HP HPE7-A08 HPE Aruba Networking Certified Professional – Switching Exam Practice Test

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation:

For live upgrading a VSX cluster, the correct procedure is to use the vsx update-software option, which allows in-service software upgrade (ISSU) with minimal disruption by upgrading switches one at a time while maintaining synchronization.

issu update-software is not a recognized command in Aruba CX.

Reloading the primary first risks service disruption.

Compatibility mode is not required prior to reboot.

To prevent the campus core from seeing the data center core as the root bridge in a spanning tree topology (which can cause suboptimal paths or loops), Root Guard should be applied on the campus-to-data center core link. Root Guard enforces root bridge placement by blocking any superior BPDU from a downstream switch, maintaining the intended root bridge location.

BPDU filter blocks BPDUs entirely, which can cause problems.

Admin edge and BPDU guard are related to edge port protection, not root placement control.

In a VSX cluster, certain configurations such as DHCP relay need to be synchronized between both nodes. To sync DHCP relay configuration from the primary to the secondary, the command:

vsx-sync dhcp-relay

must be added under the VSX configuration on the primary switch. This ensures that DHCP relay settings are pushed to the secondary member automatically.

Adding vsx-sync ip-helper relates to IP helper addresses, not DHCP relay specifically.

Adding the sync command on the secondary has no effect as synchronization originates from primary.

When adding a switch with an existing configuration into a group in Aruba Central, the group requires devices to have factory default configurations to allow Central to apply the group config correctly.

If the switch has an existing configuration, synchronization and auto-commit may fail because of configuration conflicts.

Option A: Pending authorization is unrelated to config synchronization.

Option C: Auto-commit can be disabled but does not block syncing existing config.

Option D: VSX support limitations are irrelevant here.

Therefore, the likely cause is that only switches with factory default config can be added to a group with existing config.

When configuring OSPF on a point-to-point network type (typically a direct link between two routers), OSPF treats the link as a broadcast-less point-to-point segment.

This reduces unnecessary OSPF overhead by eliminating the need for:

DR/BDR elections (which generate LSA Type 2 advertisements for broadcast multi-access networks).

Thus, changing network type to point-to-point reduces the number of LSA Type-2 advertisements, which are used to describe the network segment in multi-access environments.

No impact on number of routes (LSA Type-3 is about inter-area routes).

The default is usually broadcast or point-to-multipoint depending on interface.

When line card LEDs do not light up, and the cards are newly installed, the best troubleshooting methodology is Divide and conquer by swapping the line cards. This method isolates the problem by testing hardware in different slots or known working units.

Spot the difference involves comparing configurations, which does not directly isolate hardware failure.

Follow the path is more suited for connectivity issues.

Replace configuration relates to software or config problems.

Hardware issues are best isolated by physically swapping components.

The Local Priority (LP) applied to an incoming packet marked with DSCP 46 and CoS 7 depends on the configured QoS mapping.

DSCP 46 corresponds to Expedited Forwarding (EF), which is typically mapped to the highest priority.

CoS 7 also indicates high priority.

According to the QoS policy shown, the LP assigned is 1, indicating the highest priority level.

The Aruba CX switches REST API supports the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) data format for both requests and responses. JSON is widely adopted for REST APIs due to its lightweight and readable format.

XML and YAML are not supported for REST API on CX switches.

SOAP is a different protocol not used by Aruba CX REST API.

Therefore, JSON is the correct and supported data format.

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation:

When troubleshooting intermittent connectivity issues with known source and destination IPs, the Follow the path methodology is most suitable. This involves tracing the packet flow from source to destination step-by-step, checking each device or segment for failures.

Spot the difference compares configurations, which is less targeted here.

Divide and conquer isolates sections but follow the path is more direct for connectivity.

Top-down/bottom-up is more general troubleshooting.

To find which changes were made on an HPE Aruba CX switch from the GUI, the correct command is:

show checkpoint diff — this compares the running configuration with stored saved-config revisions.

Using "saved-config revisions" as the comparison base allows the GUI to show what has changed since the last saved configuration.

Other options mix checkpoint and saved-config terminology incorrectly.

To implement Dynamic User Roles (DUR) with Aruba ClearPass, an HTTPS certificate must be configured. This certificate enables secure communication between ClearPass and the Aruba CX switches for role downloading and authentication.

RadSec service enables secure RADIUS but is unrelated to DUR certificates.

Admin user roles and RADIUS dictionary attributes are necessary but secondary to certificate requirements.

When enabling ARP protection, it is best practice to wait at least a week after enabling DHCP snooping before enabling ARP protection in a live network. This allows the DHCP snooping binding table to stabilize, ensuring ARP protection has accurate IP-MAC bindings, reducing false positives.

Immediate ARP protection may cause legitimate traffic to be dropped.

Lease times and DHCP server utilization are less critical.

This staged approach minimizes disruption.

