The question involves a customer experiencing performance degradation due to periodic overutilization of ToR-1 uplinks to legacy Core-1 and Core-2 switches. The proposed solution is to migrate to CX 6400 series switches, and the task is to identify which aspects of the CX 6400 platform address the issue while adhering to HPE Aruba Networking best practices.

Analysis of Options:

Option A:Incorrect. The CX 6400 does not support “multi-region design” as a feature for active forwarding pathways.

Option B:Correct. Virtual Switching Framework (VSF) on the CX 6400 allows multiple active forwarding pathways by creating a single logical switch from multiple physical switches, eliminating the need for STP in the core and reducing uplink congestion.

Option C:Incorrect. Backplane stacking does not directly enable ESXi hosts to load balance using active LACP; this is unrelated to uplink utilization.

Option D:Correct. Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation (MC-LAG) allows Core-1 and Core-2 to form a single logical 802.3ad (LACP) device, enabling active-active uplinks from ToR-1 and load balancing traffic to prevent overutilization.

Why B and D are Correct:The performance degradation is caused by uplink overutilization, likely due to STP blocking redundant paths or inefficient load balancing. The CX 6400’s VSF capability combines multiple switches into a single logical device, allowing all uplinks from ToR-1 to be active without relying on STP, which often blocks redundant paths. MC-LAG further enhances this by presenting Core-1 and Core-2 as a single LACP system, enabling ToR-1 to use all uplinks actively via LACP load balancing. These features align with HPE Aruba Networking best practices for high-availability and performance in campus core deployments.

Relevance to Certification Objectives:

Network Resiliency and Virtualization (8%):Designing and troubleshooting VSF and MC-LAG for resiliency and redundancy.

Performance Optimization (6%):Analyzing and remediating uplink utilization issues.

Connectivity (9%):Applying advanced networking architectures like VSF and MC-LAG.