Introduction

Good afternoon friends! I was surprised to notice that there are not very many articles on Habré devoted to products of such a vendor as [Extreme Networks] (https://tssolution.ru/katalog/extreme). To fix this and introduce you closer to the Extreme product line, I plan to write a short series of several articles and I want to start with switches for Enterprise.

The cycle will include the following articles:

• Overview of Extreme Enterprise Switches
• Enterprise Network Design on Extreme Switches
• Configuring Extreme Switch Settings
• Overview comparison of Extreme switches with equipment from other vendors
• Warranty, technical support and service contracts for Extreme switches

I invite to read the series of articles all those who are interested in this vendor, and just network engineers and network administrators who are faced with the choice or configuration of these switches.

About Us

To begin with, I want to introduce you to the company and the history of its occurrence closer:
Extreme Networks is a telecommunications company founded in 1996 to promote advanced Ethernet technology solutions and the development of the Ethernet standard. Many Ethernet standards in the field of network scaling, quality of service, fast recovery, are Extreme Networks open patents. The headquarters is located in San Jose, California, USA. Currently, Extreme Networks is a public company focused specifically on the development of Ethernet.

As of December 2015, the number of employees was 1300 people.

Extreme Networks offers wired and wireless networking solutions to meet the demands of today's mobile world, with users and devices constantly moving, and virtual machines migrating both inside and outside the data center to the cloud. Using a single ExtremeXOS operating system allows you to create advanced solutions for both telecom operators and data center networks, and local / campus networks.

Partners of the company in the CIS

• In Russia, Extreme Networks has three official distributors - RRC, Marvel and OCS, as well as more than 100 partners, the number of which is constantly growing.
• In Belarus, Extreme Networks has three official distributors - Solidex, MUK and Abris. Solidex has the status of an authorized training partner.
• In Ukraine, there is one official distributor - Information Merezhivo.
• In the countries of Central Asia, as well as in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the official distributors are RRC and Abris.

Well, we got to know each other, and now let's see what kind of switches this vendor can offer us for our Enterprise network.

And he can offer us the following:

The figure above shows the switch models depending on the type of operating system that controls the switches and the technologies supported by the ports (vertical arrow on the left):

• 1 Gigabit Ethernet
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet
• 40 gigabit Ethernet
• 100 gigabit Ethernet

Let's take a closer look at the Extreme switches and start with the V400 series.

V400 Series Switches

These are switches that use Virtual Port Extending technology (based on the IEE 802.1BR specification). The switches themselves are called Virual Port Extenders.

The essence of this technology is that all the control and dataplane functionality is moved from the switch itself to aggregating switches - Controller Bridges / CB.

Only switches of models can be used as Controller Bridge of the switch:

• x590
• x670-G2
• x620-G2

Before describing typical schemes for switching on these switches, I will describe their specifications:

As can be seen from the table above, the switches, depending on the number of GE access ports 24 or 48, have 2 or 4 10GE SFP+ uplink ports.

There are also switches with PoE ports for connecting and powering PoE devices using 802.3af (up to 15 W per port) and 802.3at (up to 30 W per port) technologies.

Below are 4 typical wiring diagrams for V400 and CB switches:

Benefits of Virtual Port Extending technology:

• ease of maintenance - if one of the V400 switches fails, it will be enough just to replace it and the new switch will be automatically detected and configured for CB operation. Thus, there is no need to configure each access switch
• all configuration is on the CB only, V400 switches are only visible as additional CB ports, making it easy to manage these switches
• when running the V400 in conjunction with the Controller Bridge, you get all the functionality of the Controller Bridge on the V400 switches

Technology limitation - up to 48 Port Extenders of V400 switches (2300 access ports) are supported.

X210 and X220 Series Switches

Switches of the E200 family have a fixed number of 10/100/1000 BASE-T ports, operate at L2/L3 levels and are designed to be used as Enterprise access switches. Depending on the model, switches have:

• PoE/PoE+ ports
• 2 or 4 pcs 10 GE SFP+ ports (X220 series)
• stacking support - up to 4 switches in a stack (X220 series)

Below I will give a table with the configuration and some of the features of the X200 series switches

As can be seen from the table, the E210 and E220 series switches are designed to be used as access switches. With 10 GE SFP+ ports, the X220 series switches can support stacking up to 4 units per stack, with a stack bandwidth of 40 Gb.

