7 Minute Miles

HP ProCurve Switches Rule


It’s still too early to say the battle is over, but so far the new bad-ass switches from HP have not gone down once since they arrived. The web-based management features are great for monitoring what’s going on and I was able to turn on two new (for us) features:

  • “This switch features automatic fault detection capability which can protect your network from being brought down by problems such as network loops, defective cables, transceivers and faulty network interface cards.”
  • “Multicast Filtering (IGMP) – Direct multicast packets to only those portions of the network where they are needed. This improves network performance in networks using the IGMP protocol with high levels of multicast traffic.”

As I wrote in February, the network at HSRA has been a frustrating troubleshooting nightmare. With the help of many others (friends, colleagues, outside consultants), I now basically have a new network. Here are the key pieces:

Combined with all the gear I just brought back from Seattle, the server room is getting pretty crowded. Still lots to monitor, clean and organize, but I may finally get to move on to other projects soon. I’m still worried there is bad cable out on the floor, but the new switches seem to deal with that much better than the el cheapo stuff from Best Buy.

Originally published by DK on April 6, 2009 at 2:02 pm in Mini Posts, Technology, Work


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