Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Enginesdich.com.tw/network/Core/Cisco/6500/SuperEng_Data sheet.pdf · Premier AVVID wiring closets, whereas Supervisor Engine 2 is positioned

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DATA SHEET

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series SupervisorEngines

The supervisor engines for Catalyst® 6500 Series

switches deliver the latest advanced switching

technology with proven Cisco software to power

a new generation of scalable, intelligent multilayer

switching solutions for both enterprise and service

provider environments.

The Catalyst 6500 Series supervisor engines,

including the Supervisor Engine 2 and the Supervisor

Engine 1A, deliver intelligent multilayer switching

and network management; both supervisors also

support two Gigabit Interface Converter

(GBIC)-based Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports for

increased port density and cost effectiveness.

Figure 1 Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 2(WS-X6K-SUP2-PFC2)

Figure 2 Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine1A

The Supervisor Engine 2 uses the latest ASIC

technology, building upon the Supervisor Engine

1A to deliver next-generation features and

services. The Supervisor Engine 2 is a key

component of the new Cisco Express Forwarding

(CEF)-based architecture that enables distributed

forwarding. The Supervisor Engine 2 also acts as

the control module for the Catalyst 6500 series

architecture built around the crossbar fabric

which scales the bandwidth to 256 Gbps.

Supervisor Engine 2 is required to enable a

Catalyst 6500 series with a 256-Gbps crossbar

architecture.

Supervisor Engine 2 allows connections to both

the existing bus and switch fabrics making it a

suitable product for the entire Catalyst 6500

Series. This also allows full investment protection

for customers who hope to transition into the new

architecture by allowing them to populate the

Cisco Systemsight © 2001 Cisco Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 1 of 14

chassis with classic (non fabric-enabled cards) as well as

new fabric-enabled cards. Both Supervisor Engines 2 and

1A deliver the most advanced intelligent switching

available in the industry, providing per-port application

recognition, admission control, prioritization, and

policing with multiple hardware queues to minimize

network congestion and packet latency. This advanced

Quality of Service (QoS) support is essential for enabling

network-wide deployment of mission-critical applications

and enterprise voice services and solutions. Supervisor

Engine 2 further enhances performance with features like

multicast replication in hardware, required for video

streaming applications. This allows both enterprises and

services providers to use multiservice applications

without sacrificing performance.

Supervisor Engines Provide IntelligentServicesCatalyst 6500 Series switches support both Supervisor 1A

and 2, providing a scalable solution, investment protection,

and common sparing options. These supervisor engines

enable high-speed switching bandwidth, delivering superior

levels of switching performance for high-density Gigabit

Ethernet backbones. The Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor

Engine 1A supports up to 15 million packets per second

(Mpps) in the existing 32-Gbps bus architecture with 130

Gigabit ports per chassis. Supervisor Engine 2, when

installed with the crossbar fabric, doubles the central

forwarding performance for both Layer 2 and Layer 3 to 30

Mpps and allows up to 194 Gigabit Ethernet ports per

chassis. Supervisor Engine 2 enables the distributed

forwarding architecture that scales the aggregrate

forwarding performance to 210 Mpps. Supervisor Engine 2

also supports the new Optical Services Modules that provide

optical WAN connectivity via PXF processors for distributed

high touch IP Services. Please refer to the following url for

more information on Optical Services Modules: http://

www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/rt/7600osr/prodlit/

index.shtml Both Supervisor Engine 1A and 2 provide

support for the FlexWAN module for WAN-edge

connectivity. The Supervisor Engine 1A is positioned in

Premier AVVID wiring closets, whereas Supervisor Engine 2

is positioned in the high density Premier AVVID wiring

closet, distribution and core, where distributed Layer 3

services are required. Supervisor Engine 2 can also be

positioned in high-end server farms in both service providers

and large enterprises, where distributed forwarding can

provide performance scalability. The additional memory

requirements for Supervisor Engine 2, MSFC2, and DFC are

listed below:

Table 1 Memory Requirements for Supervisor Engine 2

1FLM stand for Fixed Length Mask2 VLSM stands for Variable Length Subnet Mask

Supervisor Engine 2 Delivers EnhancedPerformanceSupervisor Engine 2 acts as the control module for the new

architecture built around the crossbar fabric that

interconnects all the line cards with point-to-point,

full-duplex serial connections. Supervisor Engine 2 is a key

component of the CEF-based distributed forwarding

architecture. Supervisor Engine 2 consists of three separate

components including:

1. Supervisor Engine—The supervisor engine itself that

provides connectivity to the 32 Gbps bus as well as the

crossbar fabric.

