Specifications

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High Availability Architecture
• Reduce network downtime using hitless failover and
module-level software upgrade
• Prevent system corruption using memory protection
for processes
• Avoid system reboots using self-healing
process recovery
• Extend high availability across switches with Multi-
Switch Link Aggregation Groups
• Network topology based software upgrade without
impacting end users
Extensibility
• Integrate best-of-breed applications with an open,
yet secure XML-based Application Programming
Interface (API)
• Integrate Extreme and third-party developed
software applications using open standards-based
POSIX interfaces
• Scripting-based device management for incremental
configuration deployment and ease of management
Integrated Security
• Guard network access through authentication,
Network Login/802.1x, host integrity checking, and
Identity Management
• Role-Based Policy enables support for policy profiles to
secure and provision network resources based upon the
role the user or device plays within the network.
• Harden the network infrastructure with Denial of
Service (DoS) protection and IP Security against man-
in-the-middle and DoS attacks
• Secure management using authentication
and encryption
High Availability
Modular Operating System
The modular design of ExtremeXOS allows the adding or
upgrading of individual software modules, dynamically
without requiring a system reboot, leading to higher
availability in the network (see Figure 1).
Preemptive multitasking and memory protection allow
each of many applications – such as Open Shortest Path
First (OSPF) and Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) – to run as
separate OS processes that are protected from each other.
This drives increased system integrity and inherently helps
protect against cross-platform DoS attacks. ExtremeXOS
increases network availability using process monitoring and
restart. Each independent OS process is monitored in real
time. If process becomes unresponsive or stops running, it
can be automatically restarted.
Hitless Failover and Graceful
Restart
With dual management modules on chassis systems
and advanced stacking support with fixed-configuration
switches, ExtremeXOS is capable of preserving the state
of resiliency and security protocols such as STP, EAPS
and Network Login, thus allowing hitless failover between
management modules/redundant masters in case a module
or master fails.
Graceful restart is a way for OSPFv2, BGP4 and IS-IS
protocols to restart without disrupting trac forwarding.
Without graceful restart, adjacent routers will assume that
information previously received from the restarting router
is stale and it won’t be used to forward trac to that router.
If the peer routers support the graceful restart extensions,
then the router can restart the routing protocol and
continue to forward trac correctly.
If the network topology is not changing, the static routing
table remains correct. In most cases, networks can remain
stable (i.e. would not re-converge) during the time for
restarting OSPF, BGP or IS-IS. Should route updates still
exist, graceful restart incrementally performs these updates
after the restart.
Figure 1: ExtremeXOS Modular Design