NETGEAR ProSAFE Plus Series User manual

ProSAFE®Plus Switch
Reviewer’s Guide

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NETGEAR® CONTACT INFO ........................................................................................................................................... 3
BEFORE YOU START......................................................................................................................................................... 3
PRODUCT CATEGORY..................................................................................................................................................... 3
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ............................................................................................................................................... 3
WHAT’S NEW..................................................................................................................................................................... 4
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS.................................................................................................................................................. 4
MODELS ............................................................................................................................................................................. 5
XS708E SUPPORTED DIRECT ATTACH CABLES...................................................................................................... 6
SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE OPTIONS................................................................................................................. 6
TESTING & DEPLOYMENT ............................................................................................................................................ 6
WHERE TO INSTALL THE PLUS SWITCH............................................................................................................ 7
QUICK START INSTRUCTIONS.............................................................................................................................. 8
TESTING SCENARIOS ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Table of Contents

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NETGEAR®CONTACT INFO
If you have any questions or technical issues, please contact your assigned NETGEAR contacts for this review listed below.
Peter Chen
Senior Technical Marketing Engineer
[phone]
[phone]
[e-mail]
Maggie Wu
Senior Product Line Manager
[phone]
[e-mail]
BEFORE YOU START
Prior to any testing, please make sure the Plus Switch is running the latest firmware and that you have the latest version of the
ProSAFE® Plus Utility installed by going to http://support.netgear.com and searching for the model number of the switch.
PRODUCT CATEGORY
Switches Wireless Storage Security
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Thank you for taking the time to evaluate the NETGEAR ProSAFE line of Plus switches. The new ProSAFE Plus Switch family empow-
ers growing businesses with the capabilities to monitor and configure their network beyond simple connectivity at a very aordable
cost, making them ideal upgrades from Unmanaged switches.

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WHAT’S NEW
We are always working on adding new useful features to our products. Below is a list of recently added features to the Plus switch
line. Be sure to take these features into consideration during the review.
•XS708E – The XS708E is the industry’s first aordable 10Gigabit switch for the SMB. It features eight 10GBase-T RJ45 ports
and one 10Gigabit SFP+ fiber port. All for a ground breaking street price of $999 – making 10 Gigabit a reality for small to me-
dium businesses. The XS708E also supports standard Plus switch features such as VLAN, QoS, IGMP Snooping, port monitoring
and in addition to that, also supports Link Aggregation and is ideal for connecting 10 Gigabit capable servers and storage.
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS
Key Features Benefits
Configurable via simple PC-based Utility tool More control of your network without more cost
Review port-based trac status See who's using the network and how much data they send/
receive.
Troubleshoot connection problems via built-in cable test tool Find failure points quickly and easily to help on repair.
Green Ethernet Reduce energy cost with power savings
Port-based or 802.1p-based Quality of Service (QoS) Prioritize network trac based on user, or trac type (voice,
video and etc.)
Port-based or 802.1Q-based Virtual LAN (VLAN) Divide a flat network into network groups for better perfor-
mance, resource allocation, and security
Link Aggregation (XS708E only) Adds redundancy and improves network performance
Broadcast Storm Control Avoid loss of connectivity and improve the stability of network
performance
Port-based Bandwidth control Avoid network congestion and better allocate network
resources
Port Mirroring Assists with troubleshooting complex network issues

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•Expanded Networking Feature Set – VLAN, QoS, IGMP Snooping, Port Mirroring, Port Monitoring, Link Aggregation
(XS708E only) gives network administrators greater flexibility over unmanaged switches at a small price premium.
•ProSAFE Plus Configuration Utility – A simple to use management soware that provides the capability to easily make
changes on the Plus switch.
MODELS
FS116E JFS524E GS105E GS108E GS108PE GS116E JGS524E XS708E
Form Factor Desktop Rackmount Desktop Desktop Desktop Desktop Rackmount Rackmount
Number of
Ports
16 24 5 8 8 16 24 9
Link Speed Fast Ethernet Fast Ethernet Gigabit Gigabit Gigabit Gigabit Gigabit 10 Gigabit
VLAN
QoS ••••••••
IGMP
Snooping •••••••
Link
Aggregation
Power over
Ethernet
•
Street Price $90 $109 $70 $76 $150 $186 $240 $999
Warranty Lifetime Lifetime Lifetime Lifetime Lifetime Lifetime Lifetime Lifetime

