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HPE put some effort into Comware training. Creating books for HPE Press and releasing a Comware simulator. Now that HPE has all but dropped Comware it's back to square one. There's a general lack of training materials compared to Cisco or Juniper.

 

Will we ever see a new simulation envrioment like the Comware simulaor (now developed by New H3C) or Cisco's Packet Tracer? Cisco is now so far ahead of HPE/Aruba when it comes to training that's it's not even funny.

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@mechanicalthinker wrote: HPE put some effort into Comware training. Creating books for HPE Press and releasing a Comware simulator. Now that HPE has all but dropped Comware it's back to square one. There's a general lack of training materials compared to Cisco or Juniper.

 

Seriously?

I suspect you were wrongly informed about that (Comware 5 and 7 operating systems are still alive and kicking, especially Comware 7).

Comware7 is alive and well only because of New H3C. Don't think HPE is putting any effort into it anymore. In the access layer and in mid-size core it is certainly dead for HPE. 

 

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@mechanicalthinker wrote: Comware7 is alive and well only because of New H3C. Don't think HPE is putting any effort into it anymore.

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I'm not totally sure about that...HPE divested its H3C assets in favour of Tsinghua in China back in mid 2015 but that event didnt't mean that existing and potential new DC oriented customers will not be able to find - actually - a suitable Comware 7 (and 5 too) products well documented abd  kept up-to-date (and that, for HPE, means that their R&D+Support Teams put a lot of efforts).

 

OTOH DC requirements are quite different from Campus/Access ones...so new features, if any, appear slowly...also consider that Comware 7 is already a full-featured operating system and it has a very long heritage, given that it is positioned to run on Core and ToR Switch series...at DC robustness and service continuity win against new features and frequent releases (in Campus/Access we're used to see a lot of new features and a lot of software releases - or a short development cycle - instead).

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@mechanicalthinker wrote: In the access layer and in mid-size core it is certainly dead for HPE.

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Access and Campus core are now covered by Aruba Switch series because HPE decided that way after Aruba acquisition, yes that's true...but that doesn't mean that you can't purchase an HPE FlexNetwork 5510 and live well exactly as you do if you purchase an Aruba 3810M. Both are good (with pros/cons).

 

Probably Aruba direct/indirect sales and Aruba Partners have a mission: to push and sell Aruba products portfolio only...hiding the fact that HPE FlexNetwork product portfolio has (few) products still capable to go down up to the "access layer" (with PoE and all the bells&whistles)...and (more) products capable to stay at the core of any DC, globally. That's marketing IMHO.

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@parnassus wrote:

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@mechanicalthinker wrote: Comware7 is alive and well only because of New H3C. Don't think HPE is putting any effort into it anymore.

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@mechanicalthinker wrote: In the access layer and in mid-size core it is certainly dead for HPE.

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Access and Campus core are now covered by Aruba Switch series because HPE decided that way after Aruba acquisition, yes that's true...but that doesn't mean that you can't purchase an HPE FlexNetwork 5510 and live well exactly as you do if you purchase an Aruba 3810M. Both are good (with pros/cons).

 

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The main issue I have with that is that due to change of direction there's actually a complete mess of products. Airwave and Central are useless for anything running on Comware 7. IMC lacks proper support for Aruba wireless. ClearPass is very well supported out-of-box for Provision/ArubaOS but not for Comware. I would at least like to see a similar level of intergation with ClearPass on Comware 7 as is supported on ArubaOS.

 

Also Comware has always been a much better platform and hardware running on it has always been more reliable than anything Provision based, so it's a bit sad that Provision is getting a preferential treatment.

 

At this point I would be wary of buying any more Comware based equipment. The fact is that switching to ArubaOS as a main platform only a couple of years later after telling everyone to invest into Comware, is an unwelcome move.

There is a ArubaOS-CX simulator (actually for HPE and Partners...)

 

and it is complicated (impossible) to have a ArubaOS (ex Procuvre) Simulator (Because it is a specific hardware stuff...)

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@alagoutte wrote:

There is a ArubaOS-CX simulator (actually for HPE and Partners...)

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Yeah, that simulator is the ArubaOS-CX Open Virtual Appliance (abbreviated ArubaOS-CX OVA), actually aligned with latest ArubaOS-CX 10.01.0020 software relase.

 

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@alagoutte wrote: and it is complicated (impossible) to have a ArubaOS (ex Procuvre) Simulator (Because it is a specific hardware stuff...) 

