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Aruba CX lab 12 of 16

Capstone - a VSX campus core from a design

Build a complete campus core from factory defaults: a VSX pair with ISL and keepalive, a VSX LAG to the access switch, active gateways for two VLANs, OSPF towards the WAN switch, DHCP relay to a central server, edge protection and checkpoints, then prove it end to end.

Run this lab

It needs Standard: its 6 nodes are set to 10 vCPU and 13,312 MB in total.

In your workspace: Shared, then HPE Aruba Networking CX switching guided labs, then 12 - Capstone - a VSX campus core from a design

Run it on Standard from £5 a day

The free demo can’t run it: it has 6 vCPU and 8 GB, and this lab’s nodes need 10 vCPU and 13,312 MB together. Every lab plan includes every guided lab.

Level
Advanced
Time
About 120 minutes
Nodes need
10 vCPU, 13,312 MB
Smallest plan
Standard

The scenario

Northwind Logistics is opening its national distribution hub. You have four AOS-CX switches with nothing but hostnames, two test hosts and the design below. Build the whole core, validate it in stages and hand over checkpointed configurations. Work in the order of the tasks: each stage depends on the one before.

Layer 2

Itemcore1core2acc1
VSX role / system MACprimary / 02:01:00:00:01:00secondary / 02:01:00:00:01:00–
ISLlag256 = 1/1/1, 1/1/2lag256 = 1/1/1, 1/1/2–
Keepalive (VRF KA)1/1/3 192.168.0.1/301/1/3 192.168.0.2/30–
Downlinklag1 multi-chassis = 1/1/4lag1 multi-chassis = 1/1/4lag1 = 1/1/1, 1/1/2
VLANs10 STAFF, 20 SCANNERS (trunk on all LAGs, native 1)samesame; 1/1/3 access 10 (h10), 1/1/4 access 20 (h20)

Layer 3

ItemValue
VLAN 1010.10.10.0/24 · core1 .2 · core2 .3 · active gateway .1 (MAC 12:00:00:00:01:00)
VLAN 2010.10.20.0/24 · core1 .2 · core2 .3 · active gateway .1
Uplinks (OSPF area 0, point-to-point)core1 1/1/5 10.0.1.1/30 – wan1 1/1/1 10.0.1.2/30 · core2 1/1/5 10.0.2.1/30 – wan1 1/1/2 10.0.2.2/30
Router IDs / loopback 0core1 10.255.0.1 · core2 10.255.0.2 · wan1 10.255.0.10
wan1loopback 1 10.99.99.1/32 (application server) in OSPF; DHCP server for both VLANs
DHCP pools (on wan1)STAFF 10.10.10.100–199 gw 10.10.10.1 · SCANNERS 10.10.20.100–199 gw 10.10.20.1 · DNS 10.99.99.53
DHCP relayhelper 10.255.0.10 on vlan 10 and vlan 20 of both cores

Hardening: spanning tree on acc1 with admin-edge and BPDU guard on host ports; a checkpoint CAPSTONE on every switch at the end.

What you’ll practise

  • Turn a design table into a working implementation in a sensible order
  • Build VSX (ISL, keepalive VRF, system MAC, roles) and a VSX LAG
  • Provide first-hop redundancy with active gateway and DHCP relay
  • Route between the core and the WAN with OSPF on point-to-point links
  • Protect access ports and checkpoint the finished configuration

The tasks

  1. VSX pair
  2. VLANs, VSX LAG and access switch
  3. Gateways
  4. OSPF to the WAN
  5. DHCP
  6. Prove it and hand over

The Lab Tasks pane has the scenario, these tasks, the checks to run, hints and the full solution.

Topology and devices

The network as it opens in EVE-NG, drawn from the lab’s own canvas, and the image each node runs.

Topology of Capstone - a VSX campus core from a design6 nodes, 9 links. Every link is listed as text below the diagram.core1core2wan1acc1h10h201/1/3eth01/1/4eth01/1/51/1/11/1/51/1/21/1/41/1/11/1/41/1/21/1/11/1/11/1/21/1/21/1/31/1/3
6 nodes, with the interface names each link uses.
Every link, as text
  • core1 1/1/1 to core2 1/1/1
  • core1 1/1/2 to core2 1/1/2
  • core1 1/1/3 to core2 1/1/3
  • core1 1/1/4 to acc1 1/1/1
  • core2 1/1/4 to acc1 1/1/2
  • core1 1/1/5 to wan1 1/1/1
  • core2 1/1/5 to wan1 1/1/2
  • acc1 1/1/3 to h10 eth0
  • acc1 1/1/4 to h20 eth0
Nodes in Capstone - a VSX campus core from a design, with the image each runs and the vCPU and RAM it’s set to
NodeDeviceImage in Add NodeSet to
core1Aruba AOS-CX virtual switcharubacx-10.142 vCPU, 3,072 MB
core2Aruba AOS-CX virtual switcharubacx-10.142 vCPU, 3,072 MB
wan1Aruba AOS-CX virtual switcharubacx-10.142 vCPU, 3,072 MB
acc1Aruba AOS-CX virtual switcharubacx-10.142 vCPU, 3,072 MB
h10Alpine Linuxclbalpinebase-alpine-base-3-20-31 vCPU, 512 MB
h20Alpine Linuxclbalpinebase-alpine-base-3-20-31 vCPU, 512 MB

How to open this lab

  1. Sign in to your workspace at lab.cloudlabbox.com.

  2. In File Manager, open Shared, then the folder HPE Aruba Networking CX switching guided labs.

  3. Open 12 - Capstone - a VSX campus core from a design and start its nodes, then open Lab Tasks for the scenario and the steps.

The lab is read-only. You can start the nodes and configure the devices, but changes to the topology can’t be saved. To change it, rebuild it in your own folder.

More Aruba CX labs

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CloudLabBox is independent of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The lab follows exam topics and isn’t vendor training material; vendor names identify the exams and the images in the workspace.