Cisco switch eases 10G pains
Review: The company’s new Catalyst 4900M delivers flexibility, stability
By Cameron Sturdevant Storm, the price you end up paying sis to max out the 16 10G Ethernet
As servers become more for the 4900M will vary greatly depend- interfaces. Layer 2 and 3 latency
densely consolidated, and ing on the mixture of half-cards and for packet forwarding for pack-
as the data sets that back- transceivers you require, since those ets ranging from 64- to 9216-byte
end applications are called on to elements comprise about 70 percent jumbo frames remained steady at
process continue to swell, IT organi- of the hardware costs for the unit. approximately 2. 6 microseconds
zations must seek out strategies for IT shops that process video, CAD with no transmit or receive errors.
transitioning their direct-to-server and other large-volume data proj- All tests were 5 minutes in dura-
connectivity from 1 Gigabit to 10 ects, and especially those that have tion and conducted at 100 percent
Gigabit Ethernet. placed x86 server virtualization at and 10 percent utilization rates to
Cisco’s newly minted Catalyst the top of the priority list, should search for buffer- and stress-related
4900M can help netw ork engineers errors.
navigate that transition by offer- Just as impressive as the 4900M’s
ing a mixture of fixed and swap- performance was the way it kept
pable, card-based ports to provide chugging along when I pulled
administrators with the means to one of the unit’s AC power
growing into 10G as the network supplies (DC power supplies
I/O needs of their infrastructure are expected to begin shipping
expand. in June) while the
The 4900M is switch was
a 2U ( 3.5-inch) running full
form factor data tilt.
center switch that’s Because 10G to
designed to sit atop The Cisco Catalyst 4900M switch has the server is still on the bleeding
a rack of servers, aggregate their eight fixed 10G Ethernet ports and two edge, there’s plenty of innovation to
traffic and uplink to an end-of-row half-card slots that can provide organiza- go around. Last November, Arastra
switch such as a Catalyst 6500. The tions with the flexibility to handle the tran- sition of servers from 1G to 10G. announced the 7148S, a 10G switch
“M” in 4900M stands for modular, that Arastra claims to be the highest-
with the intention that 1G modules start planning now how to accom- density top-of-rack device available.
will be replaced with 10G modules modate the growth in individual Arastra has crammed 48 10 Gigabit
as data center server network con- server network capacity. For these Ethernet ports into a 1U (1.75-inch)
nections increase in bandwidth. shops, implementing equipment to form factor chassis. The 7148S uses
The 4900M, which is Cisco’s bridge the 1G-to-10G gap in their SFP+ interfaces, compared with the
first semifixed switch, divides its architecture plans likely will become larger and older X2 optical modules
available capacity between eight a necessity before long. used in the Cisco 4900M. Arastra
fixed, wire-speed, X2 format, 10G Based on my tests of the 4900M, wouldn’t disclose pricing but claims
Ethernet ports, and two half-slots which I had the opportunity to put to be holding to a target price per
that can accommodate a mixture of through its paces at Ixia’s iSimCity port that is only two to three times
10G and 10/100/1000 ports, in both test and measurement center, Cisco’s the cost of a 1G port.
full-line rate and 2:1 oversubscribed new switch deserves a spot near the flavors. top of your data center equipment Networks in transition
The Cisco switch began shipping evaluation list. I tested the 4900M the 4900m design and function is
in January and is priced starting at in a configuration with 16 10G ports all about supporting a transition
$22,000, butas welearnedby working running at full-line speed. from 1G to 10G Ethernet in top-
with Cisco-certified reseller Fusion- I used an Ixia Optixia 12XM chas- of-rack data [CON TINUED ON PAGE 48]
