Cisco Catalyst 3750G/3750E Stacking

Kona*

Kona*

Kona*

Associate
Joined
29 Dec 2003
Posts
2,039
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
I've searched all over the 'net but I can't get a definitive answer to this one so I've turned to OcUK...

Can you stack a 3750G and 3750E together? Both are running the same version of IOS (which is 12.2(35)SE5 FC1) but different editions; the 3750E is using the UNIVERSAL-MZ binary and the 3750G is using the IPSERVICES-MZ binary. Everywhere I have read just says the version number needs to be matching, is this correct?

Cheers,

Craig :)
 
Doh. Totally wrong forum (well, sort of...) could a passing mod please move this to the Servers & Enterprise Solutions section please?
 
I don't actually know but I'd guess not as they're actually fairly different units, they have different IOS images so I'm assuming they won't stack together...
 
Pah, I was wrong, if you match revision and feature set they will work, to an extent...

Q. Can I run Cisco Catalyst 3750 switches with Cisco Catalyst 3750-E switches in the same stack?
A. Yes, the two series are compatible. When the Cisco Catalyst 3750-E Series detects a non-E-Series Cisco Catalyst 3750, it will negotiate down from StackWise Plus mode to StackWise mode. Thus, the entire stack will now run in the original StackWise mode.
Click to expand...
 
bigredshark said:
Pah, I was wrong, if you match revision and feature set they will work, to an extent...
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help brs - I've just checked the IOS download page and it appears Cisco don't do a universal IOS for the 3750 nor a ipservices IOS for the 3750E - this *may* require a call to Cisco, as I say I wasn't able to find much about this subject, where did you find the answer above if you don't mind me asking? :)

Cheers
 
bigredshark said:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps7077/prod_qas0900aecd805bbea5.html

In the stacking section I believe...
Click to expand...


Thanks for that, I did check the 3750 & 3750E Cisco docs - I obviously didn't look hard enough!

I've also found this in a Cisco Podcast Transcript:

Cisco Podcast Transcript said:
Is it possible to stack my existing 3750 Series with these new Catalyst 3750-E Switches?

Kevin: Absolutely. You can stack Catalyst 3750 and the new 3750-E switches together. This is a great way to maximize your existing investment in Catalyst 3750 switches and add new capabilities to your existing stacks. This works really well for customers who want to deploy 10 Gigabit uplinks into their existing infrastructure.
Click to expand...
 
Just to confirm in case anyone else needs to know this info: you can stack a 3750G and 3750E together so long as they are running exactly the same software version as each other, the feature set doesn't matter though.

Completed 3 stack upgrades this weekend, all went well and the customer now has 10GbE backbone - I love it when a job goes as well as this one did :)
 
Regarding 3750E and 3750E stacking

Hi,

Thanks for sharing your valuable suggestion with us.

I tried to stack 3750E and 3750G together; it didn't work in my case. Was getting and error as version mismatch. So I tried to make both swithes on same IOS. It gave me error: hardware not supported by firmware.

Configuration:

Cisco 3750E
WS-C3750E-48PD 12.2(46)SE C3750E-UNIVERSAL-M
flash:c3750e-universal-mz.122-46.SE/c3750e-universal-mz.12
2-46.SE.bin"


Cisco 3750G
WS-C3750G-48PS 12.2(25)SEE2 C3750-IPSERVICES-M
flash:c3750-ipservices-mz.122-25.SEE2/c3750-ipservices-mz.
122-25.SEE2.bin"

so when I try to upgrade 3750E with flash:c3750-ipservices-mz.
122-25.SEE2.bin it doesn't work and gives error: hardware not supported by firmware.

when I try to upgrade 3750G with flash:c3750e-universal-mz.12
2-46.SE.bin it does the same.

so I am unable to make 2 switches on same IOS for stacking.

Can you suggest me which IOS or flash file you used when you stacked 3 switches together? I would use the same.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
mayurr said:
Hi,

Thanks for sharing your valuable suggestion with us.

