| Recently I was on a project to upgrade our current | | | | with redundancy and rapid (1 to 3 seconds) stateful |
| Cisco 6509 core switches and came across some | | | | failover across supervisor engines. It supports modular |
| new changes to the Cisco 6509 chassis. The | | | | Cisco IOS Software to minimize unplanned downtime |
| switches that were being upgraded were just doing | | | | through self-healing processes and simplifies software |
| basic switching duties, populated with Sup II's in Slot 1 | | | | changes through subsystem in-service software |
| and primarily had 10/100/1000 switching module | | | | upgrades. |
| scattered throughout. | | | | The Cisco Catalyst 6509-E Firewall Security System is |
| The plan was to upgrade these switches to Sup 720's | | | | a 9-slot model providing an easily deployed solution |
| and add a couple more 10/100/1000 blades. My initial | | | | that integrates a Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series |
| thoughts were that we would need to upgrade the fan | | | | Supervisor Engine 720 (with integrated policy and |
| tray and most likely the power supplies too. The | | | | multilayer switch feature cards [PFC3/MSFC3] for |
| current power was provided by a pair of 2500W | | | | system control, routing services, and dual Gigabit |
| power supplies and due to the increased power | | | | Ethernet ports); a Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Firewall |
| requirement for a fully loaded chassis and the newer | | | | Services Module providing 5 Gbps of firewall services; |
| supervisor card we would most definitely need bigger | | | | and 7 additional open slots for further customization. |
| power supplies. | | | | Well needless to say I wasn't too happy that I would |
| I had priced newer power supplies and found that | | | | need to upgrade the entire chassis. Luckily I found out |
| 4000W or 6000W power were both about the same | | | | that I would need to upgrade the power after all. The |
| price. Since 6000w was about the same as the | | | | chassis configured with only switches modules and |
| 4000W lets get the bigger power! But to my surprise | | | | one sup720 sufficient for the 2500W power even if |
| the current chassis would not take the 6000W power. | | | | one were to die, the remaining 2500W power supply |
| We needed the 6509-E chassis for these big boys. | | | | would handle it. |
| Cisco 6509-E | | | | NOTE: While researching this article I found out that |
| It seems the Cisco elves have been hard at work | | | | Cisco has made even more changes to the 6509 line |
| keeping up with the demand for power over Ethernet | | | | and have introduced the 6509-V-E Chassis. This is a |
| (PoE) for their VoIP line as well as the many other | | | | vertical NEBs compliant chassis similar to the 7600 |
| power demands put on it by the Cisco ACE load | | | | chassis. It provides capabilities to support system |
| balancing system, FWSM, IDS, etc that the internal | | | | bandwidth capacity (80 Gbps per slot) up to 1440 |
| power couldn't handle it. So they came out with the | | | | Gbps and enhanced cable management capabilities. It |
| 6509-E. | | | | also provides front-to-back airflow that is optimized for |
| From Cisco's website: | | | | hot and cold aisle designs in co-located data center |
| The Cisco Catalyst 6509-E supports both Cisco | | | | deployments. |
| Catalyst OS and Cisco IOS Software. It also supports | | | | 1440Gbps in a 6509? ---- Dear Santa, I would like a |
| up to a 6000W power supply, thus providing the ability | | | | new switch please! |
| to support large numbers of IEEE 802.3af PoE | | | | :-) |
| devices. | | | | Freak! |
| The Cisco Catalyst 6509-E provides maximum up time | | | | |