Aruba Data Center Professional study plan

Diagram a three-tier versus collapsed-core spine-leaf data center topology from memory, labeling every link and oversubscription ratio

Calculate east-west and north-south bandwidth demand for a 48-rack design and justify a 3:1 versus 5:1 oversubscription choice

Compare L2-only, L3-to-the-edge, and full VXLAN overlay designs on failure-domain size and mobility requirements

Explain underlay/overlay separation, MTU headroom, and routed-access design tradeoffs without notes

Map Aruba CX platform families to use cases by port speed, density, and stacking capability, and state where each belongs in a fabric

Configure VSX (inter-switch-link, keepalive, active-gateway) in a lab and verify failover by disabling one peer

Configure VSF stacking and compare its failure behavior against VSX in a written summary

Explain AOS-CX architecture components (daemons, configuration database, REST API, checkpoint/rollback) and demonstrate a config rollback in the lab

Configure OSPF and BGP underlay variants in the lab and compare convergence timers and failure scope

Design and validate an eBGP unnumbered spine-leaf underlay with per-leaf ASN allocation

Tune ECMP hashing and verify multipath forwarding using traceroute and show-command output

Diagnose two deliberately broken underlay adjacencies and document the root cause and fix for each

Build a two-spine, four-leaf VXLAN/EVPN fabric in the lab with VTEPs on every leaf

Explain and configure BGP EVPN route types 2, 3, and 5, matching each to its forwarding role

Configure symmetric IRB with distributed anycast gateways and verify inter-VNI routing across leaves

Capture and interpret an EVPN MAC/IP advertisement in a packet capture

Tune VXLAN MTU and fragmentation end to end, and prove jumbo-frame path integrity with a DF-bit ping sweep

Compare centralized versus distributed EVPN gateways and describe when each is preferred

Create two tenants with overlapping IP subnets and confirm isolation via VRF and route-target configuration

Explain ARP/ND suppression and verify its effect on BUM traffic in the lab

Apply role-based and microsegmentation policy between two groups of endpoints and verify permitted and denied flows

Integrate the fabric with an external policy manager and confirm group-based enforcement

Configure DHCP snooping, dynamic ARP inspection, and port security, then test each control's reaction to a violation

Draft a segmentation design that maps workload classes to groups, VRFs, and enforcement points

Automate fabric provisioning with Ansible or a Python AOS-CX library, pushing a VLAN/VNI change to at least two switches

Use the AOS-CX REST API to pull configuration state and detect drift against a golden config

Build a monitoring baseline with SNMP or streaming telemetry and identify the top five metrics to alert on

Walk a structured troubleshooting path from a failing host ping to the responsible layer, documenting each check

Complete two full-length timed practice exams and score every miss by domain

Re-drill the three weakest domains with targeted lab re-runs until each missed concept is explained aloud

Rebuild the week 4 fabric from a blank config in under 45 minutes without referencing notes

Consolidate a one-page cheat sheet of design ratios, EVPN route types, and VSX/VSF limits