Introduction
Simple Network Management Protocol and Remote Monitoring
Each switch module can be configured and monitored remotely from a Simple Network
Management Protocol (SNMP)/Remote Monitoring (RMON) based Network Management
Station. The switch modules support industry-standard SNMP Management Information
Bases (MIBs), HP Switch MIBs, and RMON groups 1 (statistics), 2 (History), 3 (Alarm), and
9 (Event) for fault detection, configuration, and monitoring of switch functionality. In
addition, the interconnect switch supports various environmental traps such as temperature
and fan failure traps.
To secure the management interface, the switch administrator can configure community
strings with two levels of access. Access can be restricted to a limited number of
Management Stations by configuring a list of IP addresses of those stations that can access
the interconnect switch. Refer to Appendix E for more information.
Port Mirroring
The interconnect switch allows the user to mirror a port to another port for network
monitoring and troubleshooting purposes. This technology offers a way for network packet
analyzers to view the traffic moving through the switch modules by providing a copy of the
traffic that is currently being passed through any other port. The packets are normally sent to
a network packet analyzer or other monitoring device attached to the mirror port.
Port Trunking and Load Balancing
The interconnect switch port trunking feature allows several ports to be grouped together and
act as a single logical link called a trunk. This feature provides a bandwidth that is a multiple
of a single link’s bandwidth. It also improves reliability since a configurable type of load
balancing is automatically applied to the ports in the trunked group. A link failure within the
group causes the network traffic to be directed to the remaining links in the group.
Trivial File Transfer Protocol Support
The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) service feature allows the interconnect switch
firmware to be upgraded by downloading a new firmware file from a TFTP server to the
switch modules. A configuration file can also be loaded into a switch module from a TFTP
server, configuration settings can be saved to the TFTP server, and a history log can be
uploaded from the switch module to the TFTP server.
Store and Forward Switching Scheme
The interconnect switch provides a store and forward switching scheme that allows each
packet to be buffered (stored) before it is forwarded to its destination. While this method
creates latency, it improves reliability in a heavily used interconnect switch. Packets that
cannot be forwarded are saved immediately, rather than dropped, and packets behind it are
less likely to be dropped in periods of heavy usage.
HP ProLiant BL e-Class C-GbE Interconnect Switch User Guide 1-7
HP CONFIDENTIAL Codename: DeLorean Part Number: 263682-002 Last Saved On: 2/5/03 10:39 AM
