Cisco Systems Catalyst 6006 Network Switch Review

Bottom-Line: If you need a reliable, scalable, robust networking switch for a medium-sized corporate environment you cannot beat the Cisco Catalyst 6006.         

As I stated in my review of the Cisco Catalyst 6009 Chassis: behind every medium to large sized corporate campus network is a series of network switches, big black boxes with hundreds of 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports that route network traffic from one computer to the next.  All network access runs through switches from a simple document request from a file server, to a print job request to a network printer; from compiling a database, to accessing the Internet; switches form the backbone of any modern network. 

The Cisco Catalyst 6000 family of switches delivers high-performance, multilayer switching for campus-wide networks. Cisco designed the 6000 series to address the ever increasing demands for high-availability (very important especially in Network Operations Centers and Data Centers), gigabit scalability, and multilayer switching.  The Catalyst 6000 family (6006 and 6009) delivers a wide range of intelligent campus solutions, and is robust enough to fit almost any networking need. 

The chassis of the Catalyst 6006 is large, black, heavy, and rack mountable.  The power cords plugs into the front of the unit at the bottom where the dual (hot-swappable) power supplies reside.  The Catalyst 6006 networking switch consists of a chassis with power supplies and plug-in, hot-swappable networking modules.  The Catalyst 6006 derives it name from number of modules one can insert into the chassis slots; six.     

The Catalyst 6006 supports a wide range of interface types and densities, including support for up to 240 10/100 Ethernet, 120 100FX Fast Ethernet, and up to 82 Gigabit Ethernet ports. The Catalyst 6006 provides backplane bandwidth of 32 Gigabits per second (Gbps) and multilayer switching up to 30 Megabyte packets per second (Mpps).

The Catalyst 6006 networking switch is designed for high availability with almost every plug-in module designed to be hot-swappable, allowing units to be added, removed, or re-seated without powering down the switch and interrupting critical network traffic flow.

Key Features Cisco Catalyst 6006 Networking Switch:

• Supports supervisor engine with two gigabit interface uplinks.
• Supports optional redundant supervisor engine with two Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports (uplink ports are fully functional on redundant supervisor engine in standby mode).
• Supports up to five additional switching modules (Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and ATM).
• Supports the Multilayer Switch Module.
• All modules are hot-swappable.
• Supports redundant, hot-swappable AC-input and DC-input power supplies.
• Fan assembly is hot-swappable.
• Multi Gigabit services modules (content services, firewall, intrusion detection, IPSec/VPN, network analysis, and SSL acceleration).

My Viewpoint

The business uses a number of Cisco Catalyst 6006 networking switches in a facility that serves a large number of clients.  The switches are housed in wiring closet. The switches have four 24-port 10/100 Ethernet modules installed, and are tied to the centrally located Catalyst 6009 via a fiber connection, which is in turn routed to the main Network Operations Center (NOC). 

Managing the Cisco Catalyst 6006 is straight forward.  Unlike a router, there are no overly completed router tables to configure, nor routes or hops to program.  All that is really needed is an IP address for the switch to identify itself on the network.  Outside of that, unless Virtual LAN's (VLAN) need to be set up, all that needs to be configured are the individual ports on the add-in networking modules for either 10, or 100Mbps speed and Full Duplex vs. Half Duplex.  I can also log into the switches remotely via Telnet over the network and manage them from my desktop as well.

The Catalyst 6000 series of switches are not cheap; you can expect to pay at least $35,000 - $50,000 for a nicely configured Catalyst 6006 and up to $100,000 for a fully configured 6009.  Prices for a used chassis run from around $2500 - $7,000 depending on the age of the unit and the vendor.  These prices do not include the plug-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet networking modules.  However, if you need a reliable, scalable, robust networking switch for a medium-sized corporate environment you cannot beat the Cisco Catalyst 6006.