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XS708E SUPPORTED DIRECT ATTACH CABLES
Below is a list of support direct-attach cables (DAC) from NETGEAR which are compatible with the XS708E:
•AXC761
•AXC763
•AXM763
•AXM762
•AXM761
•AGM734
•AGM732F
•AGM731F
SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE OPTIONS
Technical Support
•Lifetime 24x7 live telephone and email support
•Lifetime Warranty
•Paid options for next business day replacement and onsite support available
TESTING & DEPLOYMENT
Note:
Please make sure the Plus switch has the latest firmware and ProSAFE Plus Configuration Utility installed on your PC before testing.
The ProSAFE Plus Configuration Utility is soware installed on a PC used to configure Plus switches.
Make sure the management PC is on the same subnet as the Plus switch.
The latest ProSAFE Plus Configuration Utility can be found here:
http://support.netgear.com/product/XS708E
The default password for the Plus switch is password.

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Where to Install the Plus Switch
The Plus switch can be installed anywhere in the network where a switch is required. It can be used to replace existing unmanaged
switches.
Remote PC
Internet
UTM
ReadyNAS Storage
Plus Switch
VPN Tunnel Local PCs
Wireless AP
Typical Plus Switch Deployment Example
Internet
Firewall
XS708E Plus Switch
Local PCs
10GE Capable Servers
10GE Capable Storage
XS708E Deployment Example
For detailed instructions on the installation steps, please reference the ProSAFE Plus Switch Installation Guide included in the box.

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Quick Start Instructions
•Download and install the ProSAFE Plus Configuration Utility onto your PC
•Connect your PC to the switch via Ethernet cable
•Power the switch on. The utility tool will discover the switch.
•Select the switch you want to configure and click on the Apply button. You will be able to configure VLAN and QoS. Go to each
tab and you can easily configure the switch to your needs.

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Testing Scenarios
Below are a few optional testing scenarios you can use to verify certain features of the switch.
Suggested Equipment for Test:
1. 2 ProSAFE Plus Switches – referring to as Switch A and B
(one switch will be able to test basic features and functionalities as well)
2. Trac generator (TG) – IXIA or SmartBits.
3. A PC/NB with ProSAFE Plus Utility.
Port Based VLAN
Test Network Topology
Same as Port Mirroring test
•Connect TG port 1 to Switch A port 1.
•Connect TG port 2 to Switch A port 2.
•Connect TG port 3 to Switch A port 3.
•Enable Basic Port based VLAN.
•Set port 1 to be a member of all VLANs. Set port 2’s VLAN Group to 2. Set port 3’s VLAN Group 3.
EXPECTED RESULT: Port 1 can communicate with port2 and port3; and port 2 can’t communicate with port 3.
802.1Q VLAN
Test Network Topology
Switch B
Switch A
Trace Generator -- IXIA or Smartbits NB/PC with ProSAFE Plus Utility
1. TG sends untagged packets to switch and receive untagged packets from switch.
•Connect TG port 1 to Switch A port 1.
•Connect TG port 2 to Switch A port 2.
•Connect TG port 3 to Switch B port 1.
•Connect TG port 4 to Switch B port 2.
•Connect Switch A port 3 to Switch B port 3.
•Enable Advanced 802.1Q VLAN on both switches.
•Create 2 VLANs: VLAN 10 and 20 on both switches.
•Set port 1 to be a member of VLAN 10 with PVID equals to10 for both switches.
•Set port 2 to be a member of VLAN 20 with PVID equals to 20 for both switches.

