Implementing AOS-CX Switching
- • Jul 20-24, 2026 · Live Remote Online
- • Aug 24-28, 2026 · Live Remote Online
- • Oct 19-23, 2026 · Live Remote Online
Contact IT Dojo for current pricing, available dates, and a custom quote tailored to your team or organization.
Course Duration
5 Days
Audience
Employees of federal, state and local governments; and businesses working with the government.
Prerequisites
Completion of AA-CXSF (AOS-CX Switching Fundamentals) or equivalent. Hands-on experience with AOS-CX CLI, VLANs, OSPF, and basic ACLs.
Course Description
This 5-day course prepares you for the updated AOS-CX switching-based ACP - Switching certification exam (Exam Code: HPE7-A08). Attending this course will teach you the advanced skills necessary to implement and operate enterprise-level HPE Aruba Networking switching solutions. You will build on the skills you learned at the Associate level to configure and manage modern, open standards-based networking solutions using HPE Aruba Networking AOS-CX routing and switching technologies. In this course, you will learn about AOS-CX switch technologies: - Securing port access with HPE Aruba Networking Dynamic Segmentation - Redundancy technologies such as Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) - Link aggregation techniques, including Link Aggregation Protocol (LACP) - Switch virtualization with HPE Aruba Networking Virtual Switching eXtension (VSX) and HPE Aruba Networking Virtual Switching Framework (VSF) This course is approximately 50% lecture and 50% hands-on lab exercises.
Learning Objectives
- Compare AOS-CX switching models and describe features
- Use NAE and scripts to ease monitoring, troubleshooting of operational issues as well as sFlow traffic flows and port mirroring
- Describe VSX use cases, operation, and best practices for resiliency and scalability
- Describe and configure access control lists for improved security, protecting management traffic and ease troubleshooting
- Describe and deploy multiarea OSPF networks, virtual links and improved convergence times as well as security
- Establish, monitor, manipulate, and filter BGP route relationships, path selection and advertisements
- Describe multicast addressing, IGMP, and IGMP snooping
- Describe and implement Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM)- Dense mode (PIM-DM) and Sparse mode (PIM-SM)
- Describe the components of 802.1x authentication, implementing it on AOS-CX switch ports, and integrate it with HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass
- Implement RADIUS-based MAC authentication and device profiles
- Understand user-based tunneling and configure Dynamic Segmentation and PAPI
- Describe and implement various Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms, including classifications, marking, queues and schedules
- Implement VRF to isolate routed traffic and manipulate traffic routing with Policy-Based Routing (PBR)
- Understand and configure captive portal configuration with ClearPass Guest and BYOD solutions
Course Outline
Introduction and Switch Management
- Intro to AOS-CX Switching
- AOS-CX switch overview
- Legacy management systems
- Modern management approach
- The REST API and URIs
- NAE and the Time-series database
- Dynamic Segmentation
- Always on POE
- Virtual Output Queuing
Virtual Switching eXtension
- Virtual switching technologies
- VSX components
- VSX synchronization
- Split brain scenarios
Layer 2 Optimization
- UDLD
- Private VLAN
- Basics of Spanning Tree Protocol
- RPVST+
Layer 3 Routing
- Advanced OSPF
- OSPF overview
- Multi-area OSPF
- Route redistribution using ASBRs
- OSPF area types
- OSPF redundancy
- Additional OSPF features
- Border Gateway Protocol
- BGP overview
- BGP neighbor connections
- BGP route advertisements
- BPG route selection metrics and tuning
- Controlling eBGP routes
- Additional Layer 3 Features
- Virtual routing and forwarding (VRF)
- Policy-based routing
- ARP protection
- DHCP snooping
- IPsec and NAT
Multicast
- IGMP
- Multicast introduction
- IGMP overview
- Multicast Routing
- PIM introduction
- PIM-DM
- PIM-SM
- PIM-SM build-up process
- BSR mechanism
- VSX and PIM
Access Control Lists
- ACL introduction and creation
- ACL application scenarios
- Applying ACLs
- Object groups
- Classification policies
- Restrictions and resource utilization
Authentication and Dynamic Segmentation
- 802.1X Authentication
- Authentication overview
- 802.1X authentication overview
- Configuring 802.1X on switch ports
- RADIUS attributes for the dynamic settings
- User roles overview
- Device fingerprinting overview
- MAC Authentication
- MAC authentication overview
- MAC-auth with multiple clients
- MACsec overview
- Dynamic Segmentation
- Dynamic Segmentation overview
- User-based tunneling
- Configuring UBT
- UBT with MC cluster
- Troubleshooting
REST API
- REST API introduction
- REST basic concepts
- Enabling the REST interface on an AOS-CX switch
- Sending requests to the REST API
- Accessing the REST API reference interface
- Use cases and resources
Quality of Service
- QoS overview
- Classifying traffic and applying policies
- LLDP-MED and device profiles
Network Analytics Engine (NAE)
- NAE overview
- NAE agents
- Agent actions
Troubleshooting
- Troubleshooting overview
- Troubleshooting principles
- Components of effective troubleshooting
- Need for a methodical approach
- Problem-solving methodology
- Network troubleshooting tools
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Implementing AOS-CX Switching cover?
This 5-day course covers advanced AOS-CX topics including NAE monitoring scripts, REST API, Dynamic Segmentation, EVPN/VXLAN fabric, VSX, advanced QoS, and troubleshooting complex switching deployments.
What certification does this course prepare me for?
This course prepares you for the HPE Aruba Networking Certified Professional - Switching certification (Exam HPE6-A85).
Is this course a prerequisite for the Designing Campus Access course?
Not a direct prerequisite, but the skills from this course provide important technical context for the design-level courses.
Is this course available as live remote online training?
Yes. IT Dojo offers this course as live remote online instruction with a certified Aruba instructor. On-site delivery is also available.
How do I register?
IT Dojo training is employer sponsored. Contact IT Dojo via the Request Training form or call 757-216-3656.