I have a HP ProCurve V1810-48G switch with a few servers connected to it (everything in one rack). The switch is practically in its default configuration.

During copying of a few hundred GByte of data from server_a to server_b (using tar cf - data | ssh server_b 'cd myhome; tar xf -'), essentially saturating the network capacity between those two servers, I noticed network related error messages on the console of server_c - as if server_c is no longer able to send/receive traffic to server_d.

After canceling the copy command everything was normal again.

I would understand this if the network connection would use a shared resource, for example if server_a and server_c are in one datacenter, server_b and server_d are in another datacenter and both datacenters are connected with a 100 MBit line.

But all of the mentioned servers are connected to the same switch and are located in the same IP network. I always thought that a connection between two servers on one switch will not affect any other server connected to the switch.

It is also possible that the network related error messages are caused by something else - but I can't risk a network problem for any other system on this switch.

Please advise.