The document discusses the Cisco Catalyst 6500 series chassis and components. It provides details on the different chassis models, supervisor engines, line cards, and modules available. It also covers features like redundant power supplies, Route Processor Redundancy, EtherChannels, Unidirectional Link Detection, and Flex Links.

1. Aakash Agarwal
Network Engineer
OESE-GNO-DC
Cisco Systems, Inc
28th April 2012
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2.  6500 Chassis
 6500 Supervisors
 6500 LineCards
 6500 Modules
 6500 Hardware components
 6500 Supported features
 Extra Features – UDLD Fast, Etherchannel
Guard, Flex Links etc.

3. Catalyst 6503
3 slot chassis
Catalyst 6506
6 slot chassis
Catalyst 6509-NEBS
NEBSCompliant 9 slot chassis
Catalyst 6513
13 slot chassis
Catalyst 6509-NEBS-A
9 slot chassis
Catalyst 6509
9 slot chassis

4. 1. 3 slot chassis
2. Supports Redundant PS
3. Supports Redundant Sups
4. Max supported Sup -720
5. SUP Should be installed either in Slot 1/2
6. The Slots not used by SUP can be used for
Modules
7. 6503-E enhanced version
1. 4 slot chassis
2. Supports Redundant PS
3. Supports Redundant SUP
4. Max to SUP 2T
5. SUP Should be installed Either in Slot 1
or 2
6. The Slots not used by SUP can be used for
Modules

5. 1. 6 slot chassis
2. Max to SUP 720 Supported
3. SUP 2 Should be installed either in Slot 1/2
4. Rest SUPs on Slot 5 & 6
5. The Slots not used by SUP can be used for
Modules
6. 6506 E enhanced version supports SUP 2-T
1. 9 slot chassis
2. Max to SUP 720-10GE
3. SUP 2 Should be installed either in Slot
1/2
4. Rest SUPs on Slot 5 & 6
5. The Slots not used by SUP can be used for
Modules
6. 6509-E Enhanced version supports SUP 2-
T

6. 1. 13 slot chassis
2. Supports Redundant PS
3. Supports Redundant SUP
4. Max supported SUP 720-
10GE
5. SUP 2 Should be installed
either in Slot ½
6. Rest SUPs on Slot 7 & 8
7. The Slots not used by SUP
can be used for Modules
8. 6513-E enhanced supports
SUP 2T

7. Supervisor 2
1. 256Gbps backplane
2. Supporting Hardware A
Layer 2 & 3
3. QoS and Security policies
up to 210Mpps
4. PFC/MSFC depends on
variant
1. 32 Gbps backplane
2. Does not support switch
fabric
1. 32Gbps backplane
2. Supporting hardware
accelerated Layer 2 & 3
3. QoS and Security policies
up to 15Mpps
Supervisor Options for the Catalyst 6500
The Catalyst 6500 has three Supervisor options on offer
with each providing a different architectural backplane
configuration for line cards to connect into…
Supervisor 32Supervisor 1A

8. Supervisor 720-10GE
1. Features same as
SUP720
2. Additional two 10 GE
ports for uplink
1. 2 Tbps backplane
2. PFC4/MSFC5
3. Supports only Linecard
with DFC4
4. Two 10 GE uplinks
1. 720 Gbps backplane
2. Supporting hardware
accelerated Layer 2 & 3
3. QoS and Security policies
up to 400Mpps
Supervisor Options for the Catalyst 6500
The Catalyst 6500 has three Supervisor options on offer
with each providing a different architectural backplane
configuration for line cards to connect into…
Supervisor 2T (New)Supervisor 720

9. The Catalyst 6500 has a family of linecards to suit all network needs…
10/100 TX and 100 Fiber 10/100/1000 TX GE SFP
GE GBIC 10GE WAN
Optical Switch Modules Inline Power ATM
C
A
T
6
5
0
0
L
I
N
E
C
A
R
D
S

10. Service Modules represent the next generation of intelligent modules for the Catalyst
6500. Each module provides a high performance option, scalable and feature rich
deployment options…
Content ServicesCommunications Media MWAN
Firewall Module VPN Module Intrusion Detection
Content Switching ACE Network Management