2. Policy Feature Card (PFC) 2—Supervisor Engine 2

ships with a PFC2 that constitutes a critical

component of the distributed CEF architecture. It

contains all Application-Specific Integrated Circuits

(ASICs) for Layer 2 and 3 look-ups and performs

many Cisco IOS® features in hardware. It performs IP

Unicast and Multicast forwarding, QoS, and Access

Control List (ACL) lookups in hardware.

Scales central forwarding to 30 Mpps.

3. Multilayer Switch Feature Card (MSFC) 2—This card

is a configurable option, performs Layer 3

functionality and is a requirement for CEF-based

forwarding information base (FIB).

Product

RouteTableSizeFLM1

50KVLSM2:32 K

RouteTableSizeFLM: 150KVLSM:64K

RouteTableSizeFLM:250KVLSM: 150K

SupervisorEngine 2

128MB 256MB 512MB

MSFC2 128MB 256MB 512MB

DFC 128MB 128MB 256MB

Cisco SystemsCopyright © 2001 Cisco Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 2 of 14

PFC2 is a critical component of the distributed forwarding

architecture. With Supervisor Engine 2, both Layer 2 and

Layer 3 performance is doubled to 30 Mpps. A Supervisor

Engine 2 equipped with a PFC2 and an optional MSFC2

enables a distributed forwarding mechanism for both

Layer 2 and Layer 3 that is an effective solution for service

providers as well as large enterprises. In a CEF-based

architecture, a FIB and an adjacency table is created for Layer

3 forwarding. This FIB has the most current routing

information and eliminates the need for the first packet of

every flow to be switched in software. When an MSFC2 is

not present, Layer 2 forwarding is also performed centrally

in hardware, via ASICs, at 30 Mpps. MSFC2 is, however,

required for both Layer 3 central forwarding at 30 Mpps as

well as distributed forwarding. This is because distributed

forwarding is only supported in Cisco IOS software, which

requires an MSFC2. IP multicast replication and forwarding

is also performed directly in hardware. Thus, a Supervisor

Engine 2 can be deployed in scenarios with or without an

MSFC2 for higher centralized forwarding performance. The

FIB and adjacency tables are capable of storing 256K entries

each.

Distributed forwarding can be enabled via a daughter

card on the new fabric-enabled linecards. Please see the

Distributed Forwarding Card data sheet for more

pertinent information. http://www.cisco.com/warp/

public/cc/pd/si/casi/ca6000/prodlit/65dfc_ds.htm. PFC

enhances performance by performing certain Cisco IOS

features, such as Policy Based Routing (PBR), standard/

extended ACLs, and reflexive ACLs in hardware. In

addition, PFC2 performs features like unicast RPF and

transmission control protocol (TCP) intercept in

hardware. Performing these functions in hardware

ensures that there is no performance penalty for enabling

certain high-security features to protect the integrity of

hosted applications.

While PFC2 handles many features such as ACLs

similarly to the PFC, it incorporates enhancements in PBR

where the full flowmask restriction is eliminated and thus

“IP Source” based policy routing can be implemented.

This is a desirable feature for large enterprises and service

providers because they can enable PBR by interface

leading to a more granular control on their resources.

PFC2 can store twice the capacity of ACL and QoS

policing entries, compared to PFC.

