Converting Cat OS to Cisco IOS

[nightowl]

Has anyone tried to convert any of Cisco's switches that run Cat OS to IOS? If so, have you run into any problems? Currently at work we are in the process of testing a 6506 that we have converted to IOS. It would have worked OK but the second supervisor was missing the PFC on it and therefore the supervisors would not sync up. Both supervisors had the MSFC but one was missing the PFC. We are not sure why it was but that is another issue.

 

[JamesM3M5]

I kinda like Cat OS over IOS. Why convert?

 

[nightowl]

Well, for one the routing and the switching on the 650x series is all on one "device". With Cat OS you have different "devices" for the routing and the switching. Also, when you have hundreds of Cisco devices it makes it easier to work on them if there is only 1 OS to work with and Cisco is moving towards the IOS anyway with there new swithes (3550 and 450x).

 

[eliteorange]

is this possbile? got any links or docs?

 

[nightowl]

It is possible with the Catalyst 650x series switches. We had IOS on one we had at work but it did not like the fact that there was 2 different supervisors in the switch (see first post). I know that on Cisco's site there is instructions for the Catalyst 650X switches and the IOS image. As for others (55xx and 5000) I do not know.

 

[spidey07]

I've done lots of conversions from CatOS to hybrid IOS to native IOS. Its not too complicated but you have to make sure all your ducks are in a row before the conversion.

Search cisco for a how to.

here's some goodies..

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/81.html

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: EliteOrange
is this possbile? got any links or docs?

Its a cat6000 thing. At its core a 6000/6500 is a layer2 switch. By adding the L3 engine (MSFC) it is a layer3/4 switch. The MSFC runs IOS while the 6500 supervisor runs CatOS.

You can upgrade the supervisor to run a full IOS image to take away the confusion of two separate OSs. At that point the switch is just one big IOS router with all the features of IOS...every single port is a layer3/4 port. Every port.

We're getting ready to re-do our core switches and run sup720s on them and use 10/100/1000 blades. mmmm...gigabit to all 250 servers. mmmm...big sun boxes with 4x gig cards bonded.

 

[nightowl]

Spidey, have you used the 10G cards for the 650x switches yet? We are palnning to use those as the backbone connections between the core nodes here at work once all of the single mode fiber is run.