11. Slot 1
Slot 7
Slot 6
Slot 2
Slot 3
Slot 4
Slot 8
Slot 9
•Fabric channels run at 20
Gbps
– Full Duplex, so 20 Gbps in / 20
Gbps out per channel
– Two fabric channels allocated to
each slot
– 40 Gbps/slot with dual fabric
channels
•Total Switching Capacity =
720 Gbps (Full Duplex
Operation)
9-slot

12. The Switch fabric functionality is built into the Sup engine. And creates dedicated
connection between fabric-enabled modules and provides uninterrupted transmission of
the frames between modules. PFC is available on SUP and DFC available on Linecards in
general.
 Forwarding decision for Layer 3 switched traffic: Either PFC3 or DFC3 makes
forwarding decision for layer 3 switched traffic:
 A PFC3 takes decision for forwarding decisions for all packets that entered the
switch from the module without DFC3 card
 A DFC3 makes forwarding decision for all the traffic that entered from the
module has DFC3 card
If Egress port is on the same module on the ingress , packet never leaves
the module
If Egress port is on another DFC3 enabled module then directly goes to
that module
If Egress port is on the module where DFC3 is not available then packet is
sent to Sup and Sup forwards to the module

13. • The PFC3 and DFC3 provides hardware
support to these software features:
• ACL for Layer 3 ports and VLAN
interfaces
• Bidirectional Protocol Independents
Multicast (PIM) in hardware
• Ipv4 Multicast tunnels P2P GRE Tunnels
in hardware
• URPF in hardware
• NAT for IPv4 in hardware
• NetFlow aggregation
• PBR based routing in hardware*
• TCP intercept
•Etc….

14. Some of the major file systems that are used on the Supervisor 720 include
FILESYSTEM DESCRIPTION
bootflash: Flash that is owned by the RP
sup-bootflash: Flash that is owned by the SP
disk0: The first compact flash slot on the Supervisor
slavedisk0: 1st CF slot on redundant Supervisor
nvram: The second compact flash slot on the Supervisor
slavebootflash: Flash memory owned by a redundant supervisor
slavenvram: NVRAM on a Redundant Supervisor
disk1: The second compact flash slot on the Supervisor
slavedisk1: 2nd CF slot on a Redundant Supervisor
startup-config: Startup configuration located in NVRAM
running-config: Running configuration located in DRAM

15. Information on specific files can be viewed as follows (filename of IOS shown in the
example)…
6500# show file info disk0:s72033-ps-mz.122-14.SX1.bin
disk0:s72033-ps-mz.122-14.SX1.bin:
type is image (elf) []
file size is 26672876 bytes, run size is 26837656 bytes
Runnable image, entry point 0x80020000, run from ram
6500#
6500# dir disk0:
Directory of disk0:/
1 -rw- 26672876 Sep 09 2003 23:13:50 s72033-ps-mz.122-14.SX1.bin
256417792 bytes total (229744640 bytes free)

16. Contents of compact flash in these slots can be viewed by using the “DIR” command shown
as follows…
6500# dir disk0:
Directory of disk0:/
1 -rw- 26672876 Sep 09 2003 23:13:50 s72033-ps-mz.122-14.SX1.bin
256417792 bytes total (229744640 bytes free)
6500#
NOTE – If no compact flash card is located in the
slot, then you will get an error using this
command
6500# dir disk1:
%Error opening disk1:/ (No device available)

19. • Multi Chassis Ether channel: A
portchannel is normally binds 2 or more
ports on a single chassis but a Multi chassis
etherchannel binds ports on 2 different
chassis.
• Redundancy and High Availability:
Redundancy is managed by chassis using
Stateful switchover (SSO – Layer 2
unintrupted flow) and Nonstop Forwarding
(NSF – Layer 3 uninterrupted flow).
• Naming in VSS: 1/2/2 – 2/2/2
• Not Supported: The WAN modules are not
supported with any of the VSS configuration.
• Topology Design: Suggestion is to connect
2 links between supervisors and 1 link from
line card.

