Arista Data Center Switching Deep Dive

This advanced course is designed for network engineers who want to build deep expertise in modern data center architectures using Arista hardware and EOS. The course begins with a thorough exploration of the leaf-spine topology, explaining why this architecture has become the industry standard for scalable, low-latency data center fabrics. Students will understand the roles of leaf and spine switches, traffic flow patterns, and how to design a fabric that avoids bottlenecks and supports east-west traffic growth. The course then dives into VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN), covering both BGP EVPN and static VXLAN configurations. Learners will understand MAC and IP address learning in overlay networks, the role of the NVO (Network Virtualization Overlay), and how VXLAN tunnels are established and maintained across the fabric. Advanced topics include multi-tenancy using VRFs, symmetric and asymmetric IRB routing, and ARP suppression techniques to reduce broadcast traffic.