topic E Series Switch Differences (E2910/E3500/E6600) in HPE Aruba Networking & ProVision-based

E Series Switch Differences (E2910/E3500/E6600)

Andrew Granville — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:02:48 GMT

A simple question really:

What's the primary differences between the E6600, E3500 and E2910 series?

I'm looking to purchase a replacement switch with 10GbE capabilities (and other port quantity requirements) and my research so far has led me towards the following 3 switches/configurations:

- HP E2910-24G al Switch (J9145A) with 2Port 10-GbE SFP+ (J9008A) installed.

- HP E3500-24G-PoE+ yl Switch (J9310A) with 10-GbE 2Port SFP+/2 Port CX4 (J9312A) module installed.

- HP E6600-24G-4XG Switch (J9264A)

Excluding the SFP+ transceivers, the cost differences between is three configurations above is quite noticable, especially between the E2910 and the E6600 series.

So, does anybody know the benefit of the paying the extra cost. I've looked through the specifications of these switches and it seems to me the main difference is the Memory/Processor setup - as well as the routing table size. But which is best? What affect does a smaller routing table actually result in?

Any help answering my questions much appreciated.

Thanks

Andrew

Re: E Series Switch Differences (E2910/E3500/E6600)

Richard Litchfield_1 — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 02:51:40 GMT

Hi Andrew,

Lots of differences between these switches, but some key or interesting ones:

3500/6600 share the same codebase/chipset (ProVision)
They support all the high-end features and functions including the premium licence options (high-end routing, multicast, etc)
6600 supports front-back (reversible) cooling with hot-swap fans
6600 supports dual power supplies
3500, 2910 support an external power supply for redundancy
3500, 2910 support PoE/PoE+ depending on the model
2910 has a much smaller physical size (depth)
3500, 2910 support 10Gb interfaces other than SFP+ (eg CX4, X2, module dependent)
they have different packet buffer memory sizes (from memory: 2910 = 6-16MB; 3500 = 18MB; 6600 = 36-72MB depending on the specific model/port count)
6600 supports larger MAC address tables (64k)
6600 supports distributed trunking

Rgds,

Richard

Re: E Series Switch Differences (E2910/E3500/E6600)

Helper — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:53:53 GMT

Hi,

The same post with more replies exist here : https://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1462931

Richard your reply is very interesting, thanks, just a little remark regarding distirbute trunking for 3500yl it is available for the entire provision product familiy with K.14/K.15 firmware.

Bye.

Re: E Series Switch Differences (E2910/E3500/E6600)

snoms — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 22:42:59 GMT

Take a look at the E4800/A5800/A5820 series. It is far superior to your mentioned switches in terms of protocol support.

Re: E Series Switch Differences (E2910/E3500/E6600)

Andrew Granville — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:05:53 GMT

Thanks for your replies. They have proved very useful.