HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch Series

The HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch Series is a modern family of entry level access switches ideal for enterprise branch offices and SMB networks. Optimized for reliable, simple, and secure access, the HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch series switches provide a convenient wired access solution for networks supporting IoT, mobile and cloud applications. CX 6100 Switch series is based on the HPE Aruba Networking ASIC architecture with the programmable AOS-CX operating system used across the entire HPE Aruba Networking CX portfolio for a more consistent, more efficient operator experience. This fully managed Layer 2 switch series has convenient built-in high-speed uplinks with up to 370W of PoE to support IoT devices, such as security cameras and wireless APs, and includes a compact and fanless model ideal for use in quiet workspaces. CX 6100 Switch series supports management choices that include Web GUI, CLI, cloud-based and on-premises HPE Aruba Networking Central, so you can choose the best fit for your needs today with flexibility to change without replacing hardware. With enhanced access security, traffic prioritization, and IPv6 support, the HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch series also simplifies ownership and brings peace of mind with switch software embedded with no subscription required to enable and a Limited Lifetime Warranty.

Key Features

• Enterprise-class Layer 2 connectivity with support for ACLs, robust QoS and static routing
• Convenient built-in 1/10GbE uplinks and up to 740W of Class 4 PoE for support of IoT devices
• Compact and fanless 12 port model for quiet deployment
• Manage via single pane of glass with HPE Aruba Networking Central across wired, wireless, and WAN
• Automated configuration and verification with HPE Aruba Networking NetEdit
• Software defined ready with REST APIs
• Simplify adds, moves and changes with colorless ports

Product Differentiators

AOS-CX - A modern software system

The HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch Series is based on AOS-CX, a modern, database-driven operating system that is built on a modular Linux architecture. This operating system provides the following unique capabilities:

• Easy access to all network configuration state information
• REST APIs for fine-grained programmability of network tasks
• A micro-services architecture that enables full integration with other workflow systems and services
• All software processes communicate with the database rather than each other, ensuring near real-time state and resiliency

HPE Aruba Networking ASICs - Programmable innovation

Based on over 30 years of continuous investment, HPE Aruba Networking's ASICs create the basis for innovative and agile software feature advancements, unparalleled performance, and deep visibility. These programmable ASICs are purpose-built to allow for a tighter integration of switch hardware and software within campus and data center architectures to optimize performance and capacity. The HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch Series is based on the HPE Aruba Networking ASIC architecture.

HPE Aruba Networking Central - Unified single pane of glass management

Flexible cloud-based or on-premises management for unified network operations of wired, WLAN, SD-WAN, and public cloud infrastructure. Designed to simplify day zero through day two operations with streamlined workflows. Switch management capabilities include configuration, onboarding, monitoring, troubleshooting, and reporting.

HPE Aruba Networking NetEdit - Automated switch configuration and management

The entire HPE Aruba Networking CX portfolio empowers IT teams to orchestrate multiple switch configuration changes for smooth end-to-end service rollouts. HPE Aruba Networking NetEdit introduces automation that allows for rapid network-wide changes and ensures policy conformance post network updates. Intelligent capabilities include search, edit, validation (including conformance checking), deployment and audit features. Capabilities include:

• Centralized configuration with validation for consistency and compliance
• Time savings via simultaneous viewing and editing of multiple configurations
• Customized validation tests for corporate compliance and network design
• Automated large-scale configuration deployment without programming

Notes: A separate software license is required to use HPE Aruba Networking NetEdit.

Mobility and IoT performance

The HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch Series uses internally developed HPE Aruba Networking ASICs that provide very low latency, increased packet buffering, and adaptive power consumption. Each switch includes the following:

• Up to 176 Gbps in non-blocking bandwidth and up to 98.6 Mpps for forwarding
• Selectable queue configurations that allow for increased performance by defining a number of queues and associated memory buffering to best meet the requirements of network applications

Simplify adds, moves and changes

Reduce manual IT operation tasks around initial deployment or on-going configuration changes to accommodate adds, moves and changes with colorless ports using local user roles and local-MAC-Authentication (LMA). Instead of statically pre-configuring access ports to VLANs and maintaining the switch port to VLAN mapping, colorless ports can automatically apply the role/policy required.

