Advanced AOS-CX Switching (AAXSTS)

Once a campus network grows past a handful of switches, the hard problems are no longer about basic VLANs. They are about keeping the core available when a switch fails, routing cleanly between buildings and sites, separating business units without building a second network, and finding the cause of an outage before users flood the help desk. Those are the problems Advanced AOS-CX Switching (AAXSTS) is designed to solve.

Advanced AOS-CX Switching training in Saudi Arabia takes engineers who already work with HPE Aruba Networking AOS-CX switches to expert level. Over five instructor-led days, split roughly evenly between lecture and hands-on labs, learners design wired networks, troubleshoot them methodically, and configure VSX, OSPF, BGP, VRFs, multicast, QoS, Dynamic Segmentation, and security features such as Control Plane Policing and MACsec. The course is the recommended preparation for the HPE Aruba Networking Certified Expert – Switching (ACX – Switching) certification.

Course Structure and Key Details

Advanced AOS-CX Switching is a five-day, instructor-led course available in the classroom and online. Around half of the time is spent in hands-on lab exercises, so every major topic is practised on AOS-CX switches rather than only discussed.

The course opens with wired network design, covering requirements analysis, two-tier and three-tier designs and the switching and routing principles behind them. It then moves to troubleshooting, with a structured methodology, logging and debugging, diagnostic commands, traffic analysis, and troubleshooting with HPE Aruba Networking Central. A module on monitoring and automation introduces AOS-CX automation, the REST API, including sending requests, and the Network Analytics Engine.

The Layer 2 module focuses on Virtual Switching Extension (VSX): its fundamentals, best practices, and troubleshooting. Routing follows in depth, beginning with policy-based routing, single-area OSPF troubleshooting and multi-area OSPF, then Border Gateway Protocol, covering BGP connections, advertisements, metrics, tuning and route control. Learners then redistribute static routes into OSPF and OSPF into BGP, and work with VRFs and VRF route leaking to keep routing domains separate while allowing controlled communication between them.

The final modules cover multicast routing, including IGMP, PIM-SM, static and dynamic rendezvous points and VSX with PIM, then Quality of Service, including ingress handling, prioritisation, DSCP remarking, queuing, scheduling and active queue management. Dynamic Segmentation is taught through user-based tunnelling and downloadable user roles. The course closes with network security: ACLs, classifier policies, Control Plane Policing, user group management, TACACS+ management access, DHCP snooping and ARP inspection, and MACsec.

To enrol, learners should have attended Implementing AOS-CX Switching (ICXS) or passed the ACP – Switching certification exam. The ACX – Switching exams, HPE7-A09 (written) and HPE4-A53 (practical), are taken separately from the course.

Course Objectives

• Design optimised campus network architectures with AOS-CX switches.
• Troubleshoot and monitor networks using the CLI, port mirroring, the Network Analytics Engine, IP SLA, and HPE Aruba Networking Central.
• Configure and troubleshoot VSX and other Layer 2 features.
• Optimise routing with policy-based routing, OSPF, and BGP.
• Implement VRFs and route redistribution for controlled routing.
• Apply QoS so that critical traffic is handled efficiently.
• Use Dynamic Segmentation to strengthen security and simplify management.
• Improve security with ACLs, Control Plane Policing, and MACsec.