The switches are managed by the EOS operating system.

ERS Series Switches

The switches of this series are more productive compared to the switches of the younger E200 series.

First of all, it is worth noting:

• these switches have more advanced stacking capabilities:
  • up to 8 switches in a stack
  • depending on the model, both SFP+ ports and dedicated stacking ports can be used

• ERS series switches have a larger PoE budget compared to E200 series
• ERS series switches have a wider range of L3 capabilities compared to the E200 series

I propose to start a more detailed review of the ERS switch family with the younger line - ERS3600.

ERS3600 series

Switches of this series are represented by the following configurations:

As can be seen from the table, ERS 3600 switches can be used as access switches, have a larger stack capacity, a larger PoE budget and a wider set of L3 functions, although of course they are limited only by RIP v1 / v2 dynamic routing protocols, as well as the number of interfaces and routes participating in German

The picture below shows the front and rear views of the 50-port ERS3600 series switch:

ERS4900 series

The configuration and functionality of the ERS4900 series switches can be briefly described in the following table:

As we can see, these switches implement dynamic routing protocols such as RIPv1 / 2 and OSPF, there is a gateway reservation protocol - VRRP, and support for the IPv6 protocol is also implemented.

Here I have to make an important note - * additional L2 and L3 functionality (OSPF, VRRP, ECMP, PIM-SM, PIMSSM / PIM-SSM, IPv6 Routing) is activated by purchasing an additional license - Advanced Software License.

The pictures below show the front and rear views of the 26-port ERS4900 series switch and their stacking options:

As you can see from the pictures, the ERS4900 series switches have dedicated stacking ports - Cascade UP / Cascade Down, and they can also be equipped with redundant power supplies.

ERS5900 series

The latest and oldest models in the ERS series are the ERS5900 switches.

From the interesting:

• some switches of the series implement Universal PoE - the ability to output 60 W per port to power specialized devices and small switches / routers
• there are 100 port switches with a total PoE budget of 2,8 kW
• there are ports with support for 2.5GBASE-T (802.3bz standard)
• support for MACsec functionality (802.1AE standard)

The configurations and functionality of the series switches are best described in the following table:

* The 5928GTS-uPWR and 5928MTS-uPWR switches support the so-called Four-Pair PoE initiative (aka Universal PoE - uPoE) - the ability to power devices using up to 60 W on the access port, for example, some types of video communication systems, VDI thin clients with monitors, small PoE switches or routers, and even some IoT technology systems (such as smart lighting control systems).
** PoE budget 1440W is reached when installing 2 power supplies. When installing 1 power supply in the switch, the PoE budget will be 1200 watts.
*** PoE budget 2880W is achieved when installing 4 power supplies. When installing 1 power supply in the switch, the PoE budget will be 1200 watts. When installing 2 power supplies into the switch, the PoE budget will be 2580 W.

Additional L2 and L3 functionality, as in the case of the ERS4900 series, is provided by purchasing and activating the appropriate licenses for switches:

The pictures below show the front and rear views of the 100-port ERS5900 series switch and the stacking option for 28 and 52-port switches:

**All switches in the series are managed by the ERS operating system.**

Friends, as you probably noticed, at the end of the description of the series, I indicate which operating system they are controlled by, and so - I do it for a reason. As many have already guessed, the fact is that managing a particular operating system means an individual set of syntactic commands and settings blocks for each operating system.

Example:
As fans of Avaya switches probably noticed, in the description of the L2 functionality of ERS series switches, there is a MLT / LACP Groups line that characterizes the maximum possible number of groups for combining interfaces into them (aggregation and redundancy of communication links). The MLT notation is common to link aggregation in Avaya Holding switches, where it is used directly in the command syntax when configuring link aggregation.

The thing is that ExtremeNetworks, in accordance with its development strategy, bought Avaya Holdings in 2017-2018, which at that time had a line of its switches. Thus, the ERS series is essentially a continuation of the Avaya switch line.

