ProCurve product line being discontinued?

[n3tm1n]

I typically do not give much creedence to post on another sites forum but I was intrigued when the person stated that HP is discontinuing the Procurve product line.

Any truth to such a claim?

[jguse]

Hello,

Just unofficially my opinion... considering the 3Com merger and the gradual move towards integrating everything into a single product line-up (while still separating by A/E/V Series), I wouldn't be surprised if eventually there were no more "3Com" and "ProCurve" products being sold, but instead a single "HPN" product line.

If, when and how that will happen we don't and won't know until it is announced though, and I don't think it would happen anytime soon.

[SCOOTER]

Same as what Justin wrote, but do you have a link to the "other" forum where the original claim was posted?

[n3tm1n]

Here is the link. Read the last sentence in the last post.

Tek-Tip post

[Richard Litchfield]

You can safely ignore the comment :

...what you want are Distribution switches that can give you "Split Multilink Trunks", to use Nortel terminology, or VSS, from Cisco, or VRFs, from HP (3COM). 
Procurve don't have anything that helps in this space. 
Which is probably why HP ar4 discontinuing Procurve. 

1.  The document referred to in previous posts is from 2005 - 7 years old - and whilst higher-end ProCurve switches (sometimes referred to a  E Series) still have this meshing feature, there are other options available from HP Networking that are possibly more relevant.
2. The terminology is incorrect: it is not VRF but IRF. IRF is Intelligent Resilient Framework, and allows switches in th same Comware (A Series) family to be linked together to appear as a single virtual entity. Simpler and more effective than SMLT or VSS, with none of the restrictions!
3. ProCurve, now HP Networking, do have options here - see point 2. There is also the 3800 switch series that support a fully-meshed stacking topology (up to 5) on 40Gb dedicated links.
4. ProCurve is not being discontinued. It is a significant part of the HP Networking business! The name ProCurve will presumably fade away along with 3com and H3C in favour of HP Networking.

[Lynn-Marie]

The ProCurve product line is not being discontinued!

In an effort to more fully integrate the combined HP Networking portfolio, the ProCurve and 3Com labels have been dropped from the product and series names.

For more information about the "old" and "new" product names, use the HP Networking Support Lookup Tool at www.hp.com/networking/support.

Thank you!

Lynn-Marie

Global Support Engineering

HP Networking Total Customer Experience

[Davy Priem]

Procurve products don't have IPv6 support in ASICS, so they are not very future-proof to buy. I also haven't seen new procurve products (on E-series, some new Wifi AP's were introduced) lately. Also software developement is very low.

[jkupski]

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@Davy Priem wrote:

Procurve products don't have IPv6 support in ASICS, so they are not very future-proof to buy. I also haven't seen new procurve products (on E-series, some new Wifi AP's were introduced) lately. Also software developement is very low.

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This is contradicted by this page, which states that, "The ProVision ASIC offers full support for IPv6 in hardware."

[Davy Priem]

5400/3500 and 6600 are the exceptions. By example, two switches commonly used as edge switches, the 2610 and the 2910 don't have IPv6 support in ASICS (and even very limited or no support in software). The 5400/3500 doesn't even have RA Guard on them. This is a basic IPv6 security requirement! This is in developement though, but takes ages. A-series (H3C's) have this onboard for quite a while.

[Davy Priem]

I found this in the release notes for latest experimental firmware for 5400 switch. Seems like they are working on a comware CLI for some products

Enhancement (CR_0000106070)

— The is the first of several phases that allows a Comware CLI proficient user

to use their Comware CLI knowledge to generate equivalent ProVision software CLI commands to manage and

configure ProVision software switches. This preliminary offering adds 21 simple Comware Display commands directly

to the ProVision CLI, with additional troubleshooting and management commands planned for future software

versions. See the

Comware CLI Commands in ProVision Software manual for more details.