Arista Southwest Region Newsletter¶
Welcome to the July 2025 newsletter for Arista customers in the U.S. Southwest Region!
We welcome your feedback on the newsletter. If you have any ideas on what you want to see, please reach out to southwest@arista.com.
Arista AI: It's Only A Matter of Time¶
By: Akashdeep Takhar, Advanced Services Engineer, Southwest Region
The impact that Artificial Intelligence has on our lives today is quite extraordinary. It seems as if no matter where we travel to or which screen we face, you will eventually hear about AI. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way networks are built, managed, and optimized. As AI workloads grow in scale and complexity, traditional network infrastructures are struggling to keep up. A significant portion of AI job time is spent on network communications, making network bottlenecks a critical concern in job completion in workflows from the constant inputs and requests to the AI cluster. This shift is placing networking at the core of innovation, with AI applications requiring massive data exchange, real-time responsiveness, and robust connectivity. The role of the network is no longer just about transport—it’s about enabling intelligence at scale.
Arista Networks is leading this transformation with a suite of AI-ready solutions designed to meet these next-generation challenges. Arista’s AI Network solutions, including its AI Spine-Leaf fabric and high-performance Ethernet switching platforms, support 100G to 800G connectivity for demanding GPU clusters. The Etherlink Smart Networking Portfolio further enhances this architecture by providing visibility, automation, and simplified deployment across AI infrastructure. Hardware platforms such as the 7060X, 7800R, and 7700R4 Series are ready to handle AI centers that comprise tens to thousands of XPUs. To give you a complete set of tools to run a grand AI cluster, we have also enhanced our EOS software to handle the traffic by adding features such as: Cluster Load Balancing, AI Flow Observability, and RoCEv2 support, just to name a few.
These innovations help adapt you to the modern changes in the world of computing and networks.. Arista’s platforms are designed to simplify the deployment and management of AI networks, reducing operational overhead while delivering the speed and reliability required for AI success. AI is here, and networks must evolve with it. Arista offers the performance, intelligence, and ease of use that modern AI-driven businesses need. Explore how Arista can help you build your AI-ready future today with the links below:
Deployment Guide
AI Network Whitepaper
Product Portfolio
Initial Onboarding Of Your Arista Device: The DO's and DO NOT's¶
By: Akashdeep Takhar, Advanced Services Engineer, Southwest Region
The day has finally arrived: You are ready to rack your new Arista switch and begin to onboard it to production. After waiting for shipment, scheduling the team to rack the switches, and allocating space in your environment, you can now start to use the switch. However, there are some checklist items that we need to take into consideration to prevent problems from arising. Poor preparation leads to poor execution, and as an Advanced Service Engineer that has seen problems occur, it’s best to have some action items taken care of early on. Listed below are 4 best practices to use during the initial onboarding of your devices. In addition, we have also included 4 crucial steps you should avoid in order to execute the onboarding process to perfection with the least amount of trouble.
To DO:
- If using Zero Touch Provisioning, please set up Option 66 and 67 on your DHCP Server:
To enable ZTP for initial onboarding, it is required to enable options 66 and 67 within your DHCP server for the Arista switches to grab a configuration file. Note that if you are running EOS version 4.30.X and above, this requirement is not necessary. The purpose of ZTP is to have a pre-set configuration installed onto your switch. In addition, the next step is to check for reachability to Arista.io - Ensure that you have the proper length rack mounts:
Sometimes we are busy with discussion of architecture, so busy that in fact we glance over some detail that might seem obvious. Upon arrival of your device, ensure that the proper rack equipment is ready to hold the switches in place. If a custom rack mount is needed, your fellow SE would be more than happy to find one for you. - If you plan to use in band management, enable the Firewall to allow the assigned Vlan to pass through to reach the internet:
One of the final steps to ensure that onboarding is complete is for the device to reach out to your cloud tenant instance on Arista.io. While using in-band management, if there is a Vlan that is associated with managing the switches, ensure that the Vlan is able to pass through the firewall to reach out to Arista.io. - Create a Port Map for device connectivity:
Time saving step here. Wiring devices together seems easy, until you realize the distance between devices are far apart or that the port speed is not what you had expected. Save time by creating a design or port mapping sheet to quickly wire devices together.