20. Route Processor Redundancy

21. The Catalyst 6500 supports failover between two supervisor 720’s installed in the switch –
two fault tolerant modes can be configured – Route Processor Redundancy (RPR) and
Route Processor Redundancy Plus (RPR+)…
Sup720-A
Sup720-B
RPR
RPR+
RPR+ provides
failover generally
within 30 to 60
seconds
RPR provides
failover generally
within 2 to 4
minutes
PSU PSU
Catalyst 6500
RPR and RPR+ requires
BOTH supervisors to be
the SAME and both must
run the SAME IOS
image…

22. When the switch boots, RPR runs between the two supervisors
Sup720-B
Sup720-A
PSU PSU
Catalyst 6500
The first Supervisor to complete the boot process becomes
the active Supervisor
Clock synchronization occurs between Primary and Backup
every 60 seconds
When the redundant supervisor is booted, not all
subsystems become operational (i.e. MSFC and PFC are not
active)
Startup configuration and configuration registers are
synchronized between supervisors
GE ports on Redundant Supervisor ARE active
RPR Features

23. RPR+ enhances the operation of the base RPR feature -
Sup720-B
Sup720-A
PSU PSU
Catalyst 6500RPR+ has all RPR features plus the following enhancements
- Reduces switchover time on failover to between 30 and
60 seconds
- Installed linecards are not reloaded
- Support of OIR for redundant Supervisor
- Manual user initiated switchover to the redundant
supervisor
Static Routes are maintained across a switchover
FIB tables are cleared on switchover
CAM Tables are cleared on switchover
Other state information (i.e. Netflow records) are not
maintained on switchover
Other Important Points

24. Configuration of RPR and RPR+ is achieved by entering into redundancy configuration
mode, then choosing the mode you wish the switch to run in…
6500# conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
6500(config)# redundancy
6500(config-red)# mode ?
rpr Route Processor Redundancy
rpr-plus Route Processor Redundancy Plus
RPR RPR+
6500(config-red)# mode rpr 6500(config-red)# mode rpr-plus

25. The redundant configuration status of the switch can be viewed using the following…
6500# show redundancy states
my state = 13 -ACTIVE
peer state = 1 -DISABLED
Mode = Simplex
Unit = Primary
Unit ID = 5
Redundancy Mode (Operational) = Route Processor Redundancy Plus
Redundancy Mode (Configured) = Route Processor Redundancy Plus
Split Mode = Disabled
Manual Swact = Disabled Reason: Simplex mode
Communications = Down Reason: Simplex mode
client count = 11
client_notification_TMR = 30000 milliseconds
keep_alive TMR = 9000 milliseconds
keep_alive count = 0
keep_alive threshold = 18
RF debug mask = 0x0
Redundant State Configured

26. During normal operation, the primary Supervisor will synchronize its startup configuration
and configuration registers with the redundant Supervisor – manual synchronization can
also be performed as follows…
PRIMARY
SUPERVISOR
REDUNDANT
SUPERVISOR
6500(config)# redundancy
6500(config-red)# ?
Redundancy configuration commands:
exit Exit from redundancy configuration mode
main-cpu Enter main-cpu mode
mode redundancy mode for this chassis
no Negate a command or set its defaults
6500(config-red)# main-cpu
6500(config-r-mc)# auto-sync ?
startup-config
running-config
config-register
bootvar
Startup-Config
Running-Config
Config-Register
Startup-Config
Running-Config
Config-Register
The specific element that needs to be synchronized can
be specified in the above command…

28. All Catalyst 6500 chassis options support redundant power supplies. Power Supply options
include both AC and DC versions
Power Supply 1 Power Supply 2
For normal operation, both power supplies
should be the same wattage
The 6500 does support two power supplies
with different wattages – this scenario is
targeted for upgrade scenarios and is not
recommended for normal operation
The 6500 also supports an AC and DC power
supply installed at the same time, but again,
this is more designed for upgrade purposes
and NOT normal operation

29. The 6500 can utilize two power supplies to work in either combined or redundant mode
Redundant Mode Combined Mode
In redundant mode, each power supply
operates at 50% capacity and provides
the same total power as a single power
supply – if one fails, the backup reverts to
providing 100% power
In combined mode, each power supply
operates at 167% - if one fails, then the
running supply provides 100% of its
power capacity
Power Supply 1 Power Supply 2
50% 50%
Switch
Power Supply 1 Power Supply 2
83% 83%
Switch

