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This chapter describes the Backplane Channel module and the switch acceleration feature supported on the Catalyst 4006 Supervisor Engine II.
This chapter consists of these sections:
The switch acceleration feature provides the following supervisor engine performance benefits:
The switch acceleration feature is supported on Catalyst 4006 switches with Supervisor Engine II and on the Catalyst 4000 family Backplane Channel module. The switch acceleration feature reduces internal traffic congestion by creating a full-mesh connection between the switch engines (SEs). The Supervisor Engine II has three switch engines that switch traffic to and from the modules and the uplink ports. This document refers to these switch engines as SE1, SE2, and SE3.
By default, there is no direct internal connection between SE1 and SE3. As a result, traffic coming in on SE1 destined for SE3 or vice versa must go through SE2, which could potentially create congestion. To avoid such congestion, you can disable the uplink ports and create a direct internal link between SE1 and SE3.
Switch acceleration is supported in different configuration modes. The Supervisor Engine II supports a mesh configuration with no uplink connections. With the Backplane Channel module installed, two additional modes are supported.
Figure 35-1 shows the possible configurations.
By default, switch acceleration is disabled on Supervisor Engine II.
Before you enable switch acceleration, you need to disable the two front-panel Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports on Supervisor Engine II.
To enable switch acceleration, perform these tasks in privileged mode:
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This example shows how to enable switch acceleration on the switch:
Console> (enable) set port disable 1/1-2 Port(s) 1/1-2 disabled. Console> (enable) Console> (enable) set switchacceleration enable 1 Enabling or Disabling switch acceleration may impact performance for 1-2 seconds. Do you want to continue (y/n) [n]? y Switch Acceleration on module 1 enabled.
Console> (enable)
This example shows how to disable switch acceleration on the switch:
Console> (enable) set switchacceleration disable 1 Enabling or Disabling switch acceleration may impact performance for 1-2 seconds. Do you want to continue (y/n) [n]? y Switch Acceleration on module 1 disabled. Console> (enable)
To display switch acceleration status, perform this task in privileged mode:
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This example shows how to display the current status of the switch acceleration feature:
Console> show switchacceleration 1 Module 1 has switch acceleration enabled. Console>
The Backplane Channel module extends the benefits of switch acceleration as supported by Supervisor Engine II by providing multi-link load balancing between the switch engines. Installing a Backplane Channel module will also allow you to retain the Gigabit Ethernet uplinks on the supervisor engine.
The Backplane Channel module provides the following benefits in default configuration mode:
The default configuration for the Backplane Channel module provides full-mesh interconnectivity between switch engines and multi-link load balancing between SE1 and SE2 and between SE2 and SE3. As an alternative, you configure switch acceleration on the supervisor engine to get dual-link load balancing between all three SEs.
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Note If you want to keep the uplink connections, do not enable switch acceleration on the supervisor engine. |
You can insert or remove a Backplane Channel module at any time. When you remove the Backplane Channel module, traffic might be interrupted for a short time. For minimal disruption, disable the Backplane Channel module for a short time, and then remove it.
You do not need to configure the Backplane Channel module because it is enabled by default.
Posted: Tue Aug 8 17:25:12 PDT 2000
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