is quite heavily oversubscribed and you could be running into this ie. servers will definitely be sending a lot more data than an IP phone.
The 6548 has an 8Gbps connection the switch fabric (note this is assuming a sup 720). So you have 48 1Gbps ports going in (in = from end devices) and only 8Gbps going out (out = to the switch fabric). Each group of 6 ports shares a 1Gbps connection the switch fabric. So lets says on one of those groupings you had 6 servers with 1Gbps connections. If only three of these servers were sending out 400Mbps of data each you have contention because 3 x 400Mbps = 1.2Gbps and you only have 1Gbps to the switch fabric.
If this is the problem there are a couple of solutions -
1) you can look into how the devices are spread across the port groupings and maybe you could move things around to make the traffic more even among port groupings. However you mention servers and trunks so you could just end up with the same problem but also the phones are not working either.
2) you can look to migrate some connections off that module onto another but this supposes you have spare capacity elsewhere. If those trunk links are connected to other switches then you would defintely want to look into moving these as the 6548 was never intended to be used as an uplink module between switches.
3) you could upgrade the module to something like a 6748 (or whatever the latest is as they keep introducing new ones) which has a much better connection to the switch fabric. Again this assumes a sup720 as the 6748 would't work with a sup32.
However don't just rush into 3) without first doing some investigation work eg. what do the servers do, how much traffic are they churning out etc. Have you looked at the interface stats for each connection to see if you are getting drops etc ?
Jon

POE Line Cards for 6807 Core Switch

Folks,
Could you please advise, if there is any line card specific for 6807 Core Switch , that provides 10/100/1000 POE Ethernet . I have only seen in datasheet as non - poe ..
Thanks for your support.
Regards,
Aaron

Hi Aaron,
If you need a switch that can provide gigabit ethernet POE, you might want to consider having a stand alone switch, like Cisco Catalyst 3560. Kindly refer to this link for more information.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-3560-series-switches/product_data_sheet09186a00801f3d7d.html
Hope this helps!
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I am considering purchasing the following 4510R-E switch items for installation in a new building that will go online shortly.
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b) 1 x Supervisor Engine 6-E (WS-X45-Sup6E)
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We are purchasing classic line cards for item c and d initially due to budget restrictions.
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1:) Do you plan to use PoE with your line cards? Make sure you plan accordingly. I would recommend using the power calculator for this.
2:)This can be done no problem. No additional equipment required.
3:) You should be fine performance wise. This is a pretty standard setup.
Cisco Power Calculator
http://tools.cisco.com/cpc/launch.jsp
HTH,
Mark

7600 / SUP720-3BXL - mixing fabric and non-fabric enabled line cards

Dear All,
I am having to mix fabric and non-fabric enabled line cards on a single chassis.
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WS-X6704-10GE
WS-X6408A-GBIC
WS-X6148-GE-TX
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Also, what will be the optimal and the recommended switching mode to run (truncated vs. bus-mode) ?
Any inputs will be greatly appreciated.
egards,
ZH

hi!
The maximum throughput will depend on the ingress and the egress card for the traffic. i.e. If the traffic is coming on the fabric enabled card and going out on the same, then the throughput is would be equal to the fabric card ( 20 gbps duplex). But if there is a non fabric card either in the ingress or egress path, then the throughput would be limited by the non-fabric card.
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Switching video cards crashes to black screen

Owner of a MPB 6.2 from new, with an intel HD Graphics and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, intel Core i5. OSX 10.6.8
Initially I had the screen going black with a few pixel white line on the top left part of the screen during the hot months of the summer, and I though it was just a little glich due to temperatures and due to connecting or disconnecting the power supply. But in the last couple of days, it has happen everytime, I connected/disconnected the power supply. I do not think the power supply is at fault, but as I connect or disconnet the PS it forces a graphic card switch and it goes black.
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What are the main differences between modular services cards, forwarding processor cards and label switch processor cards? I'm looking for the reason why completely new names were created, i.e. what new functions were added so that MSC name had to be changed to FP or LSP.

Hello Tenaro,
LSP, MSC and FP are different line cards to address discrete functional requirements of different positions in a network.
you can compare the cards' data sheets for differences
CRS-LSP
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/routers/ps5763/data_sheet_c78-659947.html
CRS-FP140
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/routers/ps5763/CRS-FP-140_DS.html
CRS-MSC
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/routers/ps5763/CRS_MSC-140G.html
Regards,
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%ONLINE-SP-6-REGN_TIMER: multiple line cards down after config change