The issue is VMware vMotion traffic on VLAN 3903 failing, while other VLANs work normally. vMotion traffic requires support for larger frame sizes (jumbo frames) because vMotion packets are large and benefit from increased MTU to improve performance and reduce fragmentation.

Configuring jumbo frames on VLAN 3903 ensures that frames on this VLAN can use an MTU larger than the default 1500 bytes.

Configuring jumbo on the interface alone may not be sufficient if the VLAN itself is not set to support jumbo frames.

Setting MTU on VLAN or interface might not work unless jumbo frames are enabled.

DHCP snooping requires to be enabled globally before it will function correctly. If it is not enabled globally, even if enabled on VLAN interfaces, DHCP snooping will not work.

Enabling authorized DHCP servers (A) or trusted interfaces (B) is necessary but only after global enabling.

Enabling DHCP snooping on VLAN (C) is not sufficient without global enablement.

Therefore, enabling DHCP snooping globally is the first step to activate the feature.

To avoid split-brain scenarios in VSF stacks, the VSL split-detect mgrep command is used to enable multicast group detection over the Virtual Switching Link (VSL). This helps detect when the stack links are down or partitioned, triggering appropriate failover or shutdown mechanisms.

Options like vsf start-auto-stacking, vsf secondary-member 2, or vsf conductor-member 2 are related to stack initialization and member roles but do not address split-brain detection directly.

Hence, enabling split-detect with mgrep is the best practice for VSF stack stability.

IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) supports several message types: Join, Leave, Query, and Report messages to manage multicast group membership.

Join messages indicate a host wants to join a multicast group.

Leave messages indicate a host is leaving a multicast group.

Query messages are sent by routers to discover group members.

Report messages are sent by hosts to indicate membership.

Therefore, the full set of IGMP message types supported includes Join, Leave, Query, and Report.

Options with only Leave and Report or only Join and Query are incomplete.

When deploying HPE Aruba VSX switches parallel to existing HPE Comware switches, choosing a first-hop redundancy protocol compatible with both platforms is essential. VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) is widely supported across multiple vendors and is suitable for multi-vendor environments.

HSRP is Cisco proprietary and not supported on Aruba Comware or CX.

Active Forwarding and Active Gateway are Aruba VSX internal mechanisms, not standard first-hop redundancy protocols.

VRRP provides seamless failover and is supported in Comware and Aruba CX platforms.

Thus, VRRP is the suitable choice.

The event message:

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2024-04-04T08:35:38.312254+00:00 ICX-Core-1 hpe-vaxd[2167]: Event[701|LOG_INFO|AMM1/1|VSX2 state local up, remote down]

indicates that the local VSX member is up, but the remote VSX member is down. In a VSX pair, both switches must be operational for full redundancy and synchronization.

This log means the secondary VSX switch (remote) is down or unreachable, causing loss of synchronization and possibly traffic failover issues.

Option B (keepalive detection) is related but the event specifically shows the state of the remote switch being down.

Options C and D refer to LAG or interface state, which are not what this log entry describes.

In the exhibit, the CX8325 switch ports 1/1/47 and 1/1/48 are connected in a VSX setup. According to Aruba VSX best practices, ports on the CX8325 switch that serve as ISL or VSX interconnects should use SFP28 optics for 25Gbps links. If SFP56 optics are used, it would be incorrect because CX8325 ports are designed to support SFP28 modules for these speeds.

CX6300 ports use SFP56 or QSFP28 depending on model and link speed.

CX8300 series ports designed for QSFP28 for higher speeds.

Hence, the best practice is to use SFP28 on CX8325 for the interconnect links.

When making changes remotely to critical configurations such as Control Plane ACLs on a CX switch, to protect against accidental lockout due to misconfiguration, you should enable checkpoint auto before committing the changes.

Checkpoint auto creates an automatic rollback timer. If the administrator loses connectivity (e.g., because of the ACL change), the system automatically rolls back the change after the timer expires, preventing lockout.

checkpoint commit is used after committing to save the checkpoint explicitly, but it does not provide automatic rollback.

Running checkpoint auto before committing is essential to have the rollback safety net.

To receive a monthly report tracking available licenses and their expiration dates in Aruba Central, the Infra Inventory report should be scheduled. It provides detailed information about device inventories, including licenses and expiration.

Switch Capacity Planning focuses on resource utilization.

Resource Utilization monitors system performance.

Network report focuses on topology and health.

The output indicates that the ISL (Inter-Switch Link) has failed, which in a VSX environment leads to a split-brain condition because the two VSX switches can no longer synchronize their state. Split-brain occurs when the VSX members lose communication over the ISL but continue forwarding traffic independently, causing network inconsistencies.

The device does not have the highest VSX priority (Option A).

VSX health cannot be confirmed as healthy due to ISL failure (Option C).

ISL configuration in the management VRF (Option D) is unrelated to split-brain detection.

Thus, ISL failure resulting in split-brain is the correct assessment.