PFC2 is also a key component for doubling the

forwarding performance to 30 Mpps and, unlike the PFC

which is optional for Supervisor 1A, it ships with all

Supervisor Engine 2 modules. Although flows aren’t

cached for forwarding frames, NetFlow Tables are still

created for accounting purposes. While the FIB is used for

forwarding traffic, a NetFlow cache is maintained on the

PFC2 and NetFlow Data is exported as flows are aged

out. NetFlow tables are also used for forwarding TCP

intercept flows. As many different customers use the

infrastructure owned by service providers for application

and web hosting, the NetFlow data can be exported for

reporting and billing customers based on usage to help

deliver Cisco Service Level Agreements.

The addition of the PFC to the Supervisor Engine 1A or a

PFC2 with Supervisor Engine 2 provides granular per-port

recognition and classification of different types of traffic,

and enables admission control to manage which

applications are granted access to the network. Once all

traffic flows have been properly classified, both PFC and

PFC2 mark the packet priority with either Layer 3

(Differentiated Services or IP Precedence) or Layer 2

(802.1p or ISL) prioritization techniques. Each traffic flow

can then be optionally rate-limited, or policed, according

to predefined policies. Traffic exceeding this transmission

limit can either be dropped or marked down to a lower

priority by the policy feature card.

Furthermore, either policy feature card enables the ability

to intelligently load-balance traffic in server switching

complexes. The PFC works in conjunction with an

external LocalDirector engine, which calculates the

appropriate destination server via the load-balancing

algorithm according to destination addresses or Layer 4

port information. The PFC then caches this traffic flow,

enabling intelligent load-balanced server switching at rates

of 15 Mpps with Supervisor 1A. This technique is known

as accelerated server load-balancing (ASLB). Please see the

“Policy Feature Card for the Catalyst 6500 Series of

Switches” data sheet for more detailed information. The

ASLB feature is not supported on Supervisor Engine 2.

Supervisor Engine 1A supports another feature called

IOS-SLB in the native IOS mode. This feature integrates

much of the Local Director functionality into the switch,

thereby providing a single chassis solution with integrated


Page 3 of 14

load-balancing capability. The feature will also be

supported on Supervisor Engine 2. Please refer to the

release notes of Supervisor IOS images for details

pertaining to this feature.

Intelligent Services

Enhanced Control Plane Performance

While Supervisor Engine 1A ships with both MSFC2 and

MSFC as configurable options, Supervisor 2 only ships

with MSFC2 as a configurable option. In addition to

supporting all the features provided in MSFC, the MSFC2

offers many new features that provide enhancements for

scaling large networks. The addition of an MSFC2 or an

MSFC enables full multiprotocol routing support for

enterprise and service provider networks.

The new MSFC2 offers enhanced scalability via a 4 times

increase in control plane and software switching

performance over that of MSFC. This translates into a

significant performance enhancement for all applications,

such as IOS-SLB, that use the software switching path to

switch the first packet in the flow, as is done with

Supervisor Engine 1A.

Both MSFC2 and MSFC support a wide range of routed

protocols, such as IP, International Packet Exchange (IPX)

and IP multicast traffic with additional support for

AppleTalk, DECnet, and VINES. Network managers can

also deploy any routing protocol as necessary to scale

intranet or interdomain networks. Both MSFC2 and

MSFC ship with 128 MB DRAM in default configuration,

with MSFC2 also supporting ECC DRAM options of 256

MB and 512 MB for Internet-sized route tables.

Supported routing protocols include: Open Shortest Path

First (OSPF), Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP),

Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP), Routing Information Protocol

(RIP), RIP II, Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP4),

Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS), IPX

RIP or EIGRP, AppleTalk Routing Table Maintenance

Protocol (RTMP) or EIGRP, DECnet Phase IV.

Both MSFC2 and MSFC also provide a wide range of

software services to enable scalable, end-to-end multicast

traffic, security, and extra QoS mechanisms in addition to

those provided by the PFC. For example, both MSFC2

and MSFC provide support for the Protocol Independent

Multicast (PIM) routing protocol including PIM sparse,

dense, sparse/dense modes, as well as granular security

access control lists. In addition, both support the

Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), which allows for

the creation of end-to-end QoS “tunnels” that guarantee

and reserve specific bandwidth rates throughout a

network. Network-wide visibility and management is

ensured through various traffic accounting and NetFlow

data export mechanisms. MSFC2 also supports up to

1000 terminated virtual LANs (VLANs), a fourfold

increase over MSFC, thereby allowing scalability in large

enterprise or service provider networks. Please see the

respective data sheets at the following URL for more

details: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/si/casi/

ca6000/prodlit/index.shtml.