To NOT Do List:
- Wait last minute to see if your CVP instance is set up:
As your equipment arrives, it’s best practice to begin communicating with the Account Manager to check for your CVP instance. If it’s not ready, and your equipment arrives, this may add additional time to your plans for onboarding the devices to use CVP. - Build configurations for the device, as they begin to onboard:
Having at least an idea of the features and protocols to use prior to the device’s arrival is crucial. Without having a set plan, or even discussing the protocols to use, will add more time to setting up your network. If there is a set deadline, this should be a high priority. It’s best to have this set up as the devices ship over, even better when talking to your SE representative to have questions answered faster. - Forget to check transceiver and optic bandwidth capabilities:
This is one of those steps that we might overlook because we are sure the fibers and optics will work together….until it doesn’t. Mismatch speeds and troubleshooting Layer 1 problems take longer than anticipated since there are many sources of truth for the issue.
If you’re able to limit the amount of time it takes to troubleshoot the matter because you had prepared ahead of time, wouldn’t your future self thank you for that? Of course, at Arista we have teams that help with the onboarding process, along with SE’s that check to see if the essential fundamentals of your networks are ready for production. If there’s any questions regarding the onboarding process of your new devices, please ask and we would be happy to help!
Additional tips here, click the links below:
Tips and Tricks
Upcoming Events¶
Arista hosts various events throughout the year for you! Members of our team organize these informative events to showcase Arista's ability to not only help improve your network, but to also assist by providing a set of tools to improve your operations! Click on the boxes below to be directed to Arista's website for lists of Webinars and Events.
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Webinars
We make is easy for you to view products that are of interest, all virtually! Technical memebers of the team showcase outstading explanation of the products. Click below to see our list of Webinars.
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Events
Join us in person to get a closer look in our list of produts and solution, as well as get the chance to meet members of the team. Click below to see our list of ipcoming Events.
Software Updates¶
For new code releases, click here
| Softwares | Versions | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| EOS | 4.32.6M 4.34.1F 4.32.0.2F 4.33.2.1F |
June 20th, 2025 June 16th, 2025 May 20th, 2025 May 14th, 2025 |
| CVP | Portal 2025.1.1 Appliance 7.0.1 Sensor 1.1.0 |
May 7th, 2025 January 28th, 2025 March 24th, 2025 |
| DMF | 8.5.3 |
June 20th, 2025 |
| WLAN CV-CUE Wireless Manager |
13.0.0-67 19.0.0 |
December 15th, 2022 June 12th, 2025 |
| Arista NDR | 5.2.4 | August 2024 |
| TerminAttr | 1.27.2 |
April 9th, 2025 |
Software Advisories¶
Below is a list of advisories that are announced by Arista. To view more details on the specific advisories, please click the links in the middle row.
| Name | Advisory Link | Date of Advisory Notice |
|---|---|---|
| ACL Policies | Security Advisory 0120 | May 27th, 2025 |
| IPSec | Security Advisory 0119 | May 27th, 2025 |
| VLAN Isolation | Security Advisory 0118 | May 20th, 2025 |
| 32bit EOS CCS-750X | Field Notice 0102 | June 23rd, 2025 |
| DMF Analytics Node | Field Notice 0101 | June 18th, 2025 |
| AP Point Firmware 19.0 | Field Notice 0100 | May 28th, 2025 |
For a list of the most current advisories and notices, click Here
Product Updates¶
End of Sale notices are listed below.
| Device | Name | End Of Sale Date |
|---|---|---|
| Software | End of Software for CloudVision Portal 2023.2 End of Software Support for EOS 4.28 DMF and CCF Deployments on Accton/ Edgecore Switches EOS-4.34 and later no longer supported on select switches |
May 27th. 2025 March 14, 2025 January 31st, 2025 January 15th, 2025 |
| Module | 7500R2 Series Linecards | December 20th, 2023 |
| Access Points | AP Model W-118 |
November 20th, 2024 |
| CVP | CVP 2023.2 CVP 2023.2 |
June 17th, 2025 May 27th, 2025 |
| DMF | DMF 8.3 | June 3rd, 2025 |
| Switches | DCS-7020R Series |
December 20th, 2024 |
New Releases of Arista's device are listed below
| Device | More Information | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Arista SWAG | Modern Stacking for Campus | Q1 2025 |
| Arista Multi-Domain Segmentaton Service | Arista MSS | Q3 2024 |
| Arista CV UNO | CloudVision Universal Network Observability | Q1 2024 |
Feel Free to Reach Out To Us For Your Network Needs¶
We thank you for taking the time to read out newsletter today. Feel free to reach out to your SE or ASE for more information or questions regardsing your network operations. Until next month, have a good one!