Owner's manual

ManualsBrandsHP ManualsComputer Accessories2424M

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

Some servers also support link aggregation, allowing multiple links to be interconnected between the

switch and server.

Up to 4 links of any one type can be used in either the FEC or HP trunk and a total of 10 trunks (FEC,

HP Trunk and Switch Mesh) can be configured at one time in the HP ProCurve

Switch 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M.

2.10.1 Implementation of Cisco's Fast EtherChannel

The HP ProCurve

Fast EtherChannel ports

Switches 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M

implement Cisco’s Fast

EtherChannel® (FEC) technology.

FEC provides support for the Port

Aggregation Protocol (PAgP), a

Cisco proprietary protocol that aids

Switch 1

Switch 2

trunked together act as one

Switch 3

in configuration of the FEC links. This allows the HP ProCurve Switches 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M

switches to be compatible with other PAgP compliant switches, routers and servers.

Traffic running across an FEC trunk is load-balanced across the different physical links, providing the

most complete use of the available bandwidth.

In addition, if one of the links in the trunk goes down, data is carried across the remaining links

providing redundancy to the overall link.

Look at the FEC white paper on Cisco's web site for more details on server support.

2.10.2 HP Trunking

The HP ProCurve Switches 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M also implement HP Trunks. HP Trunks are

available in a number of other HP switches making the HP ProCurve

Switch 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M compatible with the link aggregation solution of these other

switches.

HP Trunks will also work with other trunk technologies that do not use a protocol across the trunks,

including FEC trunks that have PAgP disabled. In fact, if a FEC defined trunk in a HP ProCurve

Switch 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M is connected to a switch or server that does not support PAgP on

their trunks, it will automatically try to connect using the HP Trunk. As a result, a trunk on the

4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M can be set up initially as FEC and have the greatest chance of

interoperating with another switch or server.

2.11 Filtering

2.11.1 Layer 2 and Layer 3 Filtering

The HP ProCurve Switch 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M support various filtering at Layer 2 and Layer 3.

Traffic having the following frame types can be either forwarded or dropped on a per-port basis:

IP IPX ARP AppleTalk

DEC LAT NetBEUI SNA

In addition, filters for specific multicast addresses can be defined to forward or drop multicast traffic

on a per-port basis. Port filters can also be defined such that traffic from a specific port can be

forwarded or dropped on a per-port basis.

Judicious use of the filters can streamline traffic flows or create security walls. For example, many

networks have workgroups using a particular protocol that do not need to communicate outside their

group. If a graphics workgroup is using AppleTalk, but the traffic is not desired elsewhere on the

network, an AppleTalk filter in the HP ProCurve Switch 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M will prevent the

AppleTalk traffic from consuming bandwidth outside the workgroup. Alternatively, if a file server is