Modular Uplink Ports Provide Bandwidth

Scalability and Redundancy

Supervisor Engine 1A and 2 each support two modular

Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports for increased cost

effectiveness and flexibility. Both ports support flexible

GBICs and are available in single mode and multimode

fiber options. For increased scalability, both ports will

support Cisco Gigabit EtherChannel® and multimodule

channeling (when combined with ports from different line

cards) providing links up to 16 Gbps full duplex for

high-speed link connectivity.

Both supervisor engines provide dedicated hardware

queues to each of the Gigabit Ethernet ports on the

module for prioritized delivery of voice and other

mission-critical traffic. Two receive and three transmit

hardware queues provide separate wire-speed paths for

delivery of traffic marked with different priorities. One

queue in each direction is dedicated to strict, high-priority

traffic, while the other remaining queue(s) each support

Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED) drop

thresholds to minimize network congestion. In addition,

the two transmit hardware queues supporting WRED

each provide Weighted Round Robin (WRR) traffic

scheduling to ensure fair bandwidth allocation and queue

draining between the two dedicated paths.

Industry-Leading Software ServicesThe Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engines are designed

to support industry-leading functionality based on Cisco

IOS software, with features for scalability, bandwidth


Page 4 of 14

management, security services, network resiliency, and

manageability. For enhanced modularity and flexibility,

the Catalyst 6500 Series supports two software options.

A customer may deploy Catalyst Software on the

supervisor with a separate Cisco IOS image on the MSFC

or MSFC2, if operating in Layer 3 configuration. They

may also run a Cisco IOS® image that provides a single

interface for Layer 2, 3, and 4 configuration. Distributed

forwarding is only supported in Cisco IOS and not in

Catalyst Software.

Both Catalyst OS and Cisco IOS offer most of the same

features. Some features currently not supported in Cisco

IOS may be phased in during the next few releases. More

specific information can be found in the release notes for

both. Some of the highlighted features of both software

options are listed below, but release notes overwrite

information shown in the following tables.

Please note that the Catalyst Software refers to version 6.x

and Cisco IOS here is referring to 12.1(5c) EX Cisco IOS.

The hybrid mode(CatOS on the Supervisor Engines and

IOS on the MSFC) will be supported via 12.1(3) E and the

release notes should be used for details. Please note that

the 12.1(5) version will be supported with the release of

linecards supporting distributed forwarding. Please note

that this version will require the Supervisor Engine 2 with

256 MB DRAM option.

Note: The letter M under the software image implies that it

requires an MSFC/MSFC2. The letter P under the software

image column implies that it requires a PFC/PFC2.

Scalability

Features SupportedCatalyst Software5.x/6.x Cisco IOS

• Scalable wire-speed Layer 3 switching support for IP and IPX, withadditional support for AppleTalk, DECnet, and Vines with optional MSFC/MSFC2 and PFC on Supervisor 1A and MSFC2 on Supervisor Engine 2(includes PFC2)

Yes Yes

• Fast EtherChannel and Gigabit EtherChannel technologies with PortAggregation Protocol (PAgP)

Yes Yes

• Policy server, Virtual Management Policy Server (VMPS) – Client Yes Yes

• Policy server, Virtual Management Policy Server (VMPS) – Server Yes No

• Private VLANs Yes Yes

• Dynamic VLANs Yes Future

• Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunking Protocol Yes Yes

• DTP Yes Yes

• IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Trunking Yes Yes

• IEEE 802.1Q Tunneling Yes Future

• Jumbo Frame support for Gigabit Ethernet – Layer 2 Yes Yes

• Jumbo Frame support for Gigabit Ethernet – Layer 3 Yes, M Yes

• 4000 VLANs Yes Future


Page 5 of 14

Load Management

Security Services

Network Resiliency


• Protocol filtering Yes Yes

• Broadcast suppression Yes Yes

• Link-load-balancing Yes Yes

• IGMP snooping Yes Yes

• Layer 3 RGMP Yes, M Yes

• Cisco Group Management Protocol (CGMP) Yes Yes

• Generic Address Resolution Protocol (GARP) Multicast RegistrationProtocol (GMRP)

