Aruba Certified Associate - Campus Access (ACA-CA) Training

Learn the difference between in-band and out-of-band management, and how to access Aruba switches via console ports (USB-C or RJ-45) or Bluetooth mobile app for initial setup.

Explore how the EOS CX switches use a dedicated Ethernet management port for out-of-band management and a management VRF with a dedicated IP, plus SVI DHCP for Aruba Central.

Understand the Aruba port numbering scheme for fixed port and modular switches by learning member ID, slot, and port components, including defaults and misconfiguration avoidance in BSF environments.

Navigate the four prompt modes - operator, manager, global, and interface - within the Aruba iOS CLI and learn the proper exit and end commands to move between them.

Explore context sensitive help and CLI shortcuts in iOS CLI to speed command entry, using question marks and tab completion, double-tab for options, and abbreviations like conf for faster navigation.

Explore the most used show commands, including show version and show system, to verify operating system, bios, hardware details, uptime, and system health on Aruba devices.

Learn how Aruba iOS switches store configurations in ram and flash memory, manage running and startup configs, and copy between them or to tftp, sftp, or usb.

Create and name checkpoints of the switch running configuration, view latest snapshots with show checkpoint list, and enable checkpoint auto mode to safely apply and confirm changes.

Master switch operation verification with commands like top cpu, show events -R, and show interface brief. Filter outputs with pipe include to pinpoint interfaces and troubleshoot AOS-CX iOS switches.

Define the hostname to identify network devices by building, floor, rack, and switch name for quick location. Configure the hostname as swa and save the configuration with write memory.

Configure the management interface on the Aruba Usk switch by moving from DHCP to a static IP, and set the gateway and DNS, then verify with show interface management.

Learn to check interface status with the show interface command, view admin and link state, MTU, speed, duplex, SFP type, and L3 counters for troubleshooting.

Explore how VLANs divide a switch into multiple broadcast domains, boosting security and performance by isolating devices, and learn how routing enables inter-VLAN communication between VLANs.

Configure vlans from global config mode, create ranges (2–5, 100) and named vlan 200, verify with show vlan, and remove or disable vlans as needed; VLAN 1 remains default.

Configure access ports on a switch by converting l3 interfaces to l2 with no routing, assign one vlan per port, and verify with show vlan and show interface brief.

Explore how IEEE 802.1q tagging extends VLANs across switches via a trunk link. See how tagged frames are carried over the trunk and forwarded to the matching VLAN ports.

Configure the trunk on both switches, disable routing to make the port a layer 2 interface, and specify allowed vlans for the trunk to control traffic.

Explore native VLAN basics, where untagged traffic uses the native VLAN on a trunk, default VLAN one, and how to configure the native VLAN on both switches to avoid mismatches.

Layer two switches automatically build the mac address table from source mac addresses to guide forwarding across VLANs, flooding unknown destinations until learned, with entries aging after 300 seconds.

Configure layer three router ports and switch virtual interfaces on ios switches to enable inter-vlan routing. Assign ip addresses to a router port and svi, and verify with commands.

Learn how arp maps ip addresses to mac addresses via a broadcast request and a unicast reply, populating the arp cache.

Understand lldp and lldp-med, layer-two standards for discovering and advertising device identity over ethernet, with med adding VoIP VLAN, l2 priority, QoS, PoE management, location data, inventory.

LLDP operates by devices sending LLDP data units with TLVs, multicast to neighbors, and storing information in the local management information base for topology mapping via SNMP.

Explore LLDP configuration on iOS switches, where LLDP is enabled by default globally and on all ports, and learn commands to verify neighbors, TLVs, timers, and interface-based views.

ICMP provides internet control message protocol details for IP, used to verify connectivity with ping, showing echo request and reply and TTL-based codes like 8, 0, 3, 5, and 11.

Use traceroute to trace the path from source to destination, listing each layer 3 hop for network troubleshooting. Remember that firewalls can block ping and traceroute.

Learn how link aggregation bundles multiple interfaces into a single logical link to boost bandwidth and reliability between switches and virtual or physical servers, while preventing broadcast and multicast loops.

Learn how to configure lag by ensuring duplex, speed, and media type match on all links; verify matching requirements to avoid errors, with warnings from the AOS-CX CLI.

Configure static and dynamic lag on two switches, create lag 11, map member ports, and enable LCP mode for dynamic aggregation, then verify with show interface lag.

Troubleshoot a lag by diagnosing misconfigured lag IDs, static versus dynamic lacp, and mismatched ports across two switches, using show lacp interfaces and lag status to restore proper forwarding.

Explore the basics of IP addressing, including IPv4 and IPv6, dotted decimal notation, network and host portions, and subnet masks with practical examples.