EXOS Series Switches

The EXOS series is considered the "flagship" Extreme series. The switches of this line have the most powerful functionality - both a lot of standard protocols and a lot of "own" Extreme protocols, which I will try to describe in the future.

In it you can find switches for every taste:

• for any network level - access, aggregation, core, data center switches
• with any set of 10/100/1000 Base-T, SFP, SFP+, QSFP, QSFP+ ports
• with or without PoE support
• with support for several types of "stacking" and support for "clustering" to ensure fault tolerance of critical network nodes

Before starting the consideration of this series with the youngest line - X440, I would like to explain the licensing policy of the EXOS operating system.

EXOS Licensing (since version 22.1)

EXOS has 3 main types of license - Edge License, Advanced Edge License, Core License.
The table below describes the license usage options depending on the lines of EXOS series switches:

• Standard is the EXOS version of the operating system that comes in the base version with the switch
• Upgrade is the ability to expand the EXOS operating system to any level.

The functionality of each type of license and its support on various platforms of the series can be viewed in the tables below.

Edge License

ExtremeXOS Software Features
supported platforms

EDP
All platforms.

Extreme Network Virtualization (XNV)
All platforms.

Identity Management
All platforms.

LLDP 802.1ab
All platforms.

LLDP-MED extensions
All platforms.

VLANs—Port based and tagged trunks
All platforms.

VLANs—MAC based
All platforms.

VLANs—Protocol based
All platforms.

VLANs—Private VLANs
All platforms.

VLANs—VLAN translation
All platforms.

VMANs—Q-in-Q tunneling (IEEE 802.1ad VMAN tunneling standard)
All platforms.

VMANs—Egress queue selection based on 802.1p value in S‑tag
All platforms.

VMANs—Egress queue selection based on 802.1p value in C‑tag
All platforms.

VMANs—Secondary ethertype support
All platforms.

VMAN Customer Edge Port (CEP—also known as Selective Q-in-Q)
All platforms.

VMAN Customer Edge Port CVID Egress Filtering / CVID Translation
All platforms.

VMAN—CNP port
All platforms.

VMAN—CNP port, double tag support
All platforms.

VMAN—CNP port, double tag with egress filtering
All platforms.

L2 Ping / Traceroute 802.1ag
All platforms.

Jumbo frames (including all related items, MTU disc. IP frag.)
All platforms.

QoS—egress port rate shaping/limiting
All platforms.

QoS—egress queue rate shaping/limiting
All platforms.

Link Aggregation Groups (LAG), static 802.3ad
All platforms.

LAG dynamic (802.3ad LACP) edge, to servers only!
All platforms.

LAG (802.3ad LACP) core, between switches
All platforms.

Port loopback detection and shutdown (ELRP CLI)
All platforms.

Software redundant port
All platforms.

STP 802.1D
All platforms.

STP EMISTP + PVST+ Compatibility mode (1 domain per port)
All platforms.

STP EMISTP, PVST+ Full (multi-domain support)
All platforms.

STP 802.1s
All platforms.

STP 802.1w
All platforms.

ERPS (4 max rings with matching ring ports)
All platforms.

ESRP aware
All platforms.

EAPS edge (4 max domains with matching ring ports)
Note: You can increase the number of domains by upgrading to the Advanced Edge license (see Advanced Edge License)
All platforms.

Link Fault Signaling (LFS)
All platforms.

ELSM (Extreme Link Status Monitoring)
All platforms.

ACLs applied on ingress ports

• IPv4
• Static

All platforms.

ACLs applied on ingress ports

• IPv6
• Dynamic

All platforms.

ACLs applied on egress ports
All platforms.

ACLs, ingress meters
All platforms.

ACLs, egress meters
All platforms.

ACLs

• Layer-2 protocol tunneling
• Byte counters

All platforms.

Convergence End Point (CEP) detection
All platforms.

CPU DoS protect
All platforms.

CPU Monitoring
All platforms.

Direct Attach—based on the IEEE version of VEPA, eliminates the virtual switch layer, simplifying the network and improving performance. Direct Attach enables data center simplification by reducing network tiers from four or five tiers to just two or three tiers, depending on the size of the data center.
All platforms

SNMPv3
All platforms.

SSH2 server
All platforms.

SSH2 client
All platforms.

