XMC and BOSS (ERS) support

[csantos]

Hi Hub community,

So, my question is about the support of the BOSS platform on the XMC. I know that we can add the BOSS devices on the XMC to collect some data and even to make auto backup tasks. However, I would like to know, if it is possible to configure some simple tasks of the daily basis. Basically, I would like to configure vlans, port tagging, por vlans, mac security, etc., on my ERS devices through the XMC. Do you think that‘s possible?

Our main end customers have ERS devices on their access level and the old COM plaftform of Avaya is being discontinued. Nevertheless, we would like that our end customers to continue enjoying the goods off a central management platform, now the XMC. We have an excellent experience in another couple of customers with XMC and EXOS platform. We know that the EXOS will always be more suitable in the XMC, but we would like to know if with the BOSS, we have features to do simple tasks, like previously described.   

In the end, my question is if, regarding BOSS (ERS), the XMC is a good replacement for the old COM? Please be aware that the last firmware versions of BOSS are not supported on the last available version of COM (endo of support and end of life). 

Regards,

[Dan15]

You can do basic VLAN and port configuration. That is what I know from experience. I don’t see any other options via the GUI. 

You can also check the firmware support list:

https://emc.extremenetworks.com/content/common/releasenotes/extended_firmware_support.htm

We monitor and backup over 500 ERS with XMC, which works fine. I never worked really with COM, but what I remember about the features, I would say you can’t do the same things out of the box with XMC. 

You can use the scripting/workflows from XMC and do almost everything on the devices with CLI, but you have to develop it by yourself.

[Miguel-Angel_RO]

csantos,

I run XMC 8.5 and manage 132 ERS switches/stacks with it.

To get rid of all the burden of “dailly tasks” we configured EAPOL on all the ports and we send as result of the authentication the VLAN/I-SID/TAGGING via radius attributes.

With this, almost no VLANs are configured on the switches, the necessary provisioning happens at authentication and almost no tasks are done on the ERS The same logic can be applied with EXOS switches.

If you want to play with scripts, have a look here: https://github.com/extremenetworks/ExtremeScripting/tree/master/Netsight/oneview_CLI_scripts

Mig