HPE7-A08 HPE Aruba Networking Certified Professional – Switching Questions and Answers

Dynamic Segmentation (DS) requires certain capabilities on the switches to support user role assignment and traffic segmentation based on identity. The CX 6100 series switches do not support Dynamic Segmentation due to hardware and feature limitations. Therefore, they must be replaced with CX 6300 models, which support DS features natively.

Options involving GRE tunnels or VXLAN tunnels relate to traffic forwarding but do not enable DS on unsupported hardware.

Applying licenses does not upgrade hardware capabilities for DS.

The output indicates the use of an aspath-list within a route-map, which is used to filter or match accepted AS paths in BGP. The aspath-list defines which AS paths are accepted, controlling route advertisement or acceptance.

The route-map is applied to neighbor configurations to filter routes based on AS paths.

Prefix-lists filter IP prefixes, not AS paths.

Neighbor remote-as export is not a valid command.

Therefore, the aspath-list is correctly used to define accepted AS paths.

When troubleshooting downloadable user roles (DUR) between Aruba CX switches and ClearPass, it is crucial to verify the Trust Anchor profile on the switch. The Trust Anchor profile contains the certificates and keys that allow secure communication and authentication with ClearPass, ensuring the switch can validate the RADIUS server and downloaded user role information.

SNMP community string (Option A) is unrelated to DUR.

User-role configuration (Option B) is important but verifying trust anchor ensures secure role downloads.

HTTPS client certificate (Option C) is not typically part of DUR authentication.

Therefore, the Trust Anchor profile must be verified.

Colorless ports allow network devices to move or replace endpoints without changing port-level configurations, typically by automatically assigning network policies dynamically to any port.

HPE Aruba’s solution for colorless ports is the VNBT (Virtual Network Boundary Tagging) feature. VNBT allows dynamic segmentation of traffic, so ports can automatically take on the policies assigned to devices regardless of physical port location.

VRRP is a first-hop redundancy protocol and unrelated to port colorlessness.

VSF (Virtual Switching Framework) is for switch stacking.

VRF (Virtual Routing and Forwarding) is for traffic segmentation.

Thus, VNBT is the correct feature to meet colorless port requirements.

The command erase all zeroize performs a secure erase on the switch, which deletes all customer data including startup-config and stored credentials. This process can take up to an hour depending on the hardware and storage media.

It does not retain running config (Option A).

It does not restore the factory AOS-CX image (Option B).

Admin credentials are deleted as part of the secure erase (Option C is incorrect).

Therefore, this command securely wipes all data and resets the device.

For BGP in a multi-homed configuration advertising public IP blocks, the AS number should be a valid public AS number allocated by the regional internet registry (RIR). Numbers in the private AS range (64512–65534) are not suitable for public Internet announcements.

63472 falls in the public AS range (16-bit AS numbers below 64512).

64813, 65535, and 65218 are in the private or reserved range.

Therefore, 63472 is an example of a suitable public AS number.

Using the command copy checkpoint 20240722 running-config exemplifies the Replace configuration troubleshooting methodology. This involves replacing the current running configuration with a known good checkpoint to restore proper operation.

Divide and conquer isolates faults by segment.

Top-down/Bottom-up analyzes layer by layer.

Spot the difference compares configurations.

Replacing the config is a straightforward rollback approach.

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation:

When troubleshooting intermittent connectivity issues with known source and destination IPs, the Follow the path methodology is most suitable. This involves tracing the packet flow from source to destination step-by-step, checking each device or segment for failures.

Spot the difference compares configurations, which is less targeted here.

Divide and conquer isolates sections but follow the path is more direct for connectivity.

Top-down/bottom-up is more general troubleshooting.

In a VSX cluster, certain configurations such as DHCP relay need to be synchronized between both nodes. To sync DHCP relay configuration from the primary to the secondary, the command:

vsx-sync dhcp-relay

must be added under the VSX configuration on the primary switch. This ensures that DHCP relay settings are pushed to the secondary member automatically.

Adding vsx-sync ip-helper relates to IP helper addresses, not DHCP relay specifically.

Adding the sync command on the secondary has no effect as synchronization originates from primary.

The LACP state event Actor state: ALFNCD, Partner state: ASFNCD indicates that the LACP negotiation between the local (actor) and peer (partner) is successful with all flags matching and no errors.

ALFNCD and ASFNCD are standard LACP states indicating Active, Long timeout, Aggregation capable, Not synchronized, Collecting, and Distributing flags set as expected.

Also, the log shows the LACP rate is set to slow, which is the default.

Thus, the output shows the LAG 253 has a matching LACP configuration with its peer.

When making changes remotely to critical configurations such as Control Plane ACLs on a CX switch, to protect against accidental lockout due to misconfiguration, you should enable checkpoint auto before committing the changes.

Checkpoint auto creates an automatic rollback timer. If the administrator loses connectivity (e.g., because of the ACL change), the system automatically rolls back the change after the timer expires, preventing lockout.

checkpoint commit is used after committing to save the checkpoint explicitly, but it does not provide automatic rollback.

Running checkpoint auto before committing is essential to have the rollback safety net.

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation:

VLAN 1 is often configured as the native VLAN on interfaces to support Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP). During ZTP, devices communicate over VLAN 1 by default to download their configuration and updates.

LLDP and UBT are unrelated to native VLAN configuration for provisioning.

MSTP relates to spanning tree but does not dictate native VLAN usage.

Thus, VLAN 1 as native VLAN facilitates ZTP processes.

For a 1 Gbps link between two Aruba CX switches, the appropriate SFP port type is an SFP (Small Form-factor Pluggable). SFP+ and SFP28 are used for higher speeds such as 10 Gbps and 25 Gbps, respectively. QSFP+ is for even higher speeds (40 Gbps).

SFP supports 1 Gbps (1000BASE-X)

SFP+ supports 10 Gbps

SFP28 supports 25 Gbps and above

QSFP+ supports 40 Gbps and above

Therefore, the correct port type for a 1 Gbps link is SFP.

For an interface connected to an untrusted device regarding DSCP markings, the recommended configurations are:

Apply a classifier-based policy to assign a Local Priority value (Option B). This overrides or marks traffic based on predefined criteria.

Configure qos trust none (Option E) to disable trusting DSCP or CoS markings from the device, preventing manipulation of QoS.

Trusting CoS (Option A) is incorrect because the device is untrusted.

DSCP maps and Weighted Fair Queuing (Options C and D) are additional QoS features but do not specifically address untrusted markings.

To find which changes were made on an HPE Aruba CX switch from the GUI, the correct command is:

show checkpoint diff — this compares the running configuration with stored saved-config revisions.

Using "saved-config revisions" as the comparison base allows the GUI to show what has changed since the last saved configuration.

Other options mix checkpoint and saved-config terminology incorrectly.

This question involves OSPF peering configured between CX 6300 switches using BFD (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection). BFD parameters include transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) intervals.

Switch B has custom BFD interval values configured, but switch A is at default configuration.

According to Aruba CX default BFD parameters, the Tx and Rx intervals default to 2000ms (2 seconds). This is why switch A’s show BFD session displays intervals of 2000ms even if switch B uses different values.

BFD interval negotiation results in the highest Tx/Rx interval being used, or default in case one side is unconfigured.

For multicast to function efficiently on Aruba CX access switches, IGMP snooping needs to be enabled on the VLAN interfaces. IGMP snooping listens to IGMP join and leave messages between multicast clients and routers to allow the switch to forward multicast traffic only to interested ports, reducing unnecessary multicast flooding.

PIM is a multicast routing protocol and usually configured on routing devices, not access switches.

IGMP (without snooping) enables hosts to signal interest but does not control traffic forwarding at the switch layer.

Enabling IGMP snooping on SVI alone may not be sufficient; it should be enabled on VLANs that carry multicast clients.

Hence, enabling IGMP snooping on VLAN is necessary for efficient multicast traffic flow.

In HPE Aruba CX VSX, the hardware replacement of a single switch is non-disruptive for Layer 2 configurations because the system MAC address in the ServiceOS can be changed to the original system MAC address. This ensures consistent MAC address usage, avoiding disruptions in Layer 2 forwarding and preventing MAC flapping in the network.

Options involving VSX-sync or reserved system MAC ranges do not specifically address hardware replacement scenarios as effectively.

Changing the ServiceOS system MAC to match the original maintains Layer 2 stability during switch replacement.

DHCP snooping requires to be enabled globally before it will function correctly. If it is not enabled globally, even if enabled on VLAN interfaces, DHCP snooping will not work.

Enabling authorized DHCP servers (A) or trusted interfaces (B) is necessary but only after global enabling.

Enabling DHCP snooping on VLAN (C) is not sufficient without global enablement.

Therefore, enabling DHCP snooping globally is the first step to activate the feature.