* Tolly Group audits availability tests of Extreme’s latest switch
A key theme of Extreme Networks’ introduction of the Aspen 8800 this week was the switch’s availability. The Tolly Group recently audited tests for Extreme that demonstrated aspects of that availability.
Specifically, the Tolly Group looked at the operating system running in the Extreme switches called ExtremeWare XOS. Extreme has been running the software in its BlackDiamond 10K switches for a year, and the software also appears in the Aspen 8800.
One thing that Tolly and Extreme tested was the switch’s ability to keep running normally while a software component is updated or added on the fly. That is, without taking the entire switch down, could the specific software component be updated without affecting the rest of the switch?
Tolly concluded that it could. Tests were performed using an SSH module.
“During the entire SSH install, activation, operation and uninstall, the switch continued to service the network, maintained route tables, and maintained network connectivity,” Tolly’s report states. “Throughout these steps, a reboot process was never required.”
Tolly says in its report that this kind of always-up mentality is important as business start to consider merging their voice traffic onto their data networks. When the two are converged, there is no good time to upgrade the switches if they have to be shut down.
If a component stops working – if a process crashes – Extreme’s operating system has the intelligence to detect that and restart the process.
Tolly and the Extreme engineers tested more aspects of the switch as well. An abstract of the free document can be found here: https://www.tolly.com/DocDetail.aspx?DocNumber=205100