SCP/SFTP client
All platforms.

SCP/SFTP server
All platforms.

RADIUS and TACACS+ per command authentication
All platforms.

network login

• web based method
• 802.1X method
• MAC-based method
• Local database for MAC/web-based methods
• Integration with Microsoft NAP
• Multiple supplicants - same VLAN
• HTTPS/SSL for web-based method

All platforms.

Network login—Multiple supplicants—multiple VLANs
All platforms.

Trusted OUI
All platforms.

MAC security

• Lockdown
• Limit

All platforms.

IP security—DHCP Option 82—L2 mode
All platforms.

IP security—DHCP Option 82—L2 mode VLAN ID
All platforms.

IP security—DHCP IP lockdown
All platforms.

IP security—Trusted DHCP server ports
All platforms.

Static IGMP membership, IGMP filters
All platforms.

IPv4 unicast L2 switching
All platforms.

IPv4 multicast L2 switching
All platforms.

IPv4 directed broadcast
All platforms.

IPv4

• Fast direct broadcast
• Ignore broadcast

All platforms.

IPv6 unicast L2 switching
All platforms.

IPv6 multicast L2 switching
All platforms.

IPv6 netTools—Ping, traceroute, BOOTP relay, DHCP, DNS, and SNTP.
All platforms.

IPv4 netTools—Ping, traceroute, BOOTP relay, DHCP, DNS, NTP, and SNTP.
All platforms.

IGMP v1/v2 snooping
All platforms.

IGMP v3 snooping
All platforms.

Multicast VLAN Registration (MVR)
All platforms.

Static MLD membership, MLD filters
All platforms.

MLD v1 snooping
All platforms.

MLD v2 snooping
All platforms.

sFlow accounting
All platforms.

CLI scripting
All platforms.

Web-based device management
All platforms.

Web based management—HTTPS/SSL support
All platforms.

XML APIs (for partner integration)
All platforms.

MIBs - Entity, for inventory
All platforms.

Connectivity Fault Management (CFM)
All platforms.

remote mirroring
All platforms.

Egress mirroring
All platforms.

Y.1731 compliant frame delay and delay variance measurement
All platforms.

MVRP - VLAN Topology Management
All platforms.

EFM OAM - Unidirectional Link Fault Management
All platforms.

CLEARFlow
All platforms.

System virtual routers (VRs)
All platforms.

DHCPv4:

• DHCPv4 server
• DHCv4 client
• DHCPv4 relay
• DHCPv4 smart relay
• DHCPv6 remote ID

All platforms.

DHCPv6:

• DHCPv6 relay
• DHCPv6 prefix delegation snooping
• DHCPv6 client
• DHCPv6 smart relay

All platforms.

User-created Virtual Routers (VRs)
Virtual Router and Forwarding (VRF)

Summit X450-G2, X460-G2, X670-G2, X770, and ExtremeSwitching X870, X690

VLAN aggregation
All platforms.

Multinetting for forwarding
All platforms.

UDP Forwarding

All platforms.

UDP BootP relay forwarding
All platforms.

IPv4 unicast routing, including static routes
All platforms.

IPv4 multicast routing, including static routes
Note: This feature has limitations in the Edge and Advanced Edge licenses. See details in User Guide for different EXOS versions.
All platforms.

IPv4 Duplicate Address Detection (DAD)
All platforms.

IPv6 unicast routing, including static routes
All platforms.

IPv6 interworking—IPv6-to-IPv4 and IPv6-in-IPv4 configured tunnels
All platforms, except X620 and X440-G2.

IPv6 Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) without CLI management
All platforms.

IPv6 Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) with CLI management
All platforms.

IP security:

• DHCP Option 82—L3 mode
• DHCP Option 82—L3 mode VLAN ID
• Disable ARP learning
• Gratuitous ARP protection
• DHCP secured ARP / ARP validation
• Source IP lockdown

All platforms.

IP address security:

• DHCP snooping
• Trusted DHCP server
• Source IP lockdown
• ARP validation

All platforms.

IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX)
Summit X460-G2.

Multi-Switch Link Aggregation Group (MLAG)
All platforms.

ONEPolicy
All platforms.

