NAE deployment considerations

It is highly recommended that any agent be thoroughly tested and vetted on a single or limited number switches within the network prior to a wider deployment of such agent. NAE agents published by Aruba have been tested for many customer deployments, but do not cover all cases. Customer networks can be unique and may exhibit differences compared to a controlled lab environment.

All new NAE agents deployed within a customer network should be initially monitored to ensure that it is performing according to expectations. The switch CPU and memory utilization can be reviewed through the built-in System Resource Monitor NAE agent which provides the current and running history of resource consumption. Storage usage can be monitored by reviewing the endurance utilization under the show system resource-utilization command over time.

There have been instances where the initial deployment of an NAE agent within a customer network helped identify network oddity or misconfiguration from the start. The initial review of any NAE alerts issued by this agent would quickly point out these misconfigurations. After making the necessary switch or network changes, any future alerts would be reduced. As an example, a high number of RX drops may indicate a bad fiber cable. Replacement of this cable would then result in less or zero RX drops and the NAE agent will stop issuing alerts.

NAE agents are published through the Aruba Solution Exchange (ASE) and, much like switch firmware, can be updated at any time. It is recommended that customers periodically check the ASE website for any updates to NAE agents that are used within their network.