Cisco Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module for the HP p-Class BladeSystem

Designed for seamless Cisco integration into the HP BladeSystem enclosure. » Management » Quality of Service » Availability » Scalability » Security		Product information » Overview & Features » Key benefits » Questions & Answers

	Management
	The CGESM is fully compatible with Cisco CiscoWorks Software, providing extensive management using SNMP network management platforms: Managed with CiscoWorks, the CGESM can be configured and managed to deliver end-to-end device, VLAN, traffic, and policy management. CiscoWorks Software also includes multilayer feature configurations such as routing protocols, ACLs, and QoS parameters. CGESM IOS CLI support provides a common user interface and command set with all Cisco routers and Cisco Catalyst desktop switches. For enhanced traffic management, monitoring, and analysis, the Embedded Remote Monitoring (RMON) software agent supports 4 RMON groups (history, statistics, alarms, and events). Cisco Device Manager Software provides an easy-to-use, Web-based management interface through a standard Web browser. The Web interface enables less-skilled personnel to quickly and simply set up switches, thereby reducing the cost of deployment. SNMP v1, v2c, and v3 and Telnet interface support deliver comprehensive in-band management, and a CLI-based management console provides detailed out-of-band management.
	Quality of Service
	The CGESM provides superior multilayer, granular QoS features to avoid congestion and help ensure that network traffic is properly classified and prioritized: No performance penalty for enabling the rich feature set provided with the CGESM, such as QoS features. Packet classification allows the network elements to discriminate between various traffic flows and to enforce policies based on Layer 2 and Layer 3 QoS fields. Strict priority queuing guarantees that the highest-priority packets are serviced ahead of all other traffic. Supports four egress queues per port, which allows flexibility in assigning priorities for the various applications on the network. The Cisco Committed Information Rate (CIR) function guarantees bandwidth in increments as low as 8 Kbps. Up to 64 aggregate or individual policers per Gigabit Ethernet port are allowed.
	Availability
	Designed to optimize network performance while reducing network downtime, maintaining mission-critical applications, and lowering total cost of ownership: Spanning Tree is used to prevent physical loops in network topologies. Spanning Tree prevents physical network loops while providing redundant, multiple paths for high performance, resilient switching. The CGESM provides a rich set of Spanning Tree features that prevent network performance degradation in today's dynamic environments. Per-VLAN Rapid Spanning Tree (PVRST+) allows rapid spanning tree recovery across network ports and trunks if a link fails on a per VLAN basis. Trunking provides redundant Switch to Switch connectivity and bandwidth aggregation. Port aggregation of up to 8Gbps through Gigabit EtherChannel. It permits load sharing on redundant links for effective bandwidth management over 802.1q or ISL trunks. 802.1Q and ISL encapsulation provides VLAN capability across trunked ports. Uplinks can be bonded using Cisco EtherChannel, PAgP, or 802.3ad with LACP to aggregate bandwidth for high performance, fault tolerant connections across switches. VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) maintains VLAN configuration consistency by managing the addition, deletion, and renaming of VLANs on a network-wide basis. Cisco UplinkFast and BackboneFast allow quick Spanning Tree failover recovery.
	Scalability
	Fully compatible in the Cisco Business Ready Data network leveraging Cisco proprietary interconnect technologies to the network core and Cisco management technologies such as Cisco switch clustering technology for participating in large switch cluster environments: Provides seamless connectivity into a Cisco infrastructure Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS) compatible Interoperates in Cisco Service Assurance Agent (SAA) network environments Cisco Inter-Switch Link (ISL) compatible Supports Cisco VTP for dynamic VLAN and Trunk configuration across switches Supports Cisco Discover Protocol v1 and v2 for automatic switch discover from a CiscoWorks management station Latest Cisco ASIC's insure future feature support CGESM ASIC's are the most recent ASIC's released for the 2900 Series Cisco switches.
	Security

• VLAN - Virtual Local Area Network is a logical network topology configured on top of a physical network topology which conserves bandwidth and improves security by limiting traffic to specific groups of devices
• Supports Cisco's Identity-Based Networking Services (IBNS) which prevents unauthorized network access and insures that users get only their designated privileges.
• Compatible with Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS) so that user security profiles and authentication follow the user regardless of where they connect on the network.
• Access Control Lists (ACL's) are maintained in hardware for maximum performance and can be used to guard against denial-of-service and other attacks.
• ACL's offer a rich set of configurable security parameters at the port and VLAN levels for user access to network resources.
• 802.1x Port Security recognizes the MAC address of the device connecting to it and will set rights or limitations based on predefined security thresholds.