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•Set port 3 to be a member of VLAN 10 and VLAN 20; and don’t change default PVID (=1) for both switches.
•Leave port 1 and port 2 are untagged (untag) ports for both switches.
•Set port 3 to be a tagged (tag) port for both switches.
•Generate untagged packets from TG port 1 and port 2.
EXPECTED RESULT: Tracs are segregated between VLAN 10 & VLAN 20. TG port 3 only receives untagged packets from TG
port 1; and TG port 4 only receives untagged packets from TG port 2.
802.1Q VLAN
Test Network Topology
2. TG sends tagged packets to switch and receive untagged packets from switch.Connect TG port 1 to Switch A port 1.
•Use the same test environment as #1.
•From TG port 1, generate tagged packets with VLAN ID = 10.
•From TG port 2, generated tagged packets with VLAN ID = 20
EXPECTED RESULT: Tracs are segregated between VLAN 10 & VLAN 20. TG port 3 only receives untagged packets from TG
port 1; and TG port 4 only receives untagged packets from TG port 2.
3. TG sends untagged packets to switch and receive tagged packets from switch.
•Use the same test environment as 1, except Switch B’s port 1 and port 2 configurations.
•Change Switch B port 1 and port 2 to “tag” port.
•From TG port 1 and port 2, send untagged packets to Switch A.
EXPECTED RESULT: Tracs are segregated between VLAN 10 & VLAN 20. TG port 3 only receives tagged packets (with VLAN
ID 10) from TG port 1; and TG port 4 only receives tagged packets (with VLAN ID 20) from TG port 2.
4. TG sends tagged packets to switch and receive tagged packets from switch.
•Use the same test environment as 3.
•From TG port 1, send tagged packets with VLAN ID 10 to Switch A.
•From TG port 2, sends tagged packets with VLAN ID 20 to Switch A.
EXPECTED RESULT: Tracs are segregated between VLAN 10 & VLAN 20. TG port 3 only receives tagged packets (with VLAN
ID 10) from TG port 1; and TG port 4 only receives tagged packets (with VLAN ID 20) from TG port 2.
QoS
ProSAFE Plus Gigabit Switches support 4 priority level queues. The queue service rate is based on the Weighted Round Robin (WRR)
algorithm. The weight ratio of high-priority and low-priority queue is 4:1 for Fast Ethernet models, 24:8:2:1 for gigabit models ,
and 8:4;2:1 for 10G model.

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Network Topology for Port Based & 802.1p Based QoS test
Switch B
Switch A
Trace Generator -- IXIA or Smartbits NB/PC with ProSAFE Plus Utility
Port Based QoS
•Connect TG port 1 to Switch A port 1.
•Connect TG port 2 to Switch A port 2.
•Connect TG port 3 to Switch B port 1.
•Connect TG port 4 to Switch B port 2.
•Connect Switch A port 3 to Switch B port 3.
•Enable Port based QoS
•Set switch A port 1 to high priority queue and leave the rest at low priority queue.
•From TG port 1 and 3, send packets to each other for 2 seconds.
•From TG port 2 and 4, send packets to each other for 2 seconds.
•The purpose of above 2 steps is to make sure Switch A has learned TG port 1 and 2 MAC address and Switch B has learned TG
port 3 and 4 MAC address.
•From TG port 1 and 2, now send 1,000,000 packets with size of 64 bytes to Switch A.
EXPECTED RESULT: The received packets ratio of TG port 3 and port 4 (from Switch B port 1 and 2) should be
800,000:200,000 = 4:1 respectively.
802.1p Based QoS
•Connect TG port 1 to Switch A port 1.
•Connect TG port 2 to Switch A port 2.
•Connect TG port 3 to Switch B port 1.
•Connect TG port 4 to Switch B port 2.
•Connect Switch A port 3 to Switch B port 3
•Enable 802.1p Based QoS
•Create VLAN 10 in both switches.
•Set port 1, 2 and 3 to be members of VLAN10 for both switches.
•Set port 1, 2 and 3 to be tagged (tag) ports for both switches.
•TG port 1’s setting is tagged packets with VLAN ID 10 and high 802.1p priority -4. Packet size is 64 byte.
•TG port 2’s setting is tagged packets with VLAN ID 10 and low 802.1p priority -2. Packet size is 64 byte.