I tried to stack 3750E and 3750G together; it didn't work in my case. Was getting and error as version mismatch. So I tried to make both swithes on same IOS. It gave me error: hardware not supported by firmware.

Configuration:

Cisco 3750E
WS-C3750E-48PD 12.2(46)SE C3750E-UNIVERSAL-M
flash:c3750e-universal-mz.122-46.SE/c3750e-universal-mz.12
2-46.SE.bin"


Cisco 3750G
WS-C3750G-48PS 12.2(25)SEE2 C3750-IPSERVICES-M
flash:c3750-ipservices-mz.122-25.SEE2/c3750-ipservices-mz.
122-25.SEE2.bin"

so when I try to upgrade 3750E with flash:c3750-ipservices-mz.
122-25.SEE2.bin it doesn't work and gives error: hardware not supported by firmware.

when I try to upgrade 3750G with flash:c3750e-universal-mz.12
2-46.SE.bin it does the same.

so I am unable to make 2 switches on same IOS for stacking.

Can you suggest me which IOS or flash file you used when you stacked 3 switches together? I would use the same.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Sorry I haven't seen this sooner; I'll take a look at the report I wrote for the customer when I get in to work tomorrow and let you know the IOS versions we used.
 
mayurr said:
Hi,

Thanks for sharing your valuable suggestion with us.

I tried to stack 3750E and 3750G together; it didn't work in my case. Was getting and error as version mismatch. So I tried to make both swithes on same IOS. It gave me error: hardware not supported by firmware.

Configuration:

Cisco 3750E
WS-C3750E-48PD 12.2(46)SE C3750E-UNIVERSAL-M
flash:c3750e-universal-mz.122-46.SE/c3750e-universal-mz.12
2-46.SE.bin"


Cisco 3750G
WS-C3750G-48PS 12.2(25)SEE2 C3750-IPSERVICES-M
flash:c3750-ipservices-mz.122-25.SEE2/c3750-ipservices-mz.
122-25.SEE2.bin"

so when I try to upgrade 3750E with flash:c3750-ipservices-mz.
122-25.SEE2.bin it doesn't work and gives error: hardware not supported by firmware.

when I try to upgrade 3750G with flash:c3750e-universal-mz.12
2-46.SE.bin it does the same.

so I am unable to make 2 switches on same IOS for stacking.

Can you suggest me which IOS or flash file you used when you stacked 3 switches together? I would use the same.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

you need 12.2.46 for the 3750 and 3750e, they use different images. So device specific images on the same revision level (And maybe feature set)...
 
I've had a look on my machine and found the info I was looking for, here are the versions we used:

Existing stack details

Switch Ports Model SW Version SW Image
------ ----- ----- ---------- ----------
* 1 52 WS-C3750G-48TS 12.2(35)SE5 C3750-IPSERVICES-M
2 52 WS-C3750G-48TS 12.2(35)SE5 C3750-IPSERVICES-M

IOS file name: c3750-ipservices-mz.122-35.SE5.bin

3750E details

Switch Ports Model SW Version SW Image
------ ----- ----- ---------- ----------
* 1 54 WS-C3750E-48PD 12.2(35)SE5 C3750E-UNIVERSAL-M

IOS file name: c3750e-universal-mz.122-35.SE5.bin

Apologies for the formatting, it's a direct copy & paste out of OneNote.

Edit: I've also found this in my notes, if it helps:

Catalyst 3750-E switches running Cisco IOS Release 12.2(35)SE2 are compatible with Catalyst*3750 switches and Cisco EtherSwitch service modules running Cisco IOS Release*12.2(35)SE. Catalyst 3750-E switches, Catalyst 3750 switches, and Cisco EtherSwitch service modules can be in the same switch stack. In this switch stack, we recommend that the Catalyst*3750-E switch be the stack master.

Pasted from <http://www-kr.cisco.com/en/US/docs/...release/12.2_35_se2/release/notes/OL9778.html>
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom