ACSP AOS-CX VSF and VSX 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the recommended minimum link speed for the AOS-CX VSX Inter-Switch Link (ISL) in a production deployment?
- 1 Gbps per member link
- 10 Gbps per member link (Correct answer)
- 100 Mbps per member link
- 40 Gbps total aggregate only
Correct answer: 10 Gbps per member link
Aruba recommends at least 10 Gbps per member link on the ISL LAG to handle synchronized state and potential data traffic without becoming a bottleneck.
Question 2: In VSX, which routing protocol adjacencies are synchronized across the ISL so both peers maintain consistent routing tables?
- Only static routes
- OSPF, BGP, and connected routes (Correct answer)
- BGP only, because it is session-based
- Only routes learned via MCLAG-connected ports
Correct answer: OSPF, BGP, and connected routes
VSX synchronizes OSPF, BGP, and connected-route information between peers so both switches maintain identical RIBs and can forward traffic locally.
Question 3: When deploying VSX Active Gateway, which two items must be configured identically on both VSX peers?
- OSPF area and STP priority
- Active Gateway virtual IP and virtual MAC (Correct answer)
- BGP AS number and keepalive timer
- VLAN IDs and SVI MTU
Correct answer: Active Gateway virtual IP and virtual MAC
Both VSX peers must share the same Active Gateway virtual IP and virtual MAC so hosts see a single gateway regardless of which peer handles the traffic.
Question 4: Which statement correctly describes VSF versus VSX in terms of management plane?
- VSF has one management IP shared across all members; VSX has independent management IPs per switch (Correct answer)
- Both VSF and VSX share a single management IP
- VSX consolidates management to a single IP; VSF switches each need separate IPs
- Neither VSF nor VSX supports out-of-band management
Correct answer: VSF has one management IP shared across all members; VSX has independent management IPs per switch
VSF presents the entire stack as one logical switch with a single management IP, while VSX peers remain independent switches each with their own management interface.
Question 5: What is the effect of removing the ISL port-channel from a VSX configuration while the system is live?
- VSX gracefully migrates to keepalive-only mode
- VSX enters split-brain mode immediately (Correct answer)
- The system automatically rebuilds the ISL on an alternate path
- Both peers reload to clear the split state
Correct answer: VSX enters split-brain mode immediately
Removing the ISL port-channel while live breaks state synchronization and peer connectivity, triggering split-brain behavior where the Secondary shuts its MCLAG interfaces.
Question 6: In AOS-CX VSF, how are software upgrades handled across the stack?
- Each member must be upgraded individually and manually rebooted
- The conductor distributes the image to all members and the entire stack reboots together (Correct answer)
- Only the conductor upgrades; members pull the image on next reboot
- Members upgrade in a rolling fashion with no traffic interruption
Correct answer: The conductor distributes the image to all members and the entire stack reboots together
VSF performs a unified upgrade where the conductor pushes the image to all members and the entire stack reloads simultaneously, maintaining a single software version.
Question 7: Which VSX configuration element uses the out-of-band management network (OOBM) as its recommended transport?
- ISL port-channel
- Active Gateway virtual IP
- VSX keepalive link (Correct answer)
- MCLAG LACP PDU path
Correct answer: VSX keepalive link
The VSX keepalive link is recommended to use the OOBM network so it remains reachable even when all in-band ISL paths fail, ensuring accurate split-brain detection.
ACSP AOS-CX VSF and VSX 4
What is the recommended minimum link speed for the AOS-CX VSX Inter-Switch Link (ISL) in a production deployment?