Advanced AOS-CX Switching (AAXSTS)

Network teams that look after several sites from one central office face a particular challenge: problems have to be diagnosed remotely, designs have to be consistent across locations, and a single mistake in routing or segmentation can spread quickly. The skills that keep a single building running are rarely enough for that scale.

Advanced AOS-CX Switching training in Tanzania gives experienced engineers the expert-level knowledge to manage it. The AAXSTS course combines five instructor-led days of lecture and hands-on labs, split roughly evenly, on HPE Aruba Networking AOS-CX switches. Learners design wired networks, troubleshoot and monitor them, and implement VSX, MSTP and LACP, OSPF, BGP, route redistribution, VRFs, multicast, QoS, Dynamic Segmentation and network security. It is the recommended course for engineers working towards ACX – Switching.

Course Structure and Key Details

The programme runs for five days with an instructor and is offered in the classroom and online, with around half of the time spent in hands-on labs across 12 modules.

In the opening modules, learners analyse network requirements, compare two-tier and three-tier designs and review switching and routing principles. They adopt a troubleshooting methodology that draws on logging and debugging, diagnostic commands, traffic analysis and HPE Aruba Networking Central, and they explore AOS-CX automation, REST API requests and the Network Analytics Engine for monitoring.

The middle of the course builds resilience and routing. Learners work through VSX fundamentals, best practices and troubleshooting, then policy-based routing, single-area OSPF troubleshooting and multi-area OSPF. The BGP module covers connections, advertisements, metrics, tuning, and route control. Learners redistribute static routes into OSPF and OSPF into BGP, and use VRFs with route leaking to keep routing domains separate but connected where needed.

The later modules address applications and protection. Multicast routing covers IGMP, PIM-SM, static and dynamic rendezvous points, and VSX with PIM. Quality of Service includes ingress handling, prioritisation, DSCP remarking, queuing, scheduling and active queue management. Dynamic Segmentation is taught through user-based tunnelling and downloadable user roles, and network security through ACLs, classifier policies, Control Plane Policing, user group management, TACACS+ management access, DHCP snooping, ARP inspection and MACsec.

Enrolment requires attendance at Implementing AOS-CX Switching (ICXS) or a pass in the ACP – Switching certification exam. The ACX – Switching written exam (HPE7-A09) and practical exam (HPE4-A53) are taken separately.

Course Objectives

1. Design consistent, optimised network architectures across multiple sites.
2. Troubleshoot and monitor remotely with the CLI, port mirroring, NAE, IP SLA, and HPE Aruba Networking Central.
3. Configure VSX and Layer 2 features for high availability.
4. Implement OSPF, BGP, and policy-based routing at scale.
5. Control routing with VRFs, route leaking, and redistribution.
6. Apply QoS to protect critical traffic.
7. Use Dynamic Segmentation for role-based access across sites.
8. Protect switches and links with ACLs, CoPP, TACACS+, and MACsec.