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•From TG port 1 and 3, send packets to each other for 2 seconds.
•From TG port 2 and 4, send packets to each other for 2 seconds.
•The purpose of above 2 steps is to make sure Switch A has learned TG port 1 and 2 MAC address and Switch B has learned TG
port 3 and 4 MAC address.
•From TG port 1 and port 2, send 1,000,000 packets to Switch A simultaneously.
EXPECTED RESULT: The received packet ratio for TG port 3 and port 4 should be 4:1 respectively.
Broadcast Filtering
The Broadcast Filtering enables each port to drop broadcast packets (Destination MAC is FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF) aer a continuous
received broadcast packets counter count of 64. The counter is reset to 0 every 800ms.
Test Network Topology
Same topology as Port Mirroring test
•Connect TG port 1 to Switch A port 1.
•Connect TG port 2 to Switch A port 2
•Connect TG port 3 to Switch A port 3.
•Enable Broadcast Filtering.
•From TG port 1, send 50,000 broadcast packets to Switch A.
EXPECTED RESULT: Only several hundreds of packets are received on TG port 2 and port 3.
IGMP Snooping
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) Snooping is a feature that allows a switch to forward multicast trac intelligently on
the switch. Multicast IP trac is trac that is destined to a host group. Host groups are identified by class D IP addresses, which
range from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. Based on the IGMP query and report messages, the switch forwards trac only to
the ports that request the multicast trac. This prevents the switch from broadcasting the trac to all ports and possibly aecting
network performance.
To enable or disable IGMP snooping:
•SelectDisableorEnableforIGMPSnoopingStatusandclick Apply.
Or
•YoucanalsochangetheVLANforwhichtheIGMPSnoopingtobeenabledbyenteringavalidVLANIDfortheeld“VLANID
Enabled for IGMP Snooping”; and clicking Apply.
This field is greyed out if VLAN is not enabled.
Validate IGMPv3 IP header:
Some of the Network devices may not conform to the IGMPv3 standard. When ‘Validate IGMPv3 IP header’ option is enabled, IGMP
messages are required to have TTL = 1, ToS Byte = 0xC0 (Internetwork Control), and router alert IP option (9404) set; otherwise,
the packets will be ignored.
Block Unknown MultiCast Address:
When enabled, multicast packets are forwarded only to the ports that are in the Multicast group learnt from IGMP snooping. All
unknown multicast packets are dropped.

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Port Mirroring Test
Test Network Topology
Switch A
Trace Generator -- IXIA or Smartbits NB/PC with ProSAFE Plus Utility
•Connect TG port 1 to Switch A port 1.
•Connect TG port 2 to Switch A port 2.
•Connect TG port 3 to Switch A port 3.
•Send trac from TG port 1 and port 2 to each other. Confirm TG port 3 doesn’t receive any packet from port 1 or port 2.
•Now, enable mirroring function using ProSAFE Plus Utility and set port 1 to be source port and port 3 to be the destination port.
•Send trac from TG port 1 and port 2 to each other again.
EXPECTED RESULT: All the trac that port 1 received and transmitted are copied to port 3. In other words, port 3 will show all the
tracs generated from TG port 1 and TG port 2.
NETGEAR, the NETGEAR Logo, and ProSAFE are trademarks of NETGEAR, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only
and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s). Information is subject to change without notice. All rights reserved. © 2013 NETGEAR, Inc.