Enterprise-class access connectivity

To address branch office and small enterprise environments, the HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch series family includes five fixed 1U models. Each switch includes built-in high speed uplinks that automatically detect the use of 1G or 10G transceivers to deliver non-blocking performance. Additional highlights:

• 1U models support 24 and 48 access ports of IEEE 802.3 1GbE with four built-in 1GbE/10GbE uplink SFP+ ports. The 24 port PoE models support up to 370W and the and 48 pot PoE models support up to 740W IEEE 802.3at Class 4 Power over Ethernet for up to 30W per port
• Compact and fanless model supports 12 ports of IEEE 802.3 1GbE with four uplinks (two built-in 1GbE/10GbE uplink SFP/SFP+ ports, two built-in 1GbE ports), and 139W IEEE 802.3at Class 4 Power over Ethernet for up to 30W per port
• Support for Energy Efficient Ethernet IEEE 802.3az reduces power consumption during periods of low network traffic
• Support for pre-standard PoE detects and provides power to pre-standard PoE devices
• Auto-MDIX provides automatic adjustments for straight through or crossover cables on all 10/100/1000 ports
• Unsupported Transceiver Mode (UTM) allows to insert and enable all unsupported 1G and 10G transceivers and cables. Note that there is no warranty nor support for the transceiver/cable when this feature is used
• Jumbo frames allow for high-performance backups and disaster-recovery systems; provides a maximum frame size of 9198 bytes
• Packet storm protection against broadcast, multicast and unknown unicast storms with user-defined thresholds

Resiliency and availability

To support a highly-available Layer 2 access deployment, the HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch series supports the following features:

• Uni-directional Link Detection (UDLD) to monitor link connectivity and shut down ports at both ends if unidirectional traffic is detected, preventing loops in STPbased networks
• IEEE 802.3ad LACP supports up to 8 LAGs, each with up to 8 links per LAG; and provides support for static or dynamic groups and a user-selectable hashing algorithm
• IEEE 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree provides high link availability in VLAN environments where multiple spanning trees are required; and legacy support for IEEE 802.1d and IEEE 802.1w
• SmartLink provides easy-to-configure link redundancy of active and standby links

Quality of Service (QoS) features

To support congestion actions and traffic prioritization, the HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch series includes the following:

• Strict priority (SP) queuing
• Traffic prioritization (IEEE 802.1p) for real-time classification
• Class of Service (CoS) sets the IEEE 802.1p priority tag based on IP address, IP Type of Service (ToS), Layer 3 protocol, TCP/UDP port number, source port, and DiffServ
• Rate limiting sets per-port ingress enforced maximums and per-port, per-queue minimums
• Large buffers for graceful congestion management

Simplified configuration and management

The HPE Aruba Networking CX 6100 Switch series supports a choice of management interfaces including, easy to use Web GUI, industry standard. CLI, HPE Aruba Networking NetEdit, and HPE Aruba Networking Central for unified network operations of wired, WLAN, SD-WAN, and public cloud infrastructure. Features include:

• Built-in programmable and easy-to-use REST API interface
• Industry-standard CLI with a hierarchical structure for reduced training time and expense. Delivers increased productivity in multivendor environments
• sFlow (RFC 3176) is ASIC-based wire speed network monitoring and accounting with no impact on network performance; network operators can gather a variety of network statistics and information for capacity planning and real-time network monitoring purposes
• Management security restricts access to critical configuration commands, provides multiple privilege levels with password protection and local and remote syslog capabilities allow logging of all access
• SNMPv1/v2c/v3 support provides Read capability of industry standard Management Information Base (MIB), and private extensions
• SNMP support includes: Write Set Speed and Duplex, Write Port Security, Write POE Priority, Write Config Mgmt, SNMP-Read single OID for average CPU and memory, SNMP MIB View
• SNMP Trap include: Transceiver Traps (insertion/removal), SNMP Trap, SNMP MIB-SNMB Authentication, SNMPv2 MIB, Port Sec MIB-Port Sec, Config MIB-Running Config Change, Config MIB, AAA Server MIB, AAA Server State
• Remote monitoring (RMON) with standard SNMP to monitor essential network functions. Supports events, alarms, history, and statistics groups as well as a private alarm extension group
• TFTP and SFTP support offers different mechanisms for configuration updates; trivial FTP (TFTP) allows bidirectional transfers over a TCP/ IP network; Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) runs over an SSH tunnel to provide additional security
• Debug and sampler utility supports ping and traceroute for IPv4 and IPv6
• Network Time Protocol (NTP) synchronizes timekeeping among distributed time servers and clients; keeps timekeeping consistent among all clock-dependent devices within the network so the devices can provide diverse applications based on the consistent time
• IEEE 802.1AB Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) advertises and receives management information from adjacent devices on a network, facilitating easy mapping by network management applications
• Dual flash images provide independent primary and secondary operating system files for backup while upgrading
• Multiple configuration files can be stored to a flash image
• Unidirectional link detection (UDLD) monitors the link between two switches and blocks the ports on both ends of the link if the link goes down at any point between the two devices

Layer 2 Switching

The following Layer 2 services are supported:

• VLAN support and tagging support for IEEE 802.1Q (4094 VLAN IDs) and 512 VLANs simultaneously
• Jumbo packet support improves the performance of large data transfers; supports frame size of up to 9,220 bytes
• Rapid Per-VLAN Spanning Tree (RPVST+) allows each VLAN to build a separate spanning tree to improve link bandwidth usage; is compatible with PVST+
• STP supports standard IEEE 802.1D STP, IEEE 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) for faster convergence, and IEEE 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP)
• MVRP allows automatic learning and dynamic assignment of VLANs
• Bridge Protocol Data Unit (BPDU) tunneling transmits STP BPDUs transparently, allowing correct tree calculations across service providers, WANs, or MANs
• Port mirroring duplicates port traffic (ingress and egress) to a monitoring port; supports 4 mirroring groups
• Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) Controls and manages the flooding of multicast packets in a Layer 2 networks

Layer 3 Services

The following Layer 3 services are supported:

• Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) determines the MAC address of another IP host in the same subnet; supports static ARPs
• Domain Name System (DNS) provides a distributed database that translates domain names and IP addresses, which simplifies network design; supports client and server
• Supports internal loopback testing for maintenance purposes and increased availability; loopback detection protects against incorrect cabling or network configurations and can be enabled on a per-port or per
• VLAN basis for added flexibility
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) simplifies the management of large IP networks and supports client; DHCPv4 Relay support enables DHCP operation across subnets

Layer 3 Routing

The following Layer 3 routing services are supported:

• Static IP routing provides manually configured routes.
• Dual stack static IPv4 and IPv6 routing provides simple manually configured IPv4 and IPv6 routing
• Dual IP stack maintains separate stacks for IPv4 and IPv6 to ease the transition from an IPv4-only network to an IPv6-only network design

Multicast

• IGMP Snooping allows multiple VLANs to receive the same IPv4 multicast traffic, lessening network bandwidth demand by reducing multiple streams to each VLAN
• Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) enables discovery of IPv6 multicast listeners; support MLD v1 and v2
• Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) utilizes Any-Source Multicast (ASM) to manage IPv4 multicast networks; supports IGMPv1, v2, and v3
• IP multicast snooping (data-driven IGMP) prevents flooding of IP multicast traffic

IPv6 capabilities

• IPv6 host enables switches to be managed in an IPv6 network
• Dual stack (IPv4 and IPv6) transitions from IPv4 to IPv6, supporting connectivity for both protocols
• MLD snooping forwards IPv6 multicast traffic to the appropriate interface
• IPv6 ACL/QoS supports ACL and QoS for IPv6 network traffic
• IPV6 static routing
• Security provides RA guard, dynamic IPv6 lockdown, and ND snooping