Identify ipv4 address types by examining the network identifier, host range, and network broadcast. Relate a 10.0.1.0/24 subnet to real-world hosts from 10.0.1.1 to 10.0.1.254 with broadcast 10.0.1.255.

Explore how 32-bit IP addresses split into network and host portions, and how subnet masks map to prefix lengths using slash notation, e.g., /8, /16, /24.

Explore how ip routing finds the shortest path for data between devices, using static, dynamic, and default routing and routing tables to forward packets via the best path.

Explore IP routes, including static, connected, and dynamically learned routes, and learn how destination IP, subnet mask, and next hop guide packet forwarding via the routing table across networks.

Learn how a default gateway routes traffic from a local network to destinations outside the network or the internet. The video uses home networks and IP configuration as examples.

Learn how DHCP relay, or IP helper, forwards a client's DHCP discover from a VLAN to a centralized DHCP server on another subnet using unicast.

Explore the route types in AOS-CX switches—connected, local, static, RIP v2, OSPF, and BGP—and learn how connected routes differ from local routes.

Configure and understand static routing between two Aruba iOS switches with loopbacks, define destination networks and next hops, and implement a default route for internet access.

Understand administrative distance and how it guides routing on a multilayer switch. Compare static, directly connected, OSPF, internal BGP, external BGP routes, and explore equal-cost multi-path load balancing.

Explore how dynamic routing finds the best path for data by automatically learning and updating routes, rerouting around failures, and supporting scalable networks.

Describe how autonomous systems group devices under a common domain and use interior gateway protocols to route inside, while BGP handles inter-system routing.

Explain how distance vector routing protocols exchange IP information using distance vector algorithms, advertise hop counts and next hops, and discuss limitations such as slow convergence and scalability.

Understand link state routing protocols and how they differ from distance vector protocols. They build a network topology view to select the best path using metrics like bandwidth and delay.

Learn the basics of OSPF, the open shortest path first link-state routing protocol for an autonomous system. See how routers share routes and costs, and how Dijkstra computes shortest paths.

Explore OSPF areas as logical groups of devices sharing a link-state database, enabling faster convergence, SPF calculations, reduced database size, and efficient routing with area zero as the backbone.

Explore OSPF area types from backbone area zero to standard, stub, not-so-stubby (NSSA), and totally stubby areas, including how they handle LSA types and default routes.

Identify and configure OSPF network types, including point-to-point for two-neighbor links, broadcast for multi-neighbor links, and NBMA for non-broadcast multi-access networks, with Aruba iOS switch commands.

Explore how OSPF LSAs exchange routing data to build a link-state database for shortest-path calculations. Understand LSA types one through seven, including intra-area, network, inter-area, external, ABR vs ASBR roles.

Explore how OSPF path selection uses the cost metric, inverse of bandwidth, and Dijkstra's algorithm to choose the lowest cumulative cost path to a destination.

OSPF convergence happens when a link goes up or down, a router is added or removed, or topology changes trigger hello and dead timer events.

Equal cost multipath in OSPF installs multiple equal-cost routes to a destination, enabling load balancing, improved bandwidth utilization, and better redundancy.

Enable the OSPF passive interface feature to suppress hello packets on selected interfaces while still advertising connected networks. Reduce rogue neighbor risks and unneeded hello traffic in production networks.

Configure and verify OSPF in area zero by enabling OSPF globally and on interfaces, setting router ID, testing neighbors and routes, adjusting network type and passive interfaces, and observing ECMP.

Examine redundancy, layer 2 loops, and broadcast storms in a raw switch network without spanning tree, and how spanning tree protocol and BPDU guard prevent multiple frame copies.

Learn the IEEE 802.1D spanning tree protocol at layer two, which prevents switching loops in redundant networks by creating a loop-free topology and blocking redundant links from the root switch.

Explore the three spanning tree types: classic IEEE 802.1D, rapid spanning tree protocol IEEE 802.1W, and MSTP IEEE 802.1s, focusing on convergence, load balancing, and iOS defaults.

Explore rapid spanning tree protocol components, including bridge IDs, bpdus, port states, and port cost, to understand fast convergence.

Explore how spanning tree operates, including root bridge election, root port selection on non-root switches, and designated ports, with loop avoidance and ports placed in the discarded state.

Explore mstp, an advanced stp variant defined in 22.1s, which maps VLANs to separate spanning tree instances for load balancing, redundancy, and efficient link bandwidth use across distinct topologies.

Configure mstp on ios switches, create two mst instances for vlan groups 1-20 and 21-40, set root and backup priorities, and verify with show spanning tree mst.

