Dell M6348 PowerEdge / PowerConnect / PowerVault / EqualLogic Datacentre Switch

The Dell M6348 is a PowerConnect 48-port Gigabit Ethernet blade switch module for the PowerEdge M1000e enclosure. It fits an I/O module bay at the rear of the chassis rather than being a standalone rack switch.

A blade switch works differently from a rack switch in one important respect: the majority of its ports are internal. They connect across the enclosure midplane straight to the network adapters on the server blades, with no cabling involved, while a smaller set of external ports on the faceplate carries the aggregated traffic out to the rest of the network. That is what keeps an M1000e’s external cabling manageable when it is full of servers.

The M6348 was the higher port count gigabit option for the enclosure, supporting multiple connections per blade rather than one. Which I/O bay a module can occupy depends on the mezzanine cards fitted to the blades, so bay position, blade configuration and firmware all need to line up. Tech-Star is UK-based and ships worldwide. Tell us your enclosure configuration and we will confirm fit before anything leaves us.