30. An Etherchannel combines multiple physical links in the chassis into a single logical link. Ideal
for Load sharing or Link redundancy – can be used by both layer 2 and Layer 3 subsystems…
Catalyst 6500 Catalyst 6500
Catalyst 6500 Catalyst 6500
Physical View
Multiple ports
are defined as
being part of an
Etherchannel
group
An Etherchannel can be defined on Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet or 10
Gigabit Ethernet Ports
Logical View
Subsystems running
on the switch only
see one logical link

31. There are some limits to how many Etherchannel bundles that can be created in a chassis
and how many physical links can be in the same Etherchannel group…
Number of Etherchannel
groups in a chassis
A maximum of 64
Etherchannel groups can be
defined in a 6500 chassis at
any one point in time…
Number of physical links in
an Etherchannel group
From 2 to 8 physical links
can exist in a single
Etherchannel group on the
Catalyst 6500…
Can an Etherchannel group
cross modules
An Etherchannel bundle can
exist across modules and
non contiguous ports…

32.  UDLD: Unidirectional Link Detection
 Can prevent these problems:
Spanning tree topology loops caused by Unidirectional links
 Incorrect cabling unbundled in fiber standards
Tran receiver and hardware malfunction
Incorrect or excessive flood of the packets
Loss of traffic
 UDLD is a Layer 2 protocol but works with layer 1 protocols. Echo is sent to the other
side if no reply came the n made it in shutdown mode. Dead time is 3 times of interval
time.
 Fast UDLD: with the release 12.2(33), we have support for fast UDLD. Fast UDLD is a per
port configuration that supports UDLD message time intervals between 200 to 1000
milliseconds .With out Fast UDLD the interval is 7 to 90 seconds. Fast UDLD is disabled by
default. Fast UDLD does not work if CPU utilization is above 60%.

33.  Flex Links:
 Flex links are pair of Layer 2 interfaces (ports or port-channels), where one interface is
configured to back to other interface.
 These links are basically configured in SP environment where customers do not want STP
to be running.
 Flex links provides Link level redundancy that is alternate to STP. STP is automatically
disabled on Flex interfaces.
 Flex links are only supported on Layer 2 not on Layer 3.
 When you configure a pair only one interface would be in Link up state and forwarding
state.
 If primary link goes down a Trap notifies the Network Management system. Up on the
failure on primary this is what happens:
Detects the failure
 Moves any static Mac address to standby
Dynamic MAC to standby
Moves standby to forwarding state

34. Guidelines:
• you can have only one backup link
• The interface can only belong to a
single pair
• The interface should not belong to
any port channel
• however you can configure Port-
channel as in interface
• A backup link should not have to
be same type e.g. g, ten. Ethernet
Flex Links:

35. • Server mode: Create/modify/change/delete
• Client Mode: no change in VLANs
• Transparent Mode: Does not participate in VTP
though v2 forwards the VTP advertisements out
to the trunk ports
•OFF: In VTP off mode, it’s just like Transparent
mode, but do not forward the VTP advertisement

36. • Feature is enabled by default
• Detects when the Etherchannel is configured
incorrectly
• The other side is configured incorrectly.
• Once they are detected they are pushed in err-
disable mode

37. 1. To show file system:
#show file system
#dir boot:
2. To Allow a 6500 to boot from a flash:
#config t
#boot system flash:<name/image>
3. To check the System Image and uptime
#show ver | i uptime|image
4. To change the media type
#config
#int ten2/1
#media-type sfp|rj45
5. To check Fabric errors
#show fabric errors
6. To check redundancy status (SUP)
#show redundancy status
7. Manual switchover
#redundancy force-switchover

38. 8. To view the modules:
#show module
9. To reload the module
#hw-module module 5 reset
#power cycle module 5
#no power enable module 1
#power enable module 1
10. Module Test
#show diagno result module 5
# show diagno result module 5 detail
#show fabric errors
11. To change the power redundancy mode
#config
#power redundancy-mode {redundant|combine}
#show environment
12. To view OBFL information
#show logging onboard module 1 uptime
13. To check MAC addresses allocated to Chassis for STP
#show catalyst6000 chassis-mac-addresses

39. Note – The information provided in the document is collected from open
source, if any kind of conflicts please refer back to www.cisco.com or contact
the author Aakash32017@gmail.com or our Voluntary group of knowledge
Comcore Solution  https://www.facebook.com/groups/comcore/