Do CCIE’s dream of CLI’s? For Tom Hollingsworth, he sees less value in keyboard based inputs of individual network devices, and now focuses on a more architectural level. He uses Aruba’s 8400 ArubaOS-CX as an example of a hard shift away from CLI, it’s still available under the covers, but the switch has been seemingly designed to require minimal keyboard input, while allowing for mass configuration and automation.
The Aruba 8400 Switch is the Future of Enterprise Core Switching
In his look at Aruba Networks’ 8400 chassis switch, David Varnum sees it opening “a frontier to new ways we interact with core switching hardware.” The switch has all the speeds and feeds you could want in a modern piece of hardware, but David sees it shining with its ArubaOS-CX. Aruba developed the OS to be database-driven, leverage Linux, fully programmable, resilient, and supportable. Combined with an analytics engine built into the base license of the switch, David found it an impressive offering from Aruba.
The Aruba 8400 Integrated Network Analytics & Automated Root Cause Analysis
Ethan Banks has a colorful way to describe the process of root cause analysis. “When goat sacrifices fail, deep human knowledge of a snowflake system’s specifics is required to sort through data, decide what is symptomatic as opposed to causal, and filter the information down to the root cause.” Luckily Aruba Networks’ 8400 chassis switch comes with a built in analytics engine as part of their base license. Ethan takes a look at how this specifically works on the switch and how it can be used to automate remediation as well.
The Aruba 8400 ArubaOS-CX Network Operating System
In this next installment looking at the Aruba Networks 8400 chassis switch, Ethan Banks looks how the switch interacts with ArubaOS-CX. The OS is highly programmable, supporting a well documented API in addition to a modular web GUI. Ethan takes a look at the extensibility offered by the system, the importance of the Linux kernal to the OS, and its design for resiliency.
The Aruba 8400 Hardware Highlights
In part two of his look at the Aruba 8400 chassis switch, Ethan Banks digs into the hardware of the device. The 8400 is built with redundancy in mind, which fits in with its campus core market. Aruba has designed it to offer a vaunted “carrier class” availability, with a service life to match. Ethan breaks down the unique ASIC used in the switch and digs into some speeds and feeds.
The Aruba 8400 Chassis Switch. Yes, But Why?
For those that have been around networking for more than a little bit, switches are often hard to get excited about. When Ethan Banks found out that Aruba Networks would be announcing a new chassis switch, he was initially demurred by the seemingly innocuous product . But after attending their announcement, his mind was racing with the possibilities for this new piece of hardware. So much so that this is part one in an article series going into a deep dive of all its capabilities.
Diving Into Design With The Aruba 8400
John Herbert takes a look at the design behind the new Aruba 8400 switch and why little things like airflow and linecard layout can help solve manufacturing issues. He also discusses how the new generation of switches like the 8400 can bring increased performance to locations that may not have the support of a full datacenter environment.
Moving beyond the CLI with Aruba 8400 (Enabling SDN for NetOps)
There are a number of programmable switches in the world, but Christopher Kusek sees Aruba’s 8400-series as something different. Instead designing programability that forces network admins to learn a completely new skillset (programming), the 8400’s Swagger interface is designed around how network admins actually do their job today. Christopher sees this as a major differentiator.
Lofty Goals for The Campus Core: Aruba 8400 Series and OS-CX
Brandon Carroll shares his thoughts on Aruba’s new 8400 Switch series, which he saw at a Networking Field Day Exclusive event. Brandon thinks Aruba has done a good job on the hardware side of designing a switch for Campus Aggregation & Core L2/L3 Ethernet deployments. The switch is powered by the Linux based OS-CX, which allows for full programmability and features a well thought out web GUI.
Network Break 148: HPE, Big Switch Partner; Brocade Spins Out SDN Startup
In this episode of the Network Break podcast, the Packet Pushers talk about much of this week’s IT news including HPE and Big Switch teaming up in the data center, Google’s routing initiative Espresso, Brocade spining out its OpenDaylight SDN controller to a startup, Aruba revealing more details of its brand new core switch, and more. Ethan Banks expands specifically on Aruba, as he just saw them present at a Networking Field Day Extra event.