Policy based routing (PBR) for IPv4
All platforms.

Policy based routing (PBR) for IPv6
All platforms.

PIM snooping
Note: This feature has limitations in the Edge and Advanced Edge licenses. See details in User Guide for different EXOS versions.
All platforms.

Protocol-based VLANs
All platforms.

RIPv1/v2
All platforms.

RIPng
All platforms.

Routing access policies
All platforms.

Route maps
All platforms.

Universal Port—VoIP auto configuration
All platforms.

Universal Port—Dynamic user-based security policies
All platforms.

Universal Port—Time-of-day policies
All platforms.

SummitStack (switch stacking using native or dedicated ports)
Summit X460-G2 with X460-G2-VIM-2SS optional card, and X450-G2.

SummitStack-V (switch stacking using dual purpose data ports)
All platforms. See the specific models listed in the "Support for Alternate Stacking Ports" section of the User Guide.

SyncE
Summit X460-G2.

Python scripting
All platforms.

Advanced Edge License

ExtremeXOS Software Features
supported platforms

EAPS Advanced Edge—multiple physical rings, and "common links", also known as "shared port".
All platforms.

ERPS-more domains (allows 32 rings with matching ring ports) and multi-ring support
All platforms.

ESRP-Full
All platforms.

ESRP-Virtual MAC
All platforms.

OSPFv2-Edge (limited to max of 4 active interfaces)
All platforms that support the Advanced Edge or Core licenses

OSPFv3-Edge (limited to max of 4 active interfaces)
All platforms that support the Advanced Edge or Core licenses

PIM-SM-Edge (limited to max of 4 active interfaces)
All platforms that support the Advanced Edge or Core licenses

VRRP
All platforms that support the Advanced Edge or Core licenses

VXLAN
Summit X770, X670-G2, and ExtremeSwitching X870, X690.

OVSDB
Summit X770, X670-G2, and ExtremeSwitching X870, X690.

PSTag
Summit X460-G2, X670-G2, X770, and ExtremeSwitching X870, X690 series switches.

core license

ExtremeXOS Software Features
supported platforms

PIM DM "Full"
Core license platforms

PIM SM "Full"
Core license platforms

PIM SSM "Full"
Core license platforms

OSPFv2 "Full" (not limited to 4 active interfaces)
Core license platforms

OSPFv3 "Full" (not limited to 4 active interfaces)
Core license platforms

BGP4 and MBGP (BGP4+) for IPv4 ECMP
Core license platforms

BGP4 and MBGP (BGP4+) for IPv6
Core license platforms

IS-IS for IPv4
Core license platforms

IS-IS for IPv6
Core license platforms

MSDP
Core license platforms

Anycast RP
Core license platforms

GRE tunneling
Core license platforms

To activate the MPLS functionality, there are separate Feature Packs, which I will discuss below.

X440-G2 Series

I propose to start reviewing EXOS switches with switches of this series, which clearly describe the concept of "pay-as-you-grow" (pay as you grow), which is actively supported by ExtremeNetworks.

The main idea of ​​this concept is to gradually increase the performance and functionality of purchased and installed equipment without the need to replace both the equipment itself and its parts.

For clarity, I will give an example:

• Suppose you initially need a 24 or 48 port switch with copper or optical access ports, which will first have 50% of the access ports (12 or 24 pieces) and the total traffic of the trunk ports in one of the directions (usually this is a downlink for working machines) will be up to 1 Gbps
• Let's say you initially chose an X440-G2-24t-10GE4 or X440-G2-48t-10GE4 switch, which has 24 or 48 1000 BASE-T access ports and 4 GigabitEthernet SFP/SFP+ ports, expandable to 10 GigabitEthernet
• You configured and installed the switch, turned it on with 1 trunk port in the core or aggregation (depending on the structure of your network), connected users to it - everything works, you and the management are satisfied
• Over time, your campaign and network grows - new users, services, equipment appear
• As a result, an increase in traffic is possible at various levels of the network, including on the switch we are considering. This can happen for various reasons - you connect new devices to the switch, or users begin to consume more and more traffic from various services, and as a rule, both happen at the same time
• Over time, you notice that the load on the switch's trunk port has reached 1 Gbps
• Not a problem, you think, because you have 3 more GigabitEthernet ports that you can use to aggregate communication links between the switch and the aggregation (core) - you raise another optical or copper link between them and configure the aggregation, for example, using the protocol LACP
• Time passes and it becomes necessary to install one or more switches
• Several situations may arise that will result in the need to power a new switch through your existing X440 switch:
  • lack of aggregation or core ports to enable - in this case, you will need to buy additional aggregation or core switches
  • the remoteness of the switch from the aggregation nodes or the lack of the existing capacity of the cable route, for example, optical fibers, will require the construction of new communication lines and significant additional costs
  • in the most unfortunate case, two options are possible at the same time

