Dell PowerConnect 8100 Series The Dell PowerConnect 8100 10-Gigabit Ethernet switches are high-density Layer 3 core and aggregation switches engineered to deliver unprecedented performance, and accelerate workloads in demanding campus and business environments. Purpose-built to deliver advanced functionality and energy-efficient operation for small and large enterprises, these switches feature high density up to 384 10-Gigabit ports, 40GbE uplinks, High Availability (HA) stacking and simplified manageability.
Purpose-built for next generation campus environments
The PowerConnect 8100 Series are line-rate, high density 10/40Gb Ethernet switches designed for Enterprise campus and mid-market core and aggregation deployments requiring high throughput and availability. These high density 24-port and 48-port 10Gb switches are ready for converged Ethernet environments supporting virtualization, iSCSI storage, and 10Gb traffic aggregation. Together with the PowerConnect 1 GbE switch portfolio, the 8100 switches enable a campus fabric composed of 1 and 10GbE ports offering full routing functionality. Up to six switches can be stacked and managed with a single IP address to deliver network performance and resiliency for enterprise networks.
Enabling network convergence
The PowerConnect 8100 Series support converged fabric requirements for SAN and LAN networks with loss-less operation for iSCSI environments with DCB (Data Center Bridging). iSCSI traffic can also be monitored at the fabric level, allowing the administrator to track active iSCSI sessions. In addition, these switches deliver simplified connectivity with Dell EqualLogic™ arrays. The iSCSI Auto-Configuration feature automatically detects the arrays and configures the switch for optimal throughput. This feature is enabled by default, streamlining the process to just connecting a cable. 10 Gb performance and high availability The PowerConnect 8100 Series brings the benefits of 10 and 40Gb Ethernet to a compact and reliable switching platform, with the quality and great service of Dell. Operating at wire speed, the 8100 switches can deliver up to 960 Mpps throughput and a data rate of up to 1.2Tbps (full duplex) for both Layer 2 and Layer 3 environments for wire-speed 10Gb and 40Gb Switching.
The PowerConnect 8100 Series is designed for non-stop networking with high availability stacking, 10- and 40GbE capabilities, dual hot-swap, redundant power supplies, and removable fan modules. Up to 384 10GbE ports can be managed from a single screen using the highly-available stacking architecture, and the entire stack can be redundantly linked back to the rest of the network at 40Gb via the QSFP+ stacking ports. Fast stack failover enables sub-50ms failover scenarios within the same stack. These switches also incorporate dual firmware images to allow for image promotions or image redundancy in a network.
