About top-of-rack switches

Top-of-rack switches provide a unified, converged fabric over Ethernet for LAN and SAN traffic. This unification enables network consolidation, reducing the number of adapters and cables required and eliminating redundant switches.

A configuration of enclosures, server blades, and third-party devices—such as top-of-rack switches—provides scalability in managing server blades and higher demand for bandwidth from each server with access-layer redundancy. See the HPE OneView Support Matrix for the complete list of supported devices.

Modular data centers, deploying both individual server blades and racks of server blades, can use a top-of-rack switch deployment model as a solution for network consolidation. You can increase data center flexibility by placing switching resources in each rack so that server connectivity can be aggregated.

Integration with top-of-rack switches provides the following benefits:

  • A distributed modular system that creates a scalable server access environment

  • One single point of management and policy enforcement

  • Reduced operational expenses (less cabling, reduced power consumption for operation and cooling, effective bandwidth utilization)

HPE OneView support focuses on providing a monitored view of the environment with the ability for limited configuration changes on the interconnect facing ports. Firmware update is not supported for these resources. HPE OneView supports status and configuration monitoring and compliance monitoring of Cisco Nexus top-of-rack switches when they are operating as access switches and connected directly to a Cisco FEX (Cisco Fabric Extender for HPE BladeSystem) in an enclosure. Within HPE OneView, you can add and remove top-of-rack switches through logical switch group templates and associated logical switches.

With HPE OneView, you can:

  • Express the expected and actual states of the switches and FEX interconnects with corresponding compliance monitoring.

  • View physical switch information.

  • View physical port information.

  • View statistical information.

  • View health events and port state changes as alerts, from the Cisco Nexus switches.

  • Navigate to the Map view of the Cisco Nexus switches and FEX interconnects to view the relationship among these resources.

  • Detect network availability and view inconsistency among networks defined within HPE OneView and the networks provisioned on the Cisco Nexus switches.