• After reviewing the network layout and additional costs with management, you decide to connect the new X440 switch to the network through the existing one. Not a problem - for this you have several options:
  • Option 1 - stacking:
    • You can stack 2 switches using SummitStack-V technology using the 2 remaining uplink ports on the first X440 switch and the 2 uplink ports on the second X440 switch
    • Depending on the distance, you can use both short DAC cables and SFP + transceivers up to several tens of kilometers
    • Thus, the switch stacking will go through 2 dedicated stacking ports out of 4 trunk ports (typically ports 27, 28 on 24-port models and ports 49, 50 on 48-port models). The throughput of stacking ports on each port will be 20Gb (10Gb one way and 10Gb the other)
    • A license to expand trunk ports from 1 GE to 10 GE is not required in this case

  • Option 2 - use of trunk trunk ports with the possibility of their further aggregation:
    • You can enable a second switch using 1 or 2 (in case of aggregation) remaining trunk ports on the first X440 and 1 or 2 trunk ports on the new X440
    • A license to expand trunk ports from 1 GE to 10 GE is also not required here
• You turned on one or more switches in series, or in a star, from the first X440 switch as you planned
• Time passes and you notice that the traffic on the trunk ports of the first X440 switch has reached 2 Gb / s and you need to:
  • or more ports for link aggregation between the aggregation and the first X440 switch, which in turn can lead you to the same problems as when installing a new X440 switch, which I described above - lack of ports on the aggregation equipment or cable infrastructure capacity
  • or use trunk 10 GigabitEthernet ports between the aggregating equipment and the first X440 switch

• At this point, the ability of the X440 switches to expand the bandwidth of their trunk ports from 1 GigabitEthernet to 10 GigabitEthernet, using the appropriate license, will come to the rescue. Depending on the options, you decide:
  • For option 1 (stacking) - use Dual 10GbE Upgrade License. You will activate a license on the first X440, which will expand the throughput of 2 of its trunk ports from 1 GigabitEthernet to 10 GigabitEthernet (the remaining 2 ports, as we remember, are used for stacking)
  • For option 2 (trunk trunk ports), use a Dual 10GbE Upgrade License or a Quad 10GbE Upgrade License depending on the load on the trunk ports between the first X440 and the second X440. There may also be several options here:
    • first you can activate the Dual 10GbE license on the first X440
    • then, as the traffic on the second X440 grows, connected with the connection of one or more switches to it in series, you activate one more Dual 10GbE license on the first X440 and Dual 10GbE license on the second X440 switch
    • and so sequentially along the switch branch
• Some time passes, your organization is still growing both horizontally - the number of network nodes increases, and vertically - the network structure becomes more complicated, new services appear that require the operation of specific protocols.
• Depending on the needs of your organization, you may decide to drop the L2 layer on your switches and move to the L3 layer. The needs that may influence your decision can be very different:
  • network security requirements
  • network optimization (for example, reduction of broadcast domains, accompanied by the introduction of dynamic routing protocols such as OSPF)
  • implementation of new services that require the operation of specific protocols
  • any other reason

• No problem. X440 switches will still be relevant, as you can additionally purchase and activate a license for them that expands their functionality - the Advanced Software License.

As you can see from the example I described, the X440 switches (and most other series switches) follow the pay-as-you-grow principle. You pay for switch functionality as your organization and network grow.

On this note, I propose to leave the lyrics and move closer to the consideration of switches.

