Wired Intelligent Edge

I work at a small community college with two campuses, and multiple buildings.   Most of our network gear is ProVision or ArubaOS-Switch, plus some Comware5/7.   I'm looking to replace a core switch that is presently a 8212zl.    It seems that the only replacement for an 8212zl would be an ArubaOS-CX 64xxx or ArubaOS-Switch 54xx.    I'm very familiar with Switch.    I'd like to understand if there is something significant that CX brings which Switch won't.   I have an 4100i switch running CX and I was offput immediately by the lack of Radius PEAP support, at least on that model.    I think I was also struggling with the SNMPv3 support and HP IMC recognition of the device.   So out of the gate I'm turned off by CX.   I read the marketing materials and how its cloud centric and I'm turned off even more as the GUI stuff is something I rarely use and often disable completely to stop the vulnerabilities before they occur.    Is there something that should force me to re-evaluate my opinion?

Hi Brian,

The ArubaOS series are used for many years and still do a great job but come at an age where they will retiered (no end of support date known jet). The ArubaOS-CX switches are the new generation Aruba switches and are more intuitive and re-degined from the bottom up with Aruba's own developed chipsets.

The added value of ArubaOS-CX are in the next areas;

• Automating (full RESTAPI interface)
• Cloud Managed and Monitoring (Aruba Central)
• Network Analytics Engine
• VSX / MC-LAG
• Dynamic Sementation / User-Based Tunneling

Possible you don't use or need any of this new features right now but known that the ArubaOS series come at a end and you will buy a switch for the next 7-years. All development and training will be based on ArubaOS-CX now days.

ArubaOS-CX managed by the cloud-based Aruba Central can give you great visibility and security with features as AIops and ZeroTrust security.  Also take a look in the Aruba ESP (Edge Sevice Plaform) where wired,wireless,sd-wan can be managed from one single web-interface from microbranch, branch and datacenter locations.

I think that Aruba-CX is the best choice to invest your money even when you not use all features right now. Aruba-CX is one part of your full infrastructure solution that can perfect fit like puzzle pieces with other parts of your infrastructure.

Far as my knowledge go the ArubaOS-CX 4100i support 802.1x RADIUS and is PEAP the inner method that is only forward in the 802.1x message (not involved by the switch but end-to-end between client and radius server). Also SNMPv3 should be supported on this type switches. For the supported features per switch model, see the links below.

See below a link to the Aruba Feature Switch Navigator
https://feature-navigator.arubanetworks.com/

See below a link to the Aruba Edge Service Platform
https://www.arubanetworks.com/solutions/aruba-esp/

See below a link to the Aruba-CX switching whitepaper
https://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/so/SO_CX-Switching.pdf

Hope this helps you!

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Marcel Koedijk | MVP Expert 2022 | ACEP | ACMP | ACCP | ACDP | Ekahau ECSE | Not an HPE Employee | Opinions are my own
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