That's quite reasonable...probably because Comware 5/7 operating system based switch series (3Com/H3C/HPE) use (best-of-breeze) merchant silicon while HP ProCurve, historically, used (and still uses) customized ASIC (the HP ProVision which gave the name to the operating system)...so virtualizing HP ProVision operating system based switch series is not exactly like doing the same that was done for Comware based devices by H3C (indeed they were able to release to the public the H3C Cloud Lab image).

 

Probably an ArubaOS-Switch "simulator" (or virtual environment) does exist but it's for very internal usage only by development.

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@parnassus wrote:

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@alagoutte wrote:

There is a ArubaOS-CX simulator (actually for HPE and Partners...)

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Yeah, that simulator is the ArubaOS-CX Open Virtual Appliance (abbreviated ArubaOS-CX OVA), actually aligned with latest ArubaOS-CX 10.01.0020 software relase.

 

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@alagoutte wrote: and it is complicated (impossible) to have a ArubaOS (ex Procuvre) Simulator (Because it is a specific hardware stuff...) 

That's quite reasonable...probably because Comware 5/7 operating system based switch series (3Com/H3C/HPE) use (best-of-breeze) merchant silicon while HP ProCurve, historically, used (and still uses) customized ASIC (the HP ProVision which gave the name to the operating system)...so virtualizing HP ProVision operating system based switch series is not exactly like doing the same that was done for Comware based devices by H3C (indeed they were able to release to the public the H3C Cloud Lab image).

 

Probably an ArubaOS-Switch "simulator" (or virtual environment) does exist but it's for very internal usage only by development.

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I don't think there's any need to emualte the harware side. Of course it would mean that direct porting would be impossible. What's needed is a simualtion of the interface itself. Cisco Packet Tracer is also not a direct port of Ciscos IOS but it's a great learing tool. It's used by pretty much every IT school here. It's very easy to find someone who can manage Cisco network.


The fact is that Cisco has very good learing tools available. The wealth of materials, learing institutions offering Cisco courses, web training by companies like CBT Nuggets, virtual labs and so on is overwhelming. HPE at least made some effort with Comware Lab, but now that Comware is out of the picture HPE/Aruba has nothing to compete with Cisco (or even Juniper) in this regard.

 

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@mechanicalthinker wrote: I don't think there's any need to emualte the harware side. Of course it would mean that direct porting would be impossible. What's needed is a simualtion of the interface itself.

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If you want to emulate an Hardware (x86, RISC, ...whatever) you need to trying a way to virtualize it using an Hardware Abstraction Level which is an additional software level...or not?

 

To simulate a UI (Graphical, CLI based...whatever) you need to let the system in which the simulation software is running to believe to run over the hardware that that very GUI or CLI is effective and produces its effects...or not?

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@parnassus wrote:

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@mechanicalthinker wrote: I don't think there's any need to emualte the harware side. Of course it would mean that direct porting would be impossible. What's needed is a simualtion of the interface itself.

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If you want to emulate an Hardware (x86, RISC, ...whatever) you need to trying a way to virtualize it using an Hardware Abstraction Level which is an additional software level...or not?

 

To simulate a UI (Graphical, CLI based...whatever) you need to let the system in which the simulation software is running to believe to run over the hardware that that very GUI or CLI is effective and produces its effects...or not?

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The latter is not neccesarily true. One can emualte the GUI without the underlying hardware. It would be just more work.

 

But that is all beside the point. The point is that Cisco (and Juniper and New H3C) have learning/simualtion environments and virtual labs available (with Cisco having a huge edge here) and Aruba/HPE does not.

I bet the reason is (and was) because Cisco, H3C and whatever vendor had/has Data Center portfolio...that vendor was required to provide the tools you're referring to (simulation) because the DC topologies/features to be deployed often/sometime requires a initial simulation prior to go in production...HP ProCurve was used on access layer...does access layer required such simulation tools? I think it doesn't (maybe now with Campus Core the scenario is going to deserve such tools)...and so the gap.

Not sure this is case at all. Even though I agree that simulation tools would also be useful for that too.

 

But I'm sure it's down to having good training materials available. Cisco Packet Tracer is not a proper Cisco hardware/IOS simulator but a learing environment. It's a convenient replacement for hardware to learn for certification or in general wihtout having to have to go out and buy a rack full of Cisco gear only for that.