I want to note that there are a lot of configuration options for the X440 series, as you can see for yourself by looking at the table below:

* X440-G2 series switches support SummitStack-V stacking with other switch series - X450-G2, X460-G2, X670-G2 and X770. The main condition for successful stacking is the use of the same version of EXOS on the stack switches.
** The basic functionality of the table shows only a part of the features of the series switches. For a more complete description of supported protocols and standards, see the Edge License table.

The switches of this series are equipped with additional inputs - redundant power input for connecting RPS power supplies or external batteries through voltage converters.

The following licenses are available for X440-G2 series switches:

Below are some pictures showing the X440 series switches:

X450-G2 Series

ExtremeNetworks positions the Summit X450-G2 series as an efficient edge switch for campuses.

The main difference between X450-G2 and X440-G2 series switches is as follows:

• extended set of licenses (possible functionality) - Edge License, Advanced Edge License, Core License
• the presence of separate QSFP ports for stacking, located on the back cover of the switches
• the ability to complete models with PoE support with an additional power supply
• standards support 
• switches with 10GE SFP+ ports do not require a separate license to expand port bandwidth from 1 Gb to 10 Gb

*SummitStack-V84 stacking is only supported on the X450-G2 series.
**X440-G2 series switches support SummitStack-V stacking with other series switches - X440-G2, X460-G2, X670-G2 and X770. The main condition for successful stacking is the use of the same version of EXOS on the stack switches.
*** The basic functionality of the table shows only a part of the features of the series switches. For a more complete description of supported protocols and standards, see the Edge License table.

Switches of this series without PoE are equipped with additional inputs - redundant power input for connecting RPS power supplies or external batteries through voltage converters.

The switches in this series are shipped without a fan module. It must be ordered separately.

The following licenses are available for X450-G2 series switches:

An image of X450-G2 series switches can be viewed below:

X460-G2 Series

The X460-G2 series switches are the youngest series of switches with the ability to use QSFP+ ports. This series is characterized by:

• the presence of a large number of models with flexible sets of various ports
• the presence of a separate VIM slot for using additional VIM modules with ports - SFP +, QSFP +, stacking ports
• support in some models of the 2.5GBASE-T (802.3bz) standard
• MPLS support
• support for Synchronous Ethernet standard and TM-CLK module
• the ability to complete all models of switches with additional power supplies

The hardware configuration options for this series of switches can be seen from the following table:

* Switches in this series are shipped WITHOUT power supplies, fan modules, or VIMs. They must be ordered separately.
** Compatible with X440, X460, X460-G2 and X480 series, all switches must have the same software version
*** Compatible with X440, X440-G2, X450, X450-G2, X460, X460-G2, X480, X670, X670V, X670-G2 and X770 series, all switches must have the same software version
**** Compatible with X460-G2, X480, X670V, X670-G2 and X770 series, all switches must have the same software version

There are 2 types of fan modules available - front-to-back and back-to-front, so you can select a cooling model that meets the requirements for the location of hot and cold aisles in server rooms.

VIM modules for port expansion, as well as licenses available for X460-G2 series switches, can be selected from the table below:

And at the end of the review of this series, I will give some images of the switches:

X620-G2 Series

The X620-G2 series switches are compact 10 GE fixed port switches. Available to order with 2 types of licenses - Edge License and Advanced Edge License.

Support stacking using SummitStack-V technology with the following series of switches - X440-G2, X450-G2, X460-G2, X670-G2 and X770 through 2x10 GE SFP+ dual-purpose ports - Data / Stacking.

The model with PoE+ ports supports 60W 802.3bt 4-Pair PoE++ - Type 3 PSE. All models support the ability to install additional power supplies.

The table below shows possible hardware configuration options for the series:

Several types of licenses are available for ordering with switches:

I will also attach some images of switches for reference:

X670-G2 Series

X670-G2 series switches are high-performance 1RU aggregation or core switches with high port density, and can also act as a Controller Bridge for V400 switches. Switches with 48 and 72 fixed 10 GE SFP+ ports and 4 QSFP+ ports are available for order.

These switches come with 2 types of licenses - Advanced Edge License (as initial license) and Core License and support 4 different stacking methods - SummitStack-V, Summit-Stack-80, SummitStack-160, SummitStack-320.