Yes No

• Policing based on IP/IPX/MAC ACLs Yes Yes

• Bandwidth Management – WRR Yes Yes

• Congestion Management – WRED Yes Yes

• QoS and ACLs applied in hardware via PFC2 Yes, P Yes

• Priority Queue Support Yes Yes

• QoS Classification – IP COS, IP Precedence, TOS, DSCP Yes, P Yes

• QoS Policing (Microflow and aggregate) Yes, P Yes


• Spanning Tree Root Guard Yes Yes

• SSH Yes Yes

• Port security by Media Access Control (MAC) address Yes No

• Terminal Access Controller Access Control System (TACACS+) – AAA Yes Yes

• Remote Access Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) – AAA Yes Yes

• IP permit list Yes Yes

• Traps and syslog messages sent on security violations Yes Yes

• NetFlow data export Yes, P Yes

• MD5 route authentication Yes Yes

• Access control lists – Route Based Yes, M Yes

• Access control lists – VLAN Based Yes, P Yes


Page 6 of 14


• Redundant Supervisor Engines Yes Yes

• Synchronized Layer 2 protocol states providing stateful failover(1-3 second failover)

Yes No

• Hitless Software Upgrade (HA Versioning) Yes No

• Runtime Layer 3 Config Sync Yes, M No

• Dual active routers in a redundantly configured chassis Yes, M No

• Enhanced High System Availability (EHSA) No Yes

• Support for Switch Fabric Module with Supervisor Engine 2 Yes Yes

• Support for Redundant Switch Fabric Module with Supervisor Engine 2 Yes Yes

• ECC DRAM on Supervisor Engine 2 Yes Yes

• Spanning-Tree Protocol (802.1d) Yes Yes

• PVST+ Yes Yes

• Multi Instance Spanning Tree Protocol (MISTP) Yes 802.1S Future

• Hot Standby Routing Protocol (HSRP) –External Yes, M Yes

• HSRP –Internal Yes, M No

• PortFast: Spanning-Tree Protocol (STP) enhancement Yes Yes

• UplinkFast –STP enhancement Yes Yes

• Backbone Fast Convergence: STP enhancement Yes Yes


Page 7 of 14

Manageability


• Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) Yes Yes

• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent Yes Yes

• SNMPv2c agent Yes Yes

• SNMPv3 Yes No

• Remote Monitoring (RMON) agent (RFC 1757) Yes Yes

• RMON2 Support (RFC 2021) Yes Yes

• Common Open Policy Server (COPS) Yes No

• RSVP+ Yes No

• Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) Yes Yes

• SPAN from multiple source ports Yes Yes

• Remote SPAN (RSPAN) via trunks Yes, P Future

• Syslog support Yes Yes

• Domain Name System (DNS) Yes Yes

• Network Time Protocol (NTP) Yes Yes

• IP Traceroute Yes Yes

• L2 Traceroute Yes No

• Switch TopN ports report Yes No

• Bridge Management Information Base (MIB) (RFC 1493) Yes Yes

• IF-MIB (RFC 1573) Yes Yes

• MIB II (RFC 1213) Yes Yes

• Cisco Stack-MIB Yes Partial

• Cisco COPS-Client-MIB Yes No

• Cisco STP-Extensions-MIB Yes Yes

• Cisco Switch-Engine-MIB Yes Future

• Cisco UDLDP-MIB Yes No

• Cisco VLAN-BRIDGE-MIB Yes Yes

• Cisco VLAN-Membership-MIB Yes Yes

• Cisco VMPS-MIB Yes No

• Cisco VTP-MIB Yes Yes


Page 8 of 14

Additional/Miscellaneous Features

High-Availability OptionsCatalyst 6500 Series switches support dual Supervisor

configurations. In the event of a Supervisor failure,

high-availability switchover transfers switch control to the

redundant Supervisor in less than 3 seconds for

mission-critical applications requiring maximum network

availability. It is important to note that when using

redundancy, both Supervisors must have the same hardware

configuration. The switches do not support Supervisor

Engine 1A and Supervisor Engine 2 deployed in the same

chassis for redundancy. The same applies to the MSFC

options. In redundant configurations, standby Supervisors

can also be hot-swapped for easier manageability.

Synchronized protocol states are maintained on the

redundant Supervisor Engine which allows for a stateful

failover in less than 3 seconds in the event of a failure.

