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Introduction 11
VLANs also logically segment the physical network into different broadcast domains so that packets are
forwarded only between ports within the VLAN. This technology enhances performance by conserving
bandwidth and improves security by limiting traffic to specific domains. For example, isolate the server
blade iLO ports from the rest of the NICs. The iLO ports on Switch 2 are assigned to their own VLAN and
go to a dedicated uplink or share an uplink using VLAN tagging.
IMPORTANT: The greater the number of VLANs, the greater the switch CPU utilization. For
maximum switch performance, HP recommends being judicious when configuring the number
of VLANs.
NOTE: VLAN 4095 is reserved for future functionality.
Spanning Tree Protocol
The switch supports IEEE 802.1D STP, which allows the blocking of links that form loops between switches
in a network. When multiple links between switches are detected, a primary link is established.
Duplicated links are blocked from use and become standby links. If the primary link fails, the standby link
is activated.
In addition, the switch provides a spanning tree domain per VLAN. The switch is compatible with Cisco®
PVST+ and Cisco PVST, when the other device is configured as untagged or configured to use 802.1q
tagging. Sixteen spanning tree domains are supported per switch.
NOTE: STP 16 is reserved for future functionality.
The switch also provides IEEE 802.1s-based MSTP and IEEE 802.1w-based RSTP.
SNMP
The switch is configured and monitored remotely from an SNMP-based network management station. The
switch supports industry-standard SNMP MIBs and proprietary HP enterprise switch MIBs for fault
detection and monitoring of switch functionality. In addition, the switch supports various environmental
traps such as temperature and fan failure traps.
To secure the management interface, the switch administrator configures community strings with two levels
of access: Read and Read/Write. Access to the switch is also restricted to only management stations that
are members of a specific IP network. This is achieved by configuring the address/mask of that specific
network as a restricted management network address/mask.
Port mirroring
The switch allows mirroring of one or multiple ports (source ports) to another port (destination port) for
network monitoring and troubleshooting purposes. This technology offers a way for network packet
analyzers to view the traffic moving through the switch by providing a copy of the traffic that is currently
being passed through any other port. The packets are sent to a network packet analyzer or other
monitoring device attached to the mirror port.
Port trunking and load balancing
The switch supports EtherChannel compatible IEEE 802.3ad (without LACP) port trunking allowing several
ports to be grouped together and act as a single logical link called a trunk. This feature provides a