HPE Aruba Networking Switches

Score8.6 out of 10

60 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Business Problems Solved

Users have found HPE Aruba switches to be highly valuable for their office LAN setups, allowing them to connect various devices such as firewalls, desktops, servers, and phones. These switches offer a range of features, including VLAN and trunking capabilities, that provide efficient network segmentation and traffic management. One notable advantage is their support for SSH and SNMP access, enabling remote monitoring of networks. HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches are widely used across organizations' network infrastructures, facilitating connectivity for IP phones, WiFi access points, computers, and IoT devices. Users appreciate the ease of implementation and management, as well as the added value of a lifetime hardware warranty. Upgrading to Aruba Gigabit Switches like the 2930m, 3810, 5412, and 5406 models has proven reliable for interconnecting campuses and establishing connections with end-devices. The CLI's similarity to Cisco switches results in a smooth transition for users familiar with Cisco's interface. Additionally, users find ArubaOS to be an efficient operating system. With support for L3/L2 and routing protocols, these switches offer versatile solutions for different network roles.

Reviews

15 Reviews

Pros and Cons of HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 17, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In the school district I work for, HPE Aruba Ethernet switches connect various devices including: employee workstations, laptops, servers, printers and wireless Access Points. Some of the business problems the product addresses are: reliable connectivity, low latency, offering security features such as ACLs, provide scalability and offering management tools and interfaces that make network configuration easier.

Pros

Security and segmentation
Performance and reliability
Management and automation

Cons

Complexity in some configurations
Not all features are available for all products
Web interface capabilities

Likelihood to Recommend

In a modern Enterprise Campus network Aruba switches can handle the increasing number of wired and wireless devices that need access to the network. Since we are a large school district, we need a secure and high performing for employees and guests.

HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches would be less appropriate for small businesses with minimal devices and minimal IT experience.

Verified User

Vice-President in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

Aruba Switches are fantastic!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 13, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using a couple of Aruba switches in our company. We are using a core switch in a cluster, and many other Aruba switches in the company. Approximately 15 switches are being used in the production here. Some are poe-switches, and some are without. We are very satisfied with the Aruba series.

Pros

Fast Web UI.
Very simple VLAN installation.
A tidy switch with powerful characteristics.

Cons

Some minimal VLAN functionalities are weird.
The original Gbics are very expensive.
Sometimes, the web UI is a little bit slow.

Likelihood to Recommend

The Aruba switches are easy to manage and have plenty of functions. Setting up the VLAN is child's play. The web UI is structured, and the switch is fun.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Robust network hardware that won't let you down.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 9, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We primarily use HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches as our core and edge switches. In particular, their PoE offerings are excellent, as they are competitively priced and provide rock-solid performance. We have all of our PoE infrastructure connected to HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches, from our security cameras, to access points, to server endpoints and workstations. HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches are the backbone of our network.

Pros

Power-over-Ethernet
VLAN
Load distribution
Reliability

Cons

Provide better options for device monitoring and tracking, be it SNMP or other.

Likelihood to Recommend

For small deployments, Aruba Instant On was a better solution, as standard Aruba edge switches are too costly when compared to Aruba Instant On devices.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

21 years of experience

Reliable and easy to use switching for a reasonable price

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 3, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have a lot of POE phones and other devices that require reliable power and data routing. The HPE switches work very reliably and when you have an issue the support team is there to help and get you running again quickly. The administration is easy and understandable, no need to get specific training for managing them.

Pros

The switches are very reliable
Support is ready to help and send replacements if needed
Easy to administer
Excellent documentation for CLI commands

Cons

The new ArubaOS is closer to Cisco switches than the OS running on the 2530 series. Could be a plus if you are familiar.
I wish there were better uplink ports, 1G seems really dated when cheaper competitors have 10G SFP+
Lack of real support for POE++ devices, most switches in the lineup are still POE+ only

Likelihood to Recommend

These devices are rock solid, you will se them up once and not have to mess with them for years. They are work horses that don't die. We use them in an office environment and have only ever had 1 fail due to a PSU issue, we got a replacement next day and it's been working great.

Verified User

Director in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

8 years of experience

HPE Aruba Switches a great value, feature rich and excellent hardware.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

May 20, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We currently use HPE Aruba switches in all our offices and in all the nodes in our MAN. These switches offer excellent value and features in our current usage. We currently have around 80 switches and some other Aruba products in our network, so we need business-class products but also have a restrictive IT budget, so the HPE Aruba line of products meets our needs.