A new feature, the Hitless Software Upgrade, allows

customers to upgrade software on the Catalyst 6500

switch without taking the switch out of service. This is

especially useful in e-commerce and Web-hosting

applications with mission-critical traffic, in which even a

short outage can prove expensive. Please refer to the

software release notes to verify the software versions that

support the hitless software upgrade.

In a Catalyst 6500 series, the Supervisor Engine 2 offers

another level of redundancy as it has connections to the

bus as well as the crossbar fabric. If the switch fabric

module fails in a nonredundant configuration, it reverts to

the bus so that traffic can continue to flow. Bandwidth is

reduced from 256 Gbps to 32 Gbps, however. This

scenario only applies to fabric-enabled cards that have a

single serial connection to the switch fabric module.

Fabric-enabled cards with dual serial connections to the

switch fabric do not support a connection to the bus. For

more information on fabric-enabled Gigabit Ethernet

cards, refer to: http://www.cisco.com/go/6000/.

A Cisco 6500 chassis can be configured with dual switch

fabric modules for even greater fabric redundancy. In

addition, a software feature in release 6.1 allows

customers to choose whether they would like to use this

feature. The new fabric-enabled cards with a single serial

• IOS HTTP Server Yes No

• Embedded Cisco View Yes No



• ASLB Yes No

• IOS SLB No Yes

• Voice Features; Inline Power, VVID, CDP extensions Yes Future

• WCCP v2 Yes Yes

• WCCP v2 with Layer 2 extensions Yes Yes

• IP multicast routing Yes Yes

• IP mobility Yes, M Yes

• Local proxy ARP Yes, M Yes

• UDLD Yes Yes


Page 9 of 14

connection to the bus also allow this level of redundancy

because they provide connections to the bus as well as the

switch fabric module (SFM). In redundant mode, one of

the SFMs is in a standby mode. Only one SFM is required

in a chassis to attain the full 256-Gb capacity. The SFM

provides 16 Gbps bandwidth to each line card slot in both

6slot and 9-slot chassis.

Supervisor Engine 2 also offers many other options to

scale the performance of Catalyst 6500 Series products. In

two configurations, it ships with ECC DRAM that

enhances the platform’s high availability by correcting

single-bit parity errors. This helps the system avoid

reboots that can lead to network outage. Network

managers demand higher availability and sophisticated

management options to reduce downtime in

mission-critical applications. With shrinking availability

of workforce trained in IT management skills, it becomes

even more important to incorporate intelligent services

and features into the platform. Supervisor Engine 2 also

incorporates enhancements such as a tertiary cache,

enhanced memory performance, and single console port

usable for both MSFC2 and Supervisor Engine 2 for easier

manageability. Both Supervisor Engine 2 and Supervisor

1A communicate with the linecards via an Ethernet

Out-of-Band Channel (EOBC).

Both Supervisor Engines 1A and 2, when configured in

Layer 3 configuration (with MSFC and MSFC2

respectively), support Hot Standby Routing Protocol

(HSRP). This enables fail-over between primary and

secondary routing engines. In a redundant configuration,

one of the supervisors is in a standby mode whereas both

MSFC cards are active. HSRP can be configured to allow

for load sharing between the two routers by distributing

the incoming traffic load, while still providing the same

level of redundancy and high availability. Both MSFC and

MSFC2 support configuration sync via Cisco IOS

Software Release 12.1(3)E, so the module on the standby

Supervisor can be configured for an automatic update,

providing ease of management.

