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HPE7-A04 · Question #25

In Spine and Leaf Design that involves the following: - 8360 12-P 100G Spine Switches - 8360 48-P 10G RJ45 Leaf Switches - 100G SR4 Optical connections between Spine and Leafs Spine Switches = 8360…

The correct answer is A. Solution can scale to 6 total racks using the same subscription rates. Option A is correct because each Spine switch has only 4 available 100G QSFP28 ports, and since every Leaf switch requires one dedicated uplink to each Spine, the Spine port count is the binding constraint - capping the design at 4 Leaf switches. Adding those 4 Leaf rack…

Designing Data Center Network Architectures

Question

In Spine and Leaf Design that involves the following:

  • 8360 12-P 100G Spine Switches
  • 8360 48-P 10G RJ45 Leaf Switches
  • 100G SR4 Optical connections between Spine and Leafs

Spine Switches = 8360 12-port 100G QSFP28 (F-B airflow) Each Spine Switch uses:

  • 1 x 100G QSFP28 SR4 Optic to each Leaf switch

Each Leaf Switch uses:

  • 1 x 100G QSFP28 SR4 Optic to each Spine switch
  • 2 x 100G 1M DAC for ISL
  • 1 x 10G RJ45 for Keepalive

Each Spine switch has 4 available 100G QSFP28 interfaces. What is the solution scalability?

Options

  • ASolution can scale to 6 total racks using the same subscription rates.
  • BSolution can scale to 10 total racks using the same subscription rates.
  • CSolution can scale to 4 total racks using the same subscription rates.
  • DSolution can scale to 12 total racks using the same subscription rates.

How the community answered

(28 responses)
  • A
    50% (14)
  • B
    7% (2)
  • C
    14% (4)
  • D
    29% (8)

Explanation

Option A is correct because each Spine switch has only 4 available 100G QSFP28 ports, and since every Leaf switch requires one dedicated uplink to each Spine, the Spine port count is the binding constraint - capping the design at 4 Leaf switches. Adding those 4 Leaf rack positions to the 2 Spine switch rack positions gives 4 + 2 = 6 total racks.

Option C (4 racks) is a common trap - it only counts the 4 Leaf connections and forgets to include the 2 Spine switch rack positions in the total. Option D (12 racks) confuses the total port count of the 8360 12-port switch with the available port count; using all 12 ports would ignore the ports already consumed by other functions. Option B (10 racks) has no basis in the given numbers - it would require far more available uplink ports per Spine than the design provides.

Memory tip: Think "4 + 2 = 6" - the 4 available Spine ports drive the Leaf count, then add the 2 Spine racks. If you catch yourself using the total port count (12) instead of the available count (4), you've fallen for the classic distractor.

Topics

#spine-leaf scalability#VSX#port capacity planning#oversubscription

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