CCIE - Getting 2nd hand switch

Author

Getting 2nd hand switch

muckfish

2001-12-08, 7:37 am

great gurus of cisco,

i'm planning to get a Cat 5500 13 slot chassis from ebay. I've never touched one of these before, I was wondering any of u great ppl out there could gimme some pointers on checking if the switch is in proper working condition. Thanks!

the fish

darthfeces

2001-12-08, 9:36 am

if it boots and passes all its initial tests
it should be fine, you could do a show log
to see if there have been a lot of exceptions
which could indicate a problem.
without being able to look at it you can't tell
the physical condition of the line cards ?

other than that much like a car there's really no way you can tell if its going to die tomorrow.

muckfish

2001-12-09, 9:44 am

should i assume that im severely scxxwed if the catOS turns out to be corrupt? i was just wondering about the reliability of the stuff thats being sold in ebay ..... have you had an ebay 'experience' before?

i tried mailing the sellers to ask them what the firmware and software versions were .... they simply don't know ... should i be worried or issit just normal?

sidodgers

2001-12-10, 5:08 pm

quote:
Originally posted by muckfish
should i assume that im severely scxxwed if the catOS turns out to be corrupt? i was just wondering about the reliability of the stuff thats being sold in ebay ..... have you had an ebay 'experience' before?

i tried mailing the sellers to ask them what the firmware and software versions were .... they simply don't know ... should i be worried or issit just normal?

I'd be concerned if they didn't know enough about the equipment they were selling to be able to type 'show version' at a CatOS prompt. Strange.

If you're buying a second hand 5500, probably the most important thing to do (at least IMHO) is to grab a flash card (or set up a TFTP server) and back up the firmware somewhere. TFTP it and burn to a CD would be a good idea; it's probably not a good idea to assume that Cisco will be happy to furnish you with replacement images given that you don't know the origin of the equipment.

What's a used 5500 worth, anyways? We got 3 of em at work, fully populated with 24x100 cards, and when they were bought they cost over $A100K each...

Sid

muckfish

2001-12-10, 8:56 pm

sid,

prices range from USD1500 to USD10000 depending on the blades in the chassis. basic configurations start with a 5513 chassis w/ supII and 10BaseT modules with single/dual power supply.

btw, i was planning to purchase a 5500 series switch to study for the switching exam and get me familiarised with the CatOS. This would also ultimately serve me for the CCIE lab in the future. My question is whether i should get a 5000 or 5500? the 5000 is more affordable. what are the 5000 series switches that are used in the CCIE exam? any advice?

Cheerz

sidodgers

2001-12-10, 10:21 pm

quote:
Originally posted by muckfish
sid,

prices range from USD1500 to USD10000 depending on the blades in the chassis. basic configurations start with a 5513 chassis w/ supII and 10BaseT modules with single/dual power supply.

btw, i was planning to purchase a 5500 series switch to study for the switching exam and get me familiarised with the CatOS. This would also ultimately serve me for the CCIE lab in the future. My question is whether i should get a 5000 or 5500? the 5000 is more affordable. what are the 5000 series switches that are used in the CCIE exam? any advice?

Cheerz

I'm honestly not sure, it's a 5000 of some vintage, they tell you that much on the CCIE website. As far as I've been able to work out, though, the lab doesn't test your knowledge of the 5000 very much, just basic things like 'put these ports in this vlan, set sc0 to vlan xyz with this IP, etc.'

So, from this perspective, i'd imagine that any 5000, or even a 2926 would do you fine. I'm almost 100% sure they don't cover stuff like the 6500's native IOS mode or integrating an RSFC/RSM. YMMV.

Sid

muckfish

2001-12-14, 1:34 am

sid,

i think i'll just stick to getting 5k ... 5500 is just too costly, my next question is, Sup 1 or Sup 2,
and the software versions are quite old, i.e. 2.x
how do I go about upgrading the software once when i've purchased the switch? (covered by cisco or do i have to dish out some $$$$)
I actually thought of getting a Sup 2 for etherchannel configuration but some guy told me that etherchannel is not really important.....

sidodgers

2001-12-14, 5:06 am

quote:
Originally posted by muckfish
sid,

i think i'll just stick to getting 5k ... 5500 is just too costly, my next question is, Sup 1 or Sup 2,
and the software versions are quite old, i.e. 2.x
how do I go about upgrading the software once when i've purchased the switch? (covered by cisco or do i have to dish out some $$$$)
I actually thought of getting a Sup 2 for etherchannel configuration but some guy told me that etherchannel is not really important.....

If you can, get one with a sup II. Otherwise, you may wind up regretting it - etherchannel itself is easy to configure (a couple commands, don't think you'll have much trouble with that on the lab,) but keep in mind that the sup IIs came out a bit later and are less likely to have interesting quirks in the default firmware load they come with.

Regarding your question about images, as far as I know Cisco aren't _overly_ particular about who they give images to, but they don't give them out to people on the street.... *shrug* your mileage may vary.

Sid

junovtv

2001-12-14, 11:37 am

I would suggest that you get the Cat5000. All you really need is the image that supports all the commands. You should be able to do trunking and channeling and yadda yadda.

I do believe that Cisco has a program where you can download the images off their website if you do not have a contract with them.

You'll never know what they will ask you to do in the lab so prepare well. good luck!

-junovtv

muckfish

2001-12-18, 9:04 pm

ok guys, finally secured a 5505 w/ sup II 5506 and 2 5213A blades for $1400 .... hope its money well spent

hope the switch runs when i get it!

juno,

where can i find the program to download images from cisco?
i was looking around for it in CCO but no luck. i've only got a guest account (can't do much with that)
Thank guys for all yer input

darthfeces

2001-12-18, 9:59 pm

go to
software center - lan switching
cat5000 look for images for the sup2

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