The Supervisor Engines also provide support for Fast

EtherChannel and Gigabit EtherChannel, also in order to

provide increased availability for data-center and

backbone implementations. If one port in the group fails,

connectivity is maintained and traffic is load-balanced

across the remaining ports.

Like all Catalyst 6500 Series elements, the Supervisor

Engine 1A and 2 are field-replaceable units for fast service-

ability. For the Supervisor Engine 2, the MSFC2 will also be

a field-replaceable unit. For Supervisor Engine 1A, MSFC2

is field replaceable, only if there is an existing MSFC.

Both Catalyst Software and Supervisor IOS software

support PortFast, BackboneFast, and UplinkFast,

providing fast Convergence, after a Spanning Tree

topology change, as well as load-balancing between

redundant links Spanning Tree instances can also be

supported via VLAN to prevent loops in the bridge

topology and to provide faster network convergence in

the event of a VLAN reconfiguration. A new feature,

Multi Instance Spanning Tree Protocol (MISTP), is

supported via Catalyst OS version 6.1. It allows up to 16

instances of Spanning Tree per switch, where several

VLANs can share the same instance. This improves

convergence times of large, flat Layer 2 networks and

offers flexibility in network designs.

Please refer Catalyst OS and Cisco IOS release notes for

specific information on which high availability feature is

supported in each respective software type.

Powerful Management OptionsThe Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engines deliver a

comprehensive set of management tools to provide the

required visibility and control in the network. Managed

with CiscoWorks2000, Catalyst family switches can be

configured and managed to deliver end-to-end device,

VLAN, traffic, and policy management. Coupled with

CiscoWorks2000, Cisco Resource Manager is a

Web-based management tool offering: automated

inventory collection, software deployment, easy tracking

of network changes, views into device availability, and

quick isolation of error conditions.

Support for local or remote, out-of-band management is

delivered through a terminal or modem attached to the

console/auxiliary interface. This interface can be shared

between the Supervisor Engine 2 and the MSFC2. Remote


Page 10 of 14

in-band management is available via SNMP, Telnet client,

Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP), and Trivial File Transfer

Protocol (TFTP).

Support for the RSPAN feature allows traffic from

multiple distributed hosts and switches to be aggregated

and directed to a remotely located switch via trunk links,

to enable centralized management and monitoring.

The Supervisor Engines 1A and 2 support a single slot for

an optional PCMCIA Flash memory card to store

Catalyst software images for backup and easy software

upgrades. Supervisor Engine 2 also incorporates many

other enhancements such as a tertiary cache, enhanced

memory performance, and single console port usable for

both MSFC2 and Supervisor Engine 2 for ease of

management.

Specifications

Part Number Description Application

WS-X6K-SUP1A-2GE Supervisor Engine 1A for Catalyst 6500 Series,two Gigabit Ethernet uplinks, enhanced QoS,supports MSFC, MSFC2, and PFC

Premier wiring closets with Layer 2 forwarding

Supervisor Engine 1A for Catalyst 6500 Series,two Gigabit Ethernet uplinks, enhanced QoS, PFC

Premier wiring closets closets with enhancedQoS, for congestion avoidance and trafficscheduling, with Layer 2 forwarding

WS-X6K-S1A-MSFC2 Supervisor Engine 1A for Catalyst 6500 Series,two Gigabit Ethernet uplinks, enhanced QoS,supports MSFC2 and PFC

Distribution and Backbone applications forsupporting wire-speed IP, IPX, and IP multicastwith multiprotocol support for AppleTalk,DECnet, and VINES. Large backbone requiringIS-IS or BGP4 or interdomain routing withsupport for Internet-sized route tables

WS-X6K-S2-PFC2 Supervisor Engine 2 for Catalyst 6500 Series, twoGigabit Ethernet uplinks, fabric enabled, supportsfabric-enabled GE modules, enhanced QoS,Standard PFC2, supports MSFC2