 

IT schools here are using Packet Tracer also for teaching basic networking stuff. And of course you can run Cisco IOS on GNS3 too. I think ultimately it's just having tools avaliable to learn the platform in a convenient way. Cisco has put a lot of effort into it, made it really convenient and that's why everyone is teaching Cisco and no-one is teaching HPE/Aruba. If everyone is learing Cisco, more Cisco gear is bought.

ArubaOS-CX OVA is available for Aruba partners as well as various lab guides to practice CLI, routing, API, NAE and more.

Owner of 8320 or 8400 can also download the OVA for internal training/lab purpose.

The issue is only the 8XXX series switches use that OS. The lower-end series use ArubaOS, not CX version. I am looking for a way to interact with an Aruba switch before some deployments and have no way, not even OVA, to get some hands on. Point is simulators don't need to be able to actually pass data and emulate L2 functions. The NX-OSv can't pass data, just used to emulate a DC environment, good for practicing routing and VXLAN/EVPN. You can still practice making MC-LAGs and setting up access ports and trunks, etc. I think it's important to have this platform even outside of the DC, as many people don't have Aruba switching background and want hands-on to be comfortable.

Ultimately if HPE/Aruba want to compete with Cisco they need to come up with something like Packet Tracer and Cisco VIRL.

 

H3C made a good step with Comware simulator but now that Comware, which is way superior platform, to anything made by Aruba, has taken a back seat in the product portfolio, they are back to ground zero.

 

There just is a general lack of training materials for HPE/Aruba stuff compared to other vendors. Even the official training is expensive and almost no-one is offering it. Actually no-one in my country, so only option is online.

 

And like I said above, all the schools here teach networking with Cisco simulators and materials.

ArubaOS switch use specific ASIC... and it is complicated to virtualize

 

but with ArubaCX, it using a x86 and a OVA is already available and you can try with GNS3...

We should not mix up simulation and emulation. Packet Tracer is not an emulator but a simulator of Cisco hardware.

 

ArubaOS-CX works ok with GNS3 though.

The point still stands, multiple other competitors who use custom ASICs have an OVA. Only Aruba's core-level high-end switches use CX so that doesn't help with 80%+ of their solutions unless I'm missing something. Emulation is what I'm talking about and if Cisco can find a way to get it to work when they use their own ASIC, Aruba should be able to, too. Otherwise, they should work to standardize their platforms so everything is CX-based. Hard to want to support a platform if you can't learn hands-on. Their partner lab options also seem to require a physical switch, whereas Cisco's dCloud has a ton of free options, as does their devnet, all free with no equipment required.

I don't want to come off like a Cisco-only person who bad-mouths Aruba but I'm trying to provide feedback with valid reasons. Appreciate everyone's responses and hope Aruba understands those who are looking to learn their platform are trying to help them understand their gaps. Have a large rollout of Aruba across the world and trying to see my options to learn and support my team and customer as a top-level partner.

Hello.

Where ican download ArubaOS-CX for personal and training use. I don't have hardware Aruba and contract for register.

The OVA is available for partners or AOS-CX switch owner.

If you are not a partner, nor owner of a CX switch, I would recommend to request your local country Aruba contact who might qualify the request to find a solution for you.

gnovak:

 

Cisco <<< valid service contracts are required for many Cisco IOS items.

 

I would suggest using Aruba's "Innovation Zone" to further your cause.

 

As an alternative, these guys may help you: https://www.eve-ng.net/

and https://docs.gns3.com/appliances/aruba-arubaoscx.html

This is perfectly understood that simulator for AOS-S would be nice. However, you see more and more Aruba switches based on AOS-CX, our last switching operating system: in the order of introduction: 8400, 8320, 8325, 6300, 6400.

We also integrate lot of features from AOS-S into AOS-CX for the access,

and we hope that most of your education need are covered by the AOS_CX OVA (10.04.0001 being the latest).

Hi.

I am an engineer of HPE Aruba distributor in Korea.

Does the point you are talking about mean that "ArubaOS (Procurve)" should also have software that simulates OVA type or HCL-like?

Unfortunately, it doesn't exist yet.

This part seems to be the part to be considered in "HPE Aruba" R & D.

Currently, we also use ArubaOS switches as physical equipment for educational purposes.

And, as an external tool, we are using a community tool called EVE-NG to simulate it.

 

Comware is HPE's VSR1000 series.

Cisco IOL image.

ArubaOS-CX image.

Virtual PC.

 

 

It is used for educational purposes with the above configuration.

 

In my personal opinion, ArubaOS (Procurve) OVA type virtual images, if developed.

it seems to be useful for education.

 

I hope it will be of help.

 

Thank you.