Hi,
I was wondering if someone could help.
I recently changed the entire configuration on two 6509 switches, and the fibre modules on slot 7 and 8 have gone down on BOTH switches. It would be easy to say that its a hardware fault but I cannot understand how module 7 and 8 can go down on both switches. Initially I thought it maybe due to IOS bug 22-33.SXI2a.bin" so I upgraded it to s72033-advipservicesk9_wan-mz.122-18.SXF12a.bin but it still down.
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- Upgraded the IOS from 22-33.SXI2a. to 122-18.SXF12a
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Daughterboard         WS-SUP720          SAL135063V2 4.0    Ok
7 Centralized Forwarding Card WS-F6700-CFC       SAL1419HKJK 4.1    PwrDown
8 Centralized Forwarding Card WS-F6700-CFC       SAL1419HAG0 4.1    PwrDown
Mod                                                      Hw    Fw           Sw           Status
7 5475.d016.075c to 5475.d016.075f   3.1   Unknown      Unknown      PwrDown
8 5475.d0bb.7404 to 5475.d0bb.7407   3.1   Unknown      Unknown      PwrDown
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Would anyone know if the line cards are maybe failing due to Embedded Event Manager configuration ? The person who configured this lab has left the company so I am not sure what the EEM configurations actually mean.
The reason i am suspecting the EEM configuration is because the error in the log seems to suggest the module failed due to registration timer event.
May 30 14:47:00.366: %ONLINE-SP-6-REGN_TIMER: Module 8, Proc. 0. Failed to bring online because of registration timer event
Just trying to check all the possibilities as I have tried everything else,
event manager directory user policy "disk0:/fcp_eem"
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no event manager policy Mandatory.go_switchbus.tcl type system
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Can someone provide a link to the firmware download for Cat65k 67xx series line cards?

I want to check the current firmware releases on Cisco.com for line cards fitted to 6500 series switches. The only images I've been able to locate are those for the supervisor modules.
I cannot locate rommon/firmware images for the 67xx line cards, where are these on the website?

Since receiving the reply yesterday I've had a closer look at this. Attached is an excel file that shows the firmware versions for all the modules fitted.
I see that the same module type has 1 of two firmware versions, surely if this had been downloaded from the supervisor at module boot time then the same version of card would have a consistent firmware version??
E.G. the WS-X6748-SFP modules have either 12.2(14r)S5 or 12.2(18r)S1 in the same chassis.
Can someone explain this in a bit more detail please?

Line card CPU problem

Hi Everyone
   Wat's the router's cpu on line cards used for ? Like Punt pactet 、ARP、CDP this kind of control level of information is handled by the linecard CPU or the CPU on Router engine。
                                                           Regards

which platform you are referring to? If its 6500 it would be still handled in RP CPU in supervisor engine and linecard only have L2/L3 Engine.
Thanks,
Richard.

CISCO VSS with different line cards in chassis

Dear Team,
We are planning to build VSS in our 6509 chassis with 2T SUP.
But my chassis line cards are diifferent. For example one chassis is having CISCO NAM service module and other one dont have NAM and one chassis is having 68XX series line cards and other one is having 67XX series line cards.
**Note: Both chassis are having same SUP 2T
Can we build VSS with this kind of scenarion? if it is possible any issues with VSS for this setup.
Kindly Advise.
Thanks & Regards,
Shine Salim

Yes you can form.
Q. How many Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches can be part of a VSS?
A. The VSS1440 will allow up to two physical Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches to operate as a VSS. The two physical chassis does not need to be identical in the type of modules installed or even type of chassis. For example, a WS-C6503-E chassis can be combined with a WS-C6513 chassis to form a VSS.
HTH

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Hi all,
I have a trouble when trying to install new line card 7600-SSC-400 on Cisco 6509. Here was the message displays on the screen after I finished installing the line card : "%C6KPWR-SP-4-UNSUPPORTED: unsupported module in slot 7, power not allowed: The image for the card is not bundled in image." I tried to install this line card on another slot, but it doesn't work. The attched item is logfile which I saved in the installing session. I don't know what I hvae to do now, please help me to resolve this problem !
Thanks so much,
Hieu

Hi Hieu,
You might want to run the following to see more detail of the error:
show diagnostic result module all detail
And I would also suggest that you reseat the 7600-SSC-400 line card firmly back to the switch, and check the status again.
If it's still showing the error, maybe you can try seating the module on a different slot, and check if you have the same issue.
If the issue still persist after reseating and testing it on different slot, then it might be a hardware issue, and you might want to open a TAC case to further investigate it.
Hope that helps.

Line Cards support for SupEngine 7

Hi,
I would like to upgrade my 4507 core switch which currently has Sup IV to Sup7.
the core switch currently has classic line cards WS-x4506-GB-T and WS-x4224-RJ45V and my worry is these May not be supported..
The datasheet list these as part of the supported classic cards but I would wish to get a confirmation that this is indeed so and what issues I should expect? please advise...
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Line cards shouldn't be an issue. (Don't recall us bumping into any line cards issues with the sup7.)
You may need to upgrade your chassis, though.

Is there any way to replace a cisco Line card with another Model?

We bought a Cisco line card WS-X4648-RJ45-E for Cisco 4507 R-E. Later on I found that this module is not working with the chassis becuase supervisor engine 4 we are using. Supervisor Engine 6 is required for WS-X4648-RJ45-E. Now I want to go for WS-X4548-RJ45. Is it possible to return the line card? Is there any possible way to exchange? I am responsible for the mistake. I dont know what to do.
By the way, I am from Saudi Arabia

Unfortunately, yes. That is true.
However, did YOU specify the part number or did the reseller did? Did they ask relevant questions as to the specific model of your chassis and/or your supervisor card or not?

Ws-x4612-sfp-e line card on 4506

Hi,
Can i use the ws-x4612-sfp-e line card on cisco 4506 (EoL One) switch.

46XX-E line cards are supported on "E" chassis.

Supervisory engine, backplane switching,line cards

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