Enable bpdu guard on edge ports to detect unauthorized switches and protect the spanning-tree topology, blocking spoofed bpdu frames and triggering an snmp trap, with a 30s timeout.

Loop protection prevents downstream loops on switches by emitting loop protocol packets at a default five-second interval and enabling SNMP reporting, such as TX-only or TX and RX disable.

First hop redundancy protocol provides gateway redundancy using a virtual IP as the gateway for endpoints. If the primary device fails, the secondary takes over, preserving connectivity without reconfiguring DHCP.

Explain VRRP, the virtual router redundancy protocol, and how an active master and standby provide gateway redundancy with a virtual IP and VMAC.

Vsx uses a dual control plane with mc-lag for active-active core uplinks and in-service software upgrades, while BSF enables plug-and-play access-layer stacking with a master-slave scheme.

Explore the Aruba edge services platform architecture, a unified management system that streamlines operations, enables zero trust security, and uses AI ops to resolve issues across devices via Aruba Central.

Discover the Aruba cx product portfolio across access, aggregation, and data center switches, from 6006/6100 to 10000 series, highlighting high availability, scalability, PoE, stacking, and high capacity.

Explore Aruba WLAN portfolio across the 300, 500, and 600 series, highlighting low-cost hospitality models, Wi‑Fi 5 and Wi‑Fi 6 capabilities, and tri-band six gigahertz options.

Discover how Aruba gateways enable traffic termination, secure wireless traffic with firewall and encryption, and boost scalability and mobility through layer two and layer three roaming, SD-WAN, and central management.

Explore Aruba iOS ten architecture, a cloud plus on-prem solution managed by Aruba Central, delivering unified LAN and WAN management, scalable security, AI automation, and flexible roaming.

Compare iOS eight and iOS ten to reveal a shift from controller-based to cloud-native architecture, with distributed control plane, optional gateways, and AI-powered operations in Aruba Central.

Explore Aruba Central, a cloud-based platform to manage Aruba wireless, wired, and SD-WAN networks with AI-driven analytics, real-time visibility, and secure cloud authentication.

Aruba ClearPass functions as a network access control and authentication server, offering a policy engine, radius 2.1x support, guest and device registration, and configurable enforcement profiles.

Learn the device onboarding workflow in Aruba Central: add devices to inventory, assign licenses, provision configurations, and associate devices with sites.

Explore four methods to connect devices to Aruba Central, including zero-touch provisioning via smartphone app that scans serial numbers and MAC addresses, plus manual addition, install manager, and activation rules.

Aruba Activate is a cloud-based provisioning service that automates device deployment and config for Aruba APs, controllers, gateways, and switches, linking them to Aruba Central.

Explore the Aruba cloud based management flow, from device registration in HPE Greenlake to zero-touch provisioning with Aruba Activate, firmware upgrades, and onboarding to Aruba Central.

Aruba central licensing uses a subscription model for gateways, access points, and switches in cloud or hybrid deployments, with foundation and advanced licenses, device monitoring, ai insights, and optional add-ons.

Explore Aruba central groups as logical containers to organize devices—apps, switches, gateways—so shared configuration and policies apply at the group level, enabling scalable, consistent management and monitoring within groups.

Explore Aruba Central group management: create groups, define group persona, and add devices; group persona assigns device-specific roles and dictates templates, policies, and services.

Understand how Aruba Central and access points establish secure communication using HTTPS, mutual authentication with X.509 certificates, and zero-touch provisioning via Activator, firmware checks, and central monitoring.

Explore how Aruba Central automatically profiles devices—collecting data via DHCP fingerprinting, Mac lookup, and CDP—classifies devices, assigns profiles with roles, VLANs, and policies, and optimizes QoS for voice and IoT.

Aruba Central automates device provisioning through AI-based profiling, classifying devices and applying VLANs, ACLs, and firewall policies, with roles, address groups, and device profiles enabling plug-and-play enforcement.

Explore how WLAN organizations develop standards like IEEE 802.11, certify equipment via the Wi-Fi Alliance, and IETF establishes networking protocols, while enforcing regional regulations to ensure security, performance, and interoperability.

Explore the 2.4 ghz band with 20 mhz wide channels, three non-overlapping options (1, 6, 11), and understand adjacent channel interference and Japan's channel 14.

Understand the 5 ghz band, its 24 non-overlapping channels, and wider channel widths from 20 to 160 mhz for higher enterprise wifi rates, with dfs considerations for radar avoidance.

Learn how channel bonding combines adjacent wifi channels to form wider bandwidth and higher data rates, covering 20/40/80/160 MHz, benefits, limitations, and best practices for 5ghz/6ghz networks, avoiding 2.4ghz.

