Extreme 7720 Overview

The Extreme 7720 is a purpose-built switch designed for high-performance aggregation and core applications. The switch provides end-to-end secure network segmentation and advanced policy capabilities. The Extreme 7720 is Universal Hardware, providing a user-selectable choice of Extreme‘s flagship switch operating systems.

The Extreme 7720 network hardware platform enables organizations to design networks that accommodate a variety of applications and east-west traffic patterns. With its high-density scale-out architecture, leading power efficiency, and airflow options, the Extreme 7720 platform delivers a cost-effective solution that optimizes power, cooling, and equipment room space, wherever your network operating center might be.

Management

Each switch can be flexibly managed though the cloud, the network, or the command-line interface (CLI), either remotely or locally. The switch supports any of the following management methods:

ExtremeCloud IQ through the cloud or over the network.
an out-of-band management network connected to the Ethernet management port on the switch.
a laptop connected directly to the Ethernet management port on the switch through an Ethernet cable.
a terminal connected to the RJ45 serial console port on the switch.

For more information about switch management, see Manage Your Switch.

Note

There is also a Type A USB 2.0 port labeled USB on the front panel that can host removable devices like flash drives.

Cooling

Each switch is cooled by hot-swappable internal fan modules. The switch supports both front-to-back and back-to-front airflow for switch cooling. Fