Pass the HP Aruba Certified Professional - Campus Access HPE7-A07 Questions and answers with CertsForce

In OSPF, the "EXSTART/DR" state indicates that the routers are trying to establish an adjacency but are unable to progress. This can happen if the OSPF network type is incorrectly configured for the type of connection between the routers. Given that R1 and R2 are connected via a point-to-point link (as suggested by the /31 subnet), setting the network type to point-to-point on both routers will remove the need for DR/BDR election, which is unnecessary on a point-to-point link, and allow OSPF to progress past the "EXSTART" state and form a full adjacency.

The command shown in the exhibit is:

Access-1# show ubt state

This command displays the User-Based Tunneling (UBT) status on an Aruba CX switch. UBT allows wired access devices (like CX 6300/6400) to extend tunneled connectivity to Aruba gateways, using GRE tunnels for user traffic.

The output contains the following sections:

1. Local Conductor Server (LCS) State

Primary : 172.16.200.252 ready_for_bootstrap operational_primary

Secondary : 172.16.200.253 ready_for_bootstrap operational_secondary

This confirms that two gateways (IP 172.16.200.252 and 172.16.200.253) form an LCS pair in an Aruba gateway cluster.

Exact extract:

“The Local Conductor Servers (LCS) represent the pair of Aruba Gateways that control and terminate UBT tunnels. One operates as the primary (active) and the other as the secondary (standby). These gateways must be configured as a cluster pair.”

2. Switch Anchor Controller (SAC) State

Active : 172.16.200.252 20:4c:03:81:e7:ca registered

Standby : 172.16.200.253 20:4c:03:b2:12:0a registered

Both gateways are registered as active and standby switch anchor controllers. This is a clear indication that the switch (Access-1) has successfully established tunnels to both gateways within the cluster.

Exact extract:

“The Switch Anchor Controller (SAC) section lists both cluster members to which the switch forms GRE tunnels. The switch maintains active and standby tunnels for redundancy.”

3. User Anchor Controller (UAC) State

Each connected user is mapped to a User Anchor Controller (UAC) — one of the two gateways — depending on cluster load balancing:

User Anchor Controller (UAC): 172.16.200.252

User Anchor Controller (UAC): 172.16.200.253

Each user session is anchored on a specific gateway within the cluster. The presence of two different UAC IPs confirms that users are being distributed across both gateways — a behavior that occurs only in a clustered gateway configuration.

Exact extract:

“In a clustered gateway deployment, each user session is dynamically anchored to one of the gateways. The UAC field shows which gateway currently handles each user session.”

Conclusion:

From the output:

Two gateways are shown as primary and secondary LCS.

Both are registered as SACs (tunnel endpoints).

Users are distributed across both gateways as UACs.

This confirms that Access-1 (the CX switch) has established GRE tunnels to a pair of gateways within a cluster.

Hence, the correct answer is A. A pair of gateways within a cluster.

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

B. A pair of switches running VXLAN:UBT tunnels are GRE-based and terminate on Aruba Gateways, not VXLAN-enabled switches.

“User-Based Tunneling uses GRE tunnels to Aruba Gateways; VXLAN is not used for UBT.”

C. A single gateway within a cluster:The output explicitly shows two controllers (active and standby) registered — not a single one.

D. A pair of standalone gateways:The LCS state shows primary/secondary operational roles, which exist only in a cluster, not standalone gateways.

References of HPE Aruba Networking Switching Documents or Study Guide:

ArubaOS-CX Access Security and UBT Configuration Guide – “Understanding User-Based Tunneling (UBT), LCS, SAC, and UAC roles.”

Aruba Gateway Clustering and Redundancy Guide – “Cluster operation and role distribution for UBT.”

Aruba Campus Wired and Wireless Integration Guide – “How CX switches form UBT tunnels to clustered Aruba gateways.”

Aruba Zero Trust Access Design Guide – “High availability with UBT across gateway clusters.”

The provided event logs from Aruba Central show multiple entries of:

Client PMK/OKC Key Add/Update

Client PMK/OKC Key Delete

Operation ADD/UPDATE for key cache entry for client ...

Operation DEL for key cache entry for client ...

These log entries refer to Pairwise Master Key (PMK) and Opportunistic Key Caching (OKC) updates in the Aruba gateway or access point for wireless clients.

When a client roams between APs or the system refreshes key entries for active clients, Aruba’s infrastructure updates or deletes PMK cache entries dynamically. This process ensures secure key continuity across APs and controllers for tunneled SSIDs.

Exact Extracts from Aruba WLAN and AOS-10 Documentation:

“PMK/OKC cache updates and deletions are part of normal operation. When clients connect, disconnect, or roam, the system adds or removes their PMK cache entries. These log messages are informational and indicate expected WPA2-Enterprise behavior.”

“In a tunneled SSID, PMK and OKC entries are managed at the gateway level. When a client roams or rekeys, the gateway logs PMK/OKC Key Add/Update and Key Delete messages. These are not error conditions.”

“Frequent ADD/DEL entries for a client MAC address reflect normal WPA2 key lifecycle events—such as reauthentication, idle timeout, or client-driven disassociation.”

Thus, these messages indicate normal background key management (PMK caching and rekeying) and not any fault or attack scenario.

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

A. Denial-of-Service attack:False. These events correspond to key management, not excessive connection requests. Aruba security logs for DoS attacks show messages like “Association flood” or “Authentication flood,” not PMK/OKC operations.

B. Roaming issue:While OKC relates to roaming optimizations, these log messages do not indicate a failure or issue — they show successful key caching updates.

“OKC Key Add/Update events confirm successful key caching, not roaming failure.”

C. Client WLAN driver issue:No error messages (timeouts, EAP failures, or deauths) are logged. The presence of PMK updates and deletes alone does not imply a driver issue.

“Client driver problems typically manifest as association failures or 4-way handshake errors, not PMK cache logs.”

Conclusion:

The repeated “PMK/OKC Key Add/Update” and “Key Delete” events represent routine client key caching and refresh behavior in Aruba’s tunneled WLAN design.

No misconfiguration, client issue, or attack is implied.

Therefore, the correct answer is:

✅ D. This is normal, expected behavior. No further actions are needed.

References of HPE Aruba Networking Switching Documents or Study Guide:

ArubaOS 10 Wireless and Gateway Configuration Guide – “PMK caching and OKC operation.”

Aruba WLAN Troubleshooting and Operations Guide – “Understanding PMK/OKC key lifecycle and expected log events.”

Aruba Campus WLAN Best Practices Guide – “Tunneled SSID key management (PMK, OKC, and 802.11r Fast Roaming).”

Aruba Central Monitoring and Event Logs Reference – “Client PMK/OKC Key Add/Delete informational messages.”

The CLI output indicates a tunnel creation process, where "SW hw tun created" refers to the switch hardware tunnel being created. The line mentioning "BYP-10.10.10.101 -> SW hw tun created to 10.10.10.151 tunnel 15." implies that a tunnel was established to the secondary tunnel endpoint with the IP address 10.10.10.151. This is a common configuration for User-Based Tunneling (UBT) setups where traffic is tunneled to a specific endpoint.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of HPE Aruba Networking Switching:

In AOS-10 deployments using Zero Trust network architecture, user and device identities are enforced through roles assigned by ClearPass or Aruba Central policies. For multi-site environments, maintaining consistent policy enforcement requires role propagation between gateways across different locations.

To propagate user roles and policies across sites, tunneled SSIDs with gateways are required. This design ensures that wireless client traffic is tunneled from the access point (AP) to the Aruba gateway, where role-based access control (RBAC) and policy enforcement occur. The gateway acts as the policy enforcement point (PEP) for both local and remote traffic.

Exact Extract from HPE Aruba Networking AOS-10 and Switching Documentation:

“In AOS 10, tunneled SSIDs are used to extend centralized policy enforcement to gateways. Gateways apply user roles, firewall policies, and dynamic segmentation consistently across distributed sites.”

“For zero-trust designs requiring cross-site role propagation, all wireless traffic must terminate on gateways through tunneled SSIDs. Gateways then synchronize role information through the overlay tunnel or mobility framework.”

Thus, the only way to propagate role information between multiple sites in a zero-trust deployment is through tunneled SSIDs that terminate at the Aruba gateways. This ensures consistent policy enforcement across locations.

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

A. Configure the gateways to mobility type and configure the Roles under System → Client Roles in Central:While mobility type configuration is used for roaming, it does not enable role propagation across sites. Roles must be tied to tunneled SSIDs terminating on gateways for centralized enforcement.

“Gateway mobility enables seamless roaming, not centralized role propagation.”

B. Configure "use switch fabric for role propagation" under Security → Client Roles:This option applies to AOS-CX switch fabrics (Campus Fabric design) and not wireless AOS-10 environments. Wireless role propagation uses gateway tunnels, not switch fabric propagation.

“Use switch fabric for role propagation applies to CX switch-based VXLAN fabrics, not wireless gateway deployments.”

C. Overlay campus switch fabric with CX switches:While Aruba CX fabrics can propagate roles in wired environments, this does not fulfill the requirement for wireless role propagation between remote sites.

“Role propagation over CX fabric applies to wired clients and does not substitute for tunneled SSID gateways in wireless networks.”

References of HPE Aruba Networking Switching Documents or Study Guide:

Aruba AOS 10 Network Design Guide – “Zero-Trust Design and Role Propagation in Multi-Site Deployments.”

Aruba Campus Wireless and Gateway Deployment Guide – “Tunneled SSIDs and Centralized Role Enforcement.”

Aruba Policy Enforcement and Role-Based Access Control Guide – “Role propagation over gateway tunnels.”

UL MU-MIMO, or Uplink Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output, is a technology that allows multiple clients to transmit data to the access point simultaneously, increasing overall throughput and efficiency, especially for upload-heavy scenarios like video file uploads. This technology enables spatially separated clients to access the channel at the same time, which can improve performance for clients when uploading large files.

In HPE Aruba Networking (AOS-CX and ArubaOS-Switch) platforms that support Group Based Policy (GBP), roles are assigned using Group Role IDs (GRIDs), which determine the level of trust and policy association for devices and endpoints within the network.

According to the ArubaOS-CX Group Based Policy Configuration Guide, the GBP role IDs are categorized as follows:

Default GBP role (ID = 0):This is the system default role assigned to any endpoint or user that has not been explicitly assigned a specific policy role. It typically allows limited or basic access as defined by default policies.

Infrastructure GBP role (ID = 2):This role is reserved for infrastructure devices such as gateways, controllers, or core switches. It ensures that infrastructure traffic (such as control-plane or management communication) is allowed regardless of user-level GBP restrictions.

User-defined GBP role (ID range = 100–8191):These are custom roles configured by administrators for specific groups of users, devices, or applications. Administrators can define unique security and QoS policies tied to these IDs.

Extract from HPE Aruba Documentation:

“The GBP role IDs 0–99 are reserved by the system. Role ID 0 represents the default group role. Role ID 2 is reserved for infrastructure communication. User-defined roles must be configured within the range 100–8191.”

This configuration ensures consistent and predictable policy behavior across multi-tier Aruba environments, maintaining separation between user, system, and infrastructure traffic classes.

The exhibit shows a series of 802.1X authentication steps with multiple "Deauthentication" frames, which indicate that the client is not successfully completing the authentication process. Since the frames show repeated attempts at authentication followed by deauthentication, this suggests that the client is failing the 802.1X authentication process, which is required for network access in a WPA2/WPA3-Enterprise security environment.

VoIP quality can be negatively impacted by insufficient cell overlap in AP deployment plans, which can cause poor handoffs between APs as a user moves around. This results in a degraded VoIP experience. Additionally, roaming into an area with continuous Zigbee operation can cause interference with the 5GHz frequency band, further contributing to poor VoIP call quality. The Zigbee communication protocol operates on the same frequency band as Wi-Fi and can introduce noise and interference, which leads to a reduced MOS score, as reported by the VoIP engineer.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of HPE Aruba Networking Switching:

In Aruba gateway/AP tunnel state reporting, the following tunnel state semantics apply:

• SM_STATE_CONNECTING — indicates the AP has received tunnel configuration/keys and is attempting to bring up the tunnel; the tunnel is not yet available for client traffic.

• SM_STATE_SURVIVING — indicates the AP is in a survival/fallback condition (for example, it did not receive a fresh tunnel key and is attempting resolution via IKE); this state reflects a problem condition that can prevent successful client connectivity.

By contrast:

• SM_STATE_CONNECTED — indicates the IPsec tunnel to the endpoint is established and available.

• SM_STATE_REKEYING — indicates a rekey operation is in progress; the session is being updated, not necessarily failed.

• SM_STATE_SURVIVED — indicates the AP completed survival procedures and the IPsec tunnel is available.

Because end-users cannot connect, the problematic states are those where the tunnel is not up in normal service: SM_STATE_CONNECTING and SM_STATE_SURVIVING.