Server farms, high-density Premier AVVID wiringcloset, and high-end distribution requiringenhanced performance and services

WS-X6K-S2-MSFC2 Supervisor Engine 2 for Catalyst 6500 Series, twoGigabit Ethernet uplinks, fabric enabled, supportsfabric-enabled GE modules, Enhanced QoS,PFC2, MSFC2

High performance and backbone, distributionand Gigabit Ethernet core (backbone)

WS-X6K-S2U-MSFC2 Supervisor Engine 2 for Catalyst 6500 Series, twoGigabit Ethernet uplinks, fabric enabled, supportsfabric-enabled GE modules. Enhanced QoS,PFC2, MSFC2. Required for Cisco IOS onSupervisor Engine 2

High-end distribution and Gigabit Ethernet core(backbone). Large Route table size(>150K routes),High End Server Farms utilizing distributedforwarding, andy switches implementing CiscoIOS


Page 11 of 14

Miscellaneous

Supervisor 1A Supervisor 2

Options

Onboard DRAM 64 MB 128 MB ECC DRAM

Onboard Flash 16 MB 16 MB Bootflash

2 MB programmable Flash

Cache 16 K primary instruction cache

16 K data cache

256 K secondary cache

16 K primary instruction cache

16 K data cache

256 K secondary cache

1 MB tertiary cache

Optional PCMCIA Flash Card 16 to 20 MB 16 to 20 MB

CPU 150-MHz R4700 RISC processor 250-MHz RM7000 RISC processor

Supervisor Engine Status LED

Orange Module is booting

Running diagnostics

Minor temperature threshold exceeded

Same as Supervisor 1A

Green All diagnostics pass

Module is operational


Red Failed diagnostics

Major temperature threshold exceeded

Module not operational


Environmental Status LED

Green All chassis environmental monitors okay Same as Supervisor 1A

Orange Power Supply Failure Same as Supervisor 1A

Red Over-temperature condition due to:

• Power supply fan failure

• Minor backplane temperature thresholdexceeded

• Redundant backplane clock failure

• Incompatible power supplies installed


Power Management

Green Sufficient power for all modules Same as Supervisor 1A

Orange Insufficient power for all modules Same as Supervisor 1A

PCMCIA LED Lights when PCMCIA device is accessed Same as Supervisor 1A

Link LEDs for Uplink Ports

Green Port is operational Same as Supervisor 1A

Orange Solid – software disabled

Flashing – disabled due to hardware failure



Page 12 of 14

Key Differences between PFC and PFC2

Key Differences between MSFC and MSFC2

PFC PFC2

Available as an option on Supervisor Engine 1A only Premounted on all Supervisor Engine 2 modules

Performs Layer 2/3/4 services based on a flow basedarchitecture

Required for Layer 2/3/4 services in a CEF-based architecture

Performs certain Cisco IOS features like PBR, standard andextended access lists, and reflexive ACLs in hardware

Performs certain Cisco IOS features such as PBR, unicast RPF,TCP intercept, standard and extended access lists, and reflexiveACLs in hardware plus incorporates significant performanceimprovements

Centralized forwarding mechanism based on a flow cachingmechanism

Distributed forwarding mechanism based on a DistributedCisco Express Forwarding (DCEF) architecture. Used for IPunicast and multicast traffic as well as Layer 2 forwarding.

MSFC MSFC2

170 Kbps software switching performance 650 Kbps+ software switching performance

128 MB DRAM in default configuration 128 MB ECC DRAM in default configuration; optional upgradeto 256 MB and 512 ECC DRAM

256 Terminated VLANs 1000 Terminated VLANs

Available on Supervisor Engine 1A only Available on Supervisor Engine 2 and Supervisor 1A


Page 13 of 14

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Documents

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Enginesdich.com.tw/network/Core/Cisco/6500/SuperEng_Data sheet.pdf · Premier AVVID wiring closets, whereas Supervisor Engine 2 is positioned