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Aruba Fabric Composer -

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  • 1.  Aruba Fabric Composer -

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 05, 2021 07:22 AM
    Many of you will be aware of the Aruba Fabric Composer , launched in December,  the orchestration tool which provides simplified operations, accelerated provisioning of Spine/Leaf Fabrics (in minutes ) and increased visibility of end-to-end networks combined with automated detection and much more.

    The Aruba Fabric Composer current release 6.0 supports CX-OS 10.06

    Product Overview:
    https://www.arubanetworks.com/products/switches/core-and-data-center/fabric-composer/

    Install Guide
    https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00107085en_us&docLocale=en_US

    User guide
    https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00107086en_us

    Solutions Overview
    https://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/so/SO_Fabric-Composer.pdf

    Licensing notes

    Licensing Is on a prescription model, with 1,3,5,7 & 10 year options. Licensing is per device. For example: 6 managed switches will require x6 licenses over the desired subscription term.

    1. Currently the Fabric composer can manage 8325 & 8360 switches under release 6.0
    2. Licensing includes 24x7 software support plus an additional 30 days for registration.
    3. All licensing SKUs are available in IRIS.

    In addition , informative videos on the Aruba ABC Network. Check-out the link for installation and deployment examples-

    Airheads Broadcasting Channel Aruba Fabric Composer


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    Steve Bartlett
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  • 2.  RE: Aruba Fabric Composer -

    Posted Feb 05, 2021 09:56 AM
    How does it compare with NetEdit, as the NetEdit licenses are quite cheap to get for smaller environments. Is this Fabric Composer mainly targeted for environments running something like 100 Aruba DC switches?


  • 3.  RE: Aruba Fabric Composer -

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 05, 2021 10:22 AM
    The scale of the initial release is  scale is  from 1-4 racks with 'Leaf Pairs/Spines' up to a supported scale of 16 racks (32 leaf switches plus spine nodes)
    • So the current hardware support is for 1 fabric with up to 32 x 'leaf' and 4 x 'Spine' switches.

    You can start small , up to six devices for example.  NetEdit  & the Fabric Composer are 2 different tools that can compliment each other.

    NetEdit is focused on configuration management and the Composer on orchestration , automating network delivery  (spine -leaf with or without BGP/EVPN) 

     The composer targets Spine and Leaf topologies to automate the deployment , and takes away the complexity of manual configuration- (you don't need to know how to configure the cli  ). This is it's primary value add, along with integrations to provide enhanced visibility, and is not a Network management tool in the traditional sense. 

    It has a predefined set of workflows to support the automation of VSX , interconnected links, underlay, overlay EVPN configurations etc. 

    Deploying configurations outside of the Composers orchestrations you would use a configuration management tool like NetEdit. 

    Checkout the collateral , especially the video links , it will become clearer on how it works - it's very easy to use!.

    Regards

    ------------------------------
    Steve Bartlett
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  • 4.  RE: Aruba Fabric Composer -

    Posted Feb 05, 2021 10:31 AM
    Yep will have to check the videos, as NetEdit too has solutions to deploy spine-leaf fabric by just entering the IP networks that you want to use etc. and then the deployment is pushed to the whole fabric. There seems to be a solution for IBGP EVPN VXLAN fabric and also for EBGP EVPN Multi-AS Fabric. So not very sure yet what extra Fabric Orchestrator would bring


  • 5.  RE: Aruba Fabric Composer -

    Posted Jun 18, 2021 11:18 AM
    According with the last datasheet, AFC supports now CX8400 and CX6300:
        https://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/so/SO_Fabric-Composer.pdf
    Page 6:



    Please, do you know when the AFC's CX6300 SKUs will be available in IRIS?

    Best regards,

    ------------------------------
    Henderson Iturralde
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  • 6.  RE: Aruba Fabric Composer -

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Jun 22, 2021 04:55 AM


    AFC 6.1 release will support the 8400 and 6300 series switches ( current version is 6.02). The 6300 switches will support OBM and will not be part of the data forwarding fabric.

    Looks like this datasheet link, updated with 8400 and 6300 switch support,  has made it in to the public domain prior to the public release of 6.1.

    I'll take up with our PLM team internally at Aruba.
    .
    Regards, Steve

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    Steve Bartlett
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