For large Internet providers and very large enterprises, the MPLS Feature Pack will be of interest, which allows you to expand the functionality and use switches as LSR or LER core routers and use them to build multi-service networks with support - L2VPN (VPLS / VPWS), BGP-based L3VPNS , LSP based on the LDP protocol, RSVP-TE, Static provisioning and various tools such as VCCV, BFD and CFM.

Switches are available to order in 2 configurations:

* Stacking compatible with series - X440, X440-G2, X450, X450-G2, X460, X460-G2, X480, X670, X670V, and X770

Switches do not ship with fan modules or power supplies and must be ordered separately. Basic conditions for choosing:

• a complete set of fan modules must be installed - 5 pieces.
• power supplies and fan modules must be sized to support airflow in one direction

The following licenses are available for order with switches of this series:

And at the end of the review of this series, I will give 2 images of switches:

Series X590

The series switches have built-in 1GE/10GE/25GE/40GE/50GE/100GE ports and are designed to be used as:

• core or aggregation switches
• Controller Bridge switches in conjunction with V400 access switches
• top-of-rack data center switches

Switches are supplied in 2 types - with SFP and BASE-T ports and the ability to complete 2 power supplies:

* Compatible with X690 and X870 series.

Switches do not ship with fan modules or power supplies and must be ordered separately. The main conditions for their selection are as follows:

• a complete set of fan modules must be installed - 4 pieces.
• power supplies and fan modules must be sized to support airflow in one direction
• AC and DC power supplies cannot be installed in the switch at the same time

Licenses available for order with these switches:

The images of the switches are shown in the figure below:

Series X690

The series switches have more built-in 1GE/10GE/25GE/40GE/50GE/100GE ports than the X590 series and are also designed to be used as:

• core or aggregation switches
• Controller Bridge switches in conjunction with V400 access switches
• top-of-rack data center switches

Switches of the series are also supplied in 2 types - with SFP and BASE-T ports and the ability to complete 2 power supplies:

* Compatible with X590 and X870 series.
Switches do not ship with fan modules or power supplies and must be ordered separately. The main conditions for their selection are as follows:

• a complete set of fan modules must be installed - 6 pieces
• power supplies and fan modules must be sized to support airflow in one direction
• AC and DC power supplies cannot be installed in the switch at the same time

Licenses available for order with these switches:

The images of the switches are shown in the figure below:

Series X870

The X870 family are 100Gb high port density switches and can be used as high performance Enterprise core switches and data center spine/leaf switches.

Low-latency switching and license functionality—Advanced, Core, and MPLS make them ideal for use in high-performance data center applications. 
The x870-96x-8c-Base switch also implements the "pay-as-you-grow" ideology - it consists in the ability to expand the port bandwidth using Upgrade licenses (the license is applied to groups of 6 ports, up to 4 licenses).

Switches are supplied in 2 configurations and are equipped with 2 power supplies:

* Compatible with X590 and X690 series.
Switches do not ship with fan modules or power supplies and must be ordered separately. The main conditions for their selection are as follows:

• a complete set of fan modules must be installed - 6 pieces
• power supplies and fan modules must be sized to support airflow in one direction
• AC and DC power supplies cannot be installed in the switch at the same time

The licenses available for purchase with these switches are as follows:

Switches of 2 types look completely identical, as shown in the picture below:

Conclusion

Friends, on this series I want to finish the review article so as not to inflate it to a gigantic level, thereby complicating its reading and perception.

I must say that ExtremeNetworks has many more types of switches:

• this and VSP (Virtual Services Platform) models, some of which are modular switches with the ability to arrange them with different sets of ports
• these are the switches of the VDX and SLX series, which are specialized for working in data centers

In the future, I will try to describe the above switches and their functionality, but most likely it will be another article.

Finally, I would like to mention one more important thing - I did not indicate anywhere in the article, but Extreme switches support third-party SFP / SFP BASE-T / SFP + / QSFP / QSFP +, while there are no technical or legal restrictions (such as, for example, Cisco) using third-party modules is not - if the transceiver is of high quality and it is recognized by the switch, then it will work.

Thank you for your attention and see you in the next articles. And in order not to miss them, below are our "publics" where you can follow the appearance of new materials:
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Source: habr.com