Aruba Campus Access Architect (HPE7-A11) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Aruba ESP

Aruba's Edge Services Platform architecture combining unified infrastructure, Central orchestration, and AIOps analytics to deliver connectivity, security, and automation across campus and branch networks.

VSX

AOS-CX high-availability feature where two switches form an active-active pair, sharing control state over an ISL and using multichassis LAGs for redundant links.

VSF

Virtual Switching Framework on AOS-CX that stacks up to ten switches into one logical device with a single control plane and a commander member.

Collapsed core design

Campus topology where core and aggregation functions combine in one layer of switches, reducing cost and hops for smaller campuses while still providing routing and policy.

Cell overlap

The percentage of coverage area shared by adjacent AP cells; 15 to 20 percent supports seamless roaming without excessive co-channel interference.

EVPN-VXLAN

Overlay architecture using BGP EVPN control plane and VXLAN data plane to stretch Layer 2 segments and provide distributed anycast gateways across the campus fabric.

Multichassis LAG

A link aggregation whose member ports terminate on two different switches, providing device-level redundancy for servers and access switches.

L3 AP termination

AOS 8 mode where APs reach controllers across routed networks using GRE tunnels, requiring MTU headroom and reachable controller IP addresses.

ClientMatch

Aruba wireless feature that continuously steers clients to the best available AP and band based on load and RF conditions to improve roaming and performance.

Band steering

Technique that encourages dual-band clients to associate on 5 GHz or 6 GHz, relieving congestion on the 2.4 GHz band.

PoE class allocation

AOS-CX method that reserves power based on the device's advertised 802.3 class rather than measured usage, simplifying budget planning for APs and cameras.

6 GHz band

Wi-Fi 6E spectrum with 59 twenty-MHz channels, available only to 6E-capable radios, providing clean capacity without legacy interference.

Dynamic Segmentation

Aruba capability that tunnels user or IoT traffic from access switches to a gateway cluster using GRE, applying role-based policy at the tunnel endpoint.

Role-based ACL

Policy applied to a user role rather than a VLAN or port, allowing consistent enforcement across wired and wireless sessions regardless of location.

ClearPass service

Top-level ClearPass policy container that binds authentication methods, role mapping, and enforcement profiles to a set of network devices or SSIDs.

RADIUS CoA

Change of Authorization message sent from the RADIUS server to the network access device to modify an active session's role or VLAN without reauthentication.

WPA3-SAE

Simultaneous Authentication of Equals, the WPA3-Personal handshake replacing PSK, providing forward secrecy and resistance to offline dictionary attacks.

Device fingerprinting

Identifying endpoint type from DHCP options, MAC OUI, LLDP, and HTTP user agent data, then assigning an appropriate role or VLAN automatically.

Aruba Central group

Configuration scope in Central containing devices that share settings, templates, and variables; devices inherit group configuration unless overridden locally.

NAE script

Network Analytics Engine agent on AOS-CX that monitors conditions such as errors or CPU thresholds and triggers alerts or automated actions.

AOS-CX REST API

HTTPS interface using versioned URLs and JSON bodies; a login call returns a token used for subsequent GET, PUT, and POST operations.

SNMPv3 authPriv

SNMP security level requiring both authentication and encryption of messages, the recommended baseline for polling campus devices.

Syslog severity

Numeric levels 0 through 7, from emergency to debug; filtering at level 6 or lower reduces noise while preserving actionable events.

Streaming telemetry

Push-based monitoring where devices periodically send structured data to a collector, enabling near-real-time dashboards without polling overhead.

VSX keepalive

Separate path used by VSX peers to detect ISL failure; if both ISL and keepalive fail, the secondary suspends VSX interfaces to prevent split-brain.

VRRP

First-hop redundancy protocol where routers share a virtual IP and priority determines the master, providing gateway failover on AOS-CX.

N+1 controller redundancy

AOS 8 design where one standby controller provides spare capacity for multiple active controllers, allowing APs to fail over if a controller is lost.

Split-brain

Condition where redundant switches or stacks both believe they are active after losing interconnect, causing duplicate gateways or addressing conflicts.

TCP MSS clamping

Gateway technique that rewrites the TCP maximum segment size in the handshake so packets fit inside tunnel MTU, preventing fragmentation and black holes.

AOS 8 to AOS 10 migration

Transition to Central-managed APs and gateway-based tunnel termination, moving APs into Central groups in waves while ClearPass maintains consistent policy.

Central Foundation license

Subscription tier enabling core management, monitoring, and configuration for Aruba devices, with Advanced adding AIOps and deeper automation features.

Checkpoint and rollback

AOS-CX feature that saves a configuration snapshot and restores it later, providing a fast recovery path if a change causes an outage.