Learn how milliwatts and dBm relate, converting milliwatts to dBm and understanding how signal power impacts RSSI, transmitter output, and antenna gain.

Explore the signal to noise ratio (SNR) as a key measure of wireless signal quality and data rates, with thresholds and practical tips to reduce interference and boost signal strength.

Explore wireless antenna types—omnidirectional for broad 360-degree indoor and campus coverage, directional for long-range point-to-point links, and semi-directional for balanced coverage and range.

Explore antenna mounting options for access points, including ceiling, wall/side, and floor mounts, to optimize wireless coverage and signal strength in indoor and outdoor environments, including high-density deployments.

Learn how mu-mimo enables an access point to send multiple data streams to several devices simultaneously using multiple antennas, boosting throughput and reducing latency in multi-device environments.

Explore how a basic service set operates with a single access point and multiple radios, and how an extended service set enables seamless roaming across multiple APs using distinct BSSIDs.

Explore how 802.11 client roaming lets a client switch APs based on signal and AP capabilities, with authentication, association, and potential layer2 or layer3 session continuity.

Explore the three 802.11 frame types: management, control, and data, and learn how each supports probing, associating, roaming, medium access, acknowledgments, and carrying user payloads such as IP packets.

Learn how a client connects to an access point via beacon discovery, probe requests and responses, and authentication before association, while keeping beacon SIDs to four or fewer for performance.

Learn to assess channel utilization—the percentage of time a wireless channel is busy transmitting, receiving, or facing interference, calculated as busy time divided by total observation time—and optimize Wi-Fi performance.

Explore RF interference affecting Wi-Fi, including co-channel and adjacent channel issues on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, non-Wi‑Fi sources like microwave ovens and Bluetooth devices that cause packet loss.

Aruba air match is an automated RF optimization engine. It manages channel assignment, transmit power, and channel width across access points to reduce interference in the cloud-based RF management suite.

Aruba's line match balances client load by steering clients to the best AP and frequency, using Aruba Central to optimize band and radio selection in high-density networks.

Learn about the Aruba Guest Solution: secure branded, role-based guest wifi with ClearPass and Aruba Central. Discover onboarding options, flexible authentication, device profiling, and policy enforcement for compliant guest access.

Explain captive portal authentication, a layer three guest access method that redirects users to a login page, then uses radius to grant internet access with a restricted guest profile.

Explore Wlan security by combining encryption, authentication, and policy enforcement to secure enterprise wireless networks, including open networks, WPA2 personal, and 802.1X with radius and Aruba ClearPass.

Explore how Aruba Central cloud-native platform provides unified network management, monitoring, and security for wired, wireless, and sd-branch networks, featuring AI insights, application visibility and control, and real-time alerts.

Learn how Aruba Central handles firmware upgrades, view current and available versions, and schedule maintenance window upgrades or perform live upgrades that minimize production disruption.

Upgrade Aruba access points without impact by pre-staging images and upgrading in groups guided by rf neighborhood data, using seed and non-seed apis that download from cloud or via https.

Understand how airmatch partitions assign unique 5 ghz RF channels to adjacent APs, fall back to 2.4 ghz, and how Aruba Central site configurations influence partitions during live upgrade.

Uncover snmp, the industry standard for monitoring and configuring multi-vendor network devices with a manager, agent, and mibs, using get, get-next, and set, and traps on ports 161 and 162.

Examine SNMP versions 1, 2, 2c, and 3, noting v1’s clear text strings, v2c’s insecure bulk operations, and v3’s authentication, encryption, and USM-based access control.

Explore AI insights, AI search, and AI assist in Aruba Central, powered by NLP, to diagnose issues, reveal root causes, and provide remediation steps with high accuracy.

Explore the alerts and events dashboard in Aruba Central, learning to view alerts as lists or summaries, filter events, and acknowledge alerts automatically or manually for troubleshooting.

Learn to use the reports dashboard in Aruba Central to create and schedule reports, run them immediately or on daily, weekly, or monthly cycles, and export as pdf or csv.

Understand how UXI sensors and the cloud-based UI enable automated, real-time network monitoring and end-user-like traffic testing for captive portal and troubleshooting.

Recover an Aruba CX switch password by connecting via console, power cycling, interrupting boot, selecting boot option zero, and using the password command to set a new admin password.

Learn how to reset the Aruba app password via Aruba Central by navigating to devices, selecting the AP, and changing the admin password in the system administrator section.

Learn Aruba iOS switch logs and zero-touch provisioning to troubleshoot central connectivity. Use CLI commands like debug, show logging, central status, and -r logs to verify activate server reachability.

Explore Aruba central troubleshooting tools to diagnose network issues, run tests (ping, traceroute, iperf), and use commands from the console for CLI-style outputs.