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Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR with LAN Lite, LAN Base and IP Lite

Today I am going to talk to about the Cisco Catalyst 2960-X and Cisco Catalyst 2960-XR with Lan Lite and Lan Base IOS models. Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR is the most used access layer switch for most of the Branch and remote offices. Some of the enterprises uses these switches in the Local or remote sites as they are not expensive as compared to other switches like Cisco Catalyst 3850 and Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series.

Fig 1.1- Cisco Catalyst 2960-XR Switch

C2960-X and C2960-XR are backward compatible with C2960-S. The C2960-X & C2960-XR LAN Base can be stacked with C2960-S LAN Base; the feature sets would be normalized to C2960-S LAN Base feature sets in the mix-stack configurations.NetFlow Lite will work in mixed stack, The flow monitors can be attached only on 2960-X series ports. 

Note: IP Lite SKUs can not be stacked with LAN Base SKUs

Here in this discussion I will talk about the below specifications difference.

  • Cisco 2960-X LAN Lite 
  • Cisco 2960-X LAN Base 
  • Cisco 2960-XR IP Lite 

Cisco Catalyst 2960X Lan Lite are non-stackable, non-PoE  SKUs. They have less DRAM and Flash compared to LAN Base/IP Lite SKUs.Cisco Catalyst 2960-X Lan Lite has 256MB DRAM and 64MB Flash. Cisco Catalyst 2960-X Lan Base or Cisco Catalyst 2960-XR switch has 512 MB RAM and 128MB Flash. Cisco Catalyst 2960-X supports 24 EtherChannel groups where as Cisco Catalyst 2960-XR supports 48 EtherChannel groups. 

Fig 1.2- Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR

The Maximum PoE budget on 2960-XR switches if fixed for given PID. It will not increase by using higher Power Supply.If default or LAN Base routing SDM templates are chosen on 2960-X Series, the available TCAM resources are not fully used. These SDM templates should be used only to form Mixed stack with Cisco Catalyst 2960-S.

Cisco IP Lite models can not form mixed stack so the 290-S based SDM templates are not available on 2960-XR IP Lite models.  

The form factor of FlexStack and FlexStack-Plus modules is different , so they can’t be interchanged.
Each Stack port can handle 20Gb bidirectional traffic, so bandwidth per stack port is 40Gbps (20*2). There are two stack ports per switch which can connect to two different members. So the effective stack bandwidth is 80Gbps (40*2). 

Characteristics of NetFlow-Lite on 2960-X Series
  • NetFlow-Lite is supported on LAN Base or IP Lite SKUs only.
  • NetFlow-Lite is supported in Mixed Stack, on 2960-X series ports only.
  • Only Sampled NetFlow is supported.
  • Ingress flows are only monitored.
  • Flows are monitored on Physical Ports and VLAN Interfaces(SVI).
  • One monitor per interface is supported.
  • Permanent and Normal Cache are supported for the monitor.
  • NetFlow Version 9 is supported for Exporter.
  • Deterministic Sampler is not shared. Every attachment with same Deterministic Sampler uses up one free sampler.
  • Random Sampler is shared. Only one sampler is used when Random Sampler is attached to different Ports or SVIs.  
Fig 1.3 - Comparison Cisco 2960X/XR and Cisco 3850


EnergyWise Catalyst 2960-X Series
  • Power consumption of 2960-X Series switches can be controlled using EnergyWise Management tool. First in the class of Catalyst switches.
  • Cisco Catalyst 2960-X Series support two different EnergyWise levels.
  • Cisco Catalyst 2960-X Series Switches can be put to Hibernation using EnergyWise management applications.
  • Cisco Catalyst 2960-X Series Switches can control EnergyWise capable devices connected to it.