Pros

Easy to set up and configure.
Price
Good quality hardware.
Lifetime Warranty.

Cons

Expensive management software.
Some of the CX range of switches can be slow to boot/reboot.
Currently a lot of stock issues.

Likelihood to Recommend

We manage a lot of public infrastructure and schools which means we need reliable hardware that is easy to prep and install quickly due to time constraints. The price is great as we must keep a close eye on our budget. We use these switches in all types of situations and configurations some are full SFP and others are ethernet but honestly the software and hardware are great for our usage.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

HPE Aruba Switches are a cost-effective alternative

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

May 12, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use HPE Aruba Switches all over our organization. They allow us to use extra switch features such as VLAN and trunking compared to a "dumb" switch that has no management capability. We like that they support SSH and SNMP access so we can monitor them remotely.

Pros

Simple configuration
Easy firmware upgrades
Supported by HP for a long time

Cons

Web interface is a bit weird
Some things can't be done in the web interface

Likelihood to Recommend

HPE Aruba Switches are a good cost-effective alternative to high-end switches. They offer management capabilities which allow the extra features that are necessary in a corporate environment in today's world. Depending on budget, they may still be too expensive for some users.

Verified User

Professional in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Rock solid network switch and affordable price point

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 30, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use them for our internal office LAN. It connects our firewall, desktops, servers, and soon to be phones.

Pros

Redundant power supplies
Seems to be well built
UI is nice

Cons

More ability to use UI instead of CLI for configuration
Ability to download updates direct from HPE
Spanning tree not turned on as default

Likelihood to Recommend

It works great when running a network LAN.

Chris Hein

Systems Engineer in Information Technology at CIH (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches Review

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 30, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches are used across the whole organization.

Pros

REST API capability
Wired & Wireless 802.1x configuration easiness
Wireless Access Points (APs) zero touch provisioning
Its high-end family (running the AOS-CX firmware) supports a virtualization technology called VSX (Virtual Switching Extension) which allows 2 switches to present itself as one virtualized switch under Layer 2, and as 2 separate routers under Layer 3; thereby providing high availability.

Cons

The AOS-CX family should have an easy way to backup their configuration rather than using an automation tool like Ansible or Python or Network Analytic Engine (NAE) to do it. Its PVOS family has that functionality which makes it easy to backup its configuration. That same functionality should be transferred to the AOS-CX family as well.
ArubaOS CLI commands should have backward compatibility with PVOS switches. These two are one company now.
I understand that there are a lot of automation tools now for orchestration and device management purposes but, adding the ability of Cisco's Embedded Event Manager (EEM) would definitely add to its pros.

Likelihood to Recommend

Every switching functionality you need can be achieved with an Aruba switch.

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches are a good choice

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

November 12, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches to give our collaborations network access and to connect access points. We use them to access and for distribution, not for the network core.

Pros

Easy web administration.
Good price and features.

Cons

Not all features are configurable from web GUI.

Likelihood to Recommend

We like HPE Aruba Ethernet Switches to provided network access to and from branch offices.

Verified User

Consultant in Engineering (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

1 year of experience

Very cost effective switches with an unbeatable warranty

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

October 28, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our network infrastructure is almost exclusively HPE or Aruba switches. These switches are a great value even before the lifetime hardware warranty is taken into consideration. We have switch models spanning module backbone down to client access roles. These switches are very easy to implement and manage and include a lifetime hardware warranty.

Pros

Some switch manufacturers require an additional license to be purchased to access some features. Aruba switches come with all features included.
The HPE Aruba lifetime hardware warranty is unbeatable. Not only are these switches very cost-effective but the warranty makes staying with Aruba switches a no brainer.
Aruba switches are very easy to implement and configure. A new switch can often be configured within a matter of minutes. Other switch operating systems have a much steeper learning curve.

Cons

I have had issues finding monitoring software that natively supports Provision/Aruba OS. Most are designed primarily with Cisco in mind.
HPE/Aruba switches have historically had issues with corrupt flash. This seems to be less common in more recent models.
HPE/Aruba's switching portfolio can be confusing. Some models run on the Aruba OS while some others run on Comware. There is some overlap in these model lines so at times is can be tough to tell which switch is right.

Likelihood to Recommend

The cost, simplicity of use, lifetime hardware warranty and wide range of models make HPE Aruba a great fit nearly anywhere. HPE really stands by their switches with the lifetime hardware warranty. Once an issue is deemed to be hardware related I can expect to have a replacement very quickly. Usually, when I get a replacement it will be on my desk the next day.

Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

11 years of experience