HP GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet Blade Switch - overview

High performance (10/100/1000 Mbps)

• A full set of Layer 2/3 features along with seamless integration into any copper or fiber network makes this switch a perfect fit for deployment in the HP BladeSystem enclosure.
• The GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet Blade Switch provides wire speed switching for incoming or outgoing traffic, providing up to 20Gb of switching capacity or 7.8 Million packets per second switching performance.
• HP continues its leadership in offering the best price/performance ratio in high performance switching. No other blade switch from any other vendor delivers this much performance at this price!

Comprehensive Layer 2 features

• Network administrators can configure VLANs to logically separate traffic and contain broadcasts - improving the overall performance while improving security. Administrators can easily add or remove users from VLANs based on their department or job functions.
• Security - VLANs can be configured to provide segregation of data - improving bandwidth, performance and limiting traffic to its designated domains. The GbE2c L2/3 Switch also provides secured access through SSH v2, protecting against IP spoofing as well as DNS spoofing. The switch enables users to meet their security requirements by providing support for HTTPS, RADIUS and TACACS.

Full support for Layer 3 routing

• Layer 3 routing can reduce the number of broadcast domains, increasing network performance and efficiency.
• Using layer 3, inter-VLAN routing becomes much more scalable and efficient than equivalent layer 2 networks that rely on spanning tree alone.
• Easier management and troubleshooting by creating smaller "troubleshooting domains".
• Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) allows Multiple Switches to process traffic in an active-active configuration, allowing all switches in a VRRP group to process traffic simultaneously, ensuring maximum performance and fast, seamless failover.

High availability and resiliency

• Uplink Failure Detection (UFD) supports network adapter teaming, and allows the switch to monitor specific uplink ports to detect link failures. When the switch detects a link failure, it automatically disables specific downlink ports. The corresponding server's network adapter can detect the disabled downlink, and trigger a network-adapter failover to another port on the switch, or another switch in the chassis.
• Compatibility with Cisco® EtherChannel for trunking to non-HP devices
• 802.1d Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) ensures that only one path to a destination is available at any one time by detecting loops and blocking switch ports as required.
• 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) provides seamless integration, resiliency and availability for network topologies utilizing Virtual LANs (VLANs) into networks running 802.1s. MSTP enables networks to utilize individual uplinks for separate VLANs, thus improving the overall performance of the network. MSTP also enables Network administrators to map multiple VLANs to a reduced number of Spanning Tree instances to provide multiple forwarding paths and load balancing for data traffic.
• Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) Snooping allows the GbE2c to intercept IGMP packets to build multicast tables for hosts that want to receive or stop receiving multicast streams. Networks that experience heavy multicast traffic benefit from the ability to "prune" the traffic so that it travels only those hosts that require that multicast frames.
• Compatibility with Cisco® PortFast feature allows a port to transition rapidly to forwarding state upon bootup, without the usual Spanning Tree calculation period that may cause some applications to time out.

GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet Blade Switch deployment applications