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

During a VSX firmware upgrade, the vsx-syned process stops synchronization while the switches have mismatched software versions. Synchronization resumes once both switches run the same software.

VSX synchronization cannot continue while versions mismatch (contrary to options B and D).

Compatibility mode is not required before rebooting secondary switch (Option D incorrect).

This behavior ensures consistency and avoids split-brain during upgrades.

OSPF neighbors on broadcast networks typically reach the 2WAY state during the DR/BDR election process. It is normal behavior for OSPF neighbors on a broadcast network to be in the 2WAY state until a Designated Router (DR) and Backup DR (BDR) are elected.

The tie in DR election explains why multiple neighbors can be in 2WAY.

No OSPF networks advertised would not cause 2WAY.

IGMP snooping does not affect OSPF adjacency states.

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.

When line card LEDs do not light up, and the cards are newly installed, the best troubleshooting methodology is Divide and conquer by swapping the line cards. This method isolates the problem by testing hardware in different slots or known working units.

Spot the difference involves comparing configurations, which does not directly isolate hardware failure.

Follow the path is more suited for connectivity issues.

Replace configuration relates to software or config problems.

Hardware issues are best isolated by physically swapping components.

To monitor BGP neighbor state changes and automatically create a helpdesk ticket, the NAE (Network Analytics Engine) action to use is a REST API call. This allows integration with external ticketing or automation systems, enabling automated ticket creation when a monitored event occurs.

Executing shell commands, sending emails, or generating logs are limited to internal actions and do not integrate as seamlessly with helpdesk systems.

REST API calls allow custom integration and automation.

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation:

To prevent man-in-the-middle attacks based on Layer 2 (Ethernet) addressing, enabling ARP inspection in the VLAN context is recommended. ARP inspection validates ARP packets and ensures only legitimate ARP responses are forwarded.

Enabling ARP inspection at VLAN level allows granular control.

Interface-level or global context is less typical or supported for ARP inspection on Aruba CX switches.

To keep the BGP routing table size manageable and below a specified threshold, the customer should consider enforcing routing policies with aggregation. Route aggregation reduces the number of individual routes advertised and stored by combining multiple routes into a summarized one.

Setting route metrics equal or advertising only a primary path does not reduce the number of routes as effectively.

Importing only the default route (0.0.0.0/0) is impractical for normal operations.

Thus, route aggregation is the best practice for controlling routing table size in merged BGP environments.

When adding a switch with an existing configuration into a group in Aruba Central, the group requires devices to have factory default configurations to allow Central to apply the group config correctly.

If the switch has an existing configuration, synchronization and auto-commit may fail because of configuration conflicts.

Option A: Pending authorization is unrelated to config synchronization.

Option C: Auto-commit can be disabled but does not block syncing existing config.

Option D: VSX support limitations are irrelevant here.

Therefore, the likely cause is that only switches with factory default config can be added to a group with existing config.

To prevent the campus core from seeing the data center core as the root bridge in a spanning tree topology (which can cause suboptimal paths or loops), Root Guard should be applied on the campus-to-data center core link. Root Guard enforces root bridge placement by blocking any superior BPDU from a downstream switch, maintaining the intended root bridge location.

BPDU filter blocks BPDUs entirely, which can cause problems.

Admin edge and BPDU guard are related to edge port protection, not root placement control.

IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) supports several message types: Join, Leave, Query, and Report messages to manage multicast group membership.

Join messages indicate a host wants to join a multicast group.

Leave messages indicate a host is leaving a multicast group.

Query messages are sent by routers to discover group members.

Report messages are sent by hosts to indicate membership.

Therefore, the full set of IGMP message types supported includes Join, Leave, Query, and Report.

Options with only Leave and Report or only Join and Query are incomplete.

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation:

When a recent configuration change causes a spike in CPU utilization that negatively impacts users, the fastest way to restore normal operation is to revert the change. This rollback immediately removes the offending configuration, potentially stabilizing the CPU and restoring service.

Rebooting the switch (Option A) is disruptive and takes more time.

Disabling debug logging (Option C) may help if debug is causing high CPU, but it doesn't undo config changes.

Pausing NAE monitoring (Option D) only suspends monitoring and doesn’t address the root cause.

Hence, reverting the recent config change is the best immediate action.

To isolate wired ports on the same VLAN on a large scale (such as hotel rooms) but allow communication within the same VLAN for common areas, Private VLANs (PVLANs) are recommended. PVLANs allow segmentation within a single VLAN by dividing it into primary and secondary VLANs, controlling communication between ports.

VPN and VXLAN are overlay technologies for different purposes.

UBT (User-Based Tunneling) is related to wireless user segmentation, not wired port isolation.

Therefore, PVLANs provide the simplest and most effective solution to isolate room ports within a single VLAN.

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.

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.

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.

When a VSX primary switch is powered off, it loses connectivity with management systems such as HPE Aruba Central. This causes the management system to trigger a "Switch Disconnected" alert because the switch is no longer reachable.

"Switch Reboot" alerts would indicate a restart, not power off.

"Switch Stack Conductor Change" refers to stack leadership changes, not VSX primary down.

"Switch STP Root Change" relates to Spanning Tree Protocol root bridge changes.

Hence, powering off the VSX primary causes a "Switch Disconnected" alert.

To upgrade an HPE Aruba Networking CX 8320 VSX cluster with minimal downtime from a remote server, the correct command is:

vsx update-software scp://172.25.101.10/image vrf mgmt

Using SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) ensures secure transfer.

Specifying vrf mgmt ensures the update uses the management VRF for connectivity.

Using TFTP is less secure and not recommended for production upgrades.

The primary keyword is not valid for the vsx update-software command.

This method allows an in-service software upgrade (ISSU) with least disruption.

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation:

For live upgrading a VSX cluster, the correct procedure is to use the vsx update-software option, which allows in-service software upgrade (ISSU) with minimal disruption by upgrading switches one at a time while maintaining synchronization.

issu update-software is not a recognized command in Aruba CX.

Reloading the primary first risks service disruption.

Compatibility mode is not required prior to reboot.

Valid Network Analytics Engine (NAE) agent actions include:

Running CLI commands (Option A), allowing automated command execution for remediation or data collection.

Generating local system logs (Option C) for event tracking and audit purposes.

Other options:

Generating SNMP traps (B) and starting/stopping packet captures (D) are not typical NAE actions.

Creating a new TAC case (E) is an external process, not an automated NAE action.