I85PREP
⌘ K
Extreme Certified Professional - Extreme Switching study materials
Extreme Certified Professional - Extreme Switching study resources

Extreme Certified Professional - Extreme Switching: Extreme Switching Architecture and Hardware Fundamentals

Extreme Certified Professional - Extreme Switching · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Extreme Switching Architecture and Hardware Fundamentals

Domain 1 - Extreme Switching Architecture and Hardware Fundamentals. Questions here probe whether you know the ExtremeSwitching families, how to read platform state from the CLI, and how ExtremeXOS separates control-plane processes from forwarding. Expect to interpret show version and show slot output and to reason about stacking and management-port behaviour.

Platform families

  • X-series fixed switches (X435, X465, X590, X620, X690, X870) are stackable and run ExtremeXOS.
  • 5000-series (5320, 5420, 5520, 5720) serve campus and aggregation roles; they also run ExtremeXOS (marketed as Switch Engine on newer releases). On several models, stacking must be enabled in software with enable stacking-support and a reboot before the alternate ports become stack ports.
  • 7000-series and the modular chassis family use I/O modules plus management/switch modules. Port addressing stays slot:port, so 3:12 is slot 3, port 12, and slot 1 ports do not exist when that slot is empty.

Software and CLI model

  • ExtremeXOS runs protocol processes in user space on top of a kernel; a misbehaving routing process rarely stops Layer 2 forwarding. show process and show memory show process state.
  • NVRAM holds two software images (primary/secondary) and two configurations. show version reports both image banks and which one was selected and which actually booted.
  • CLI modes: User EXEC >, Privileged EXEC # (reached with enable), Global Config (config)# (configure terminal), and sub-modes such as (config-if) and (config-vlan).

Worked example

A console session shows show version listing Primary 32.6.1.10 as selected and booted, Secondary 31.7.4.2, and show slot listing slot 1 as a 5520-48T with slot 2 empty. Reasoning: this is a standalone switch, so only 1:n ports exist; because selected equals booted, no pending image change is waiting for a reboot; configuration edits land in the running config and only survive a reload after save configuration. If a second unit were to be stacked, stacking support must be enabled and the switch rebooted before cabling stack ports.

Traps that cost marks

  • Reading "selected" as "booted" - after use image secondary the change takes effect only after reboot.
  • Assuming the out-of-band management port can route or carry user traffic; it is a member of the mgmt VLAN and serves management only.
  • Expecting every SFP/SFP+ cage to accept every speed, or a 10G-only port to link at 1G without configuration.
  • Forgetting that chassis and stack slot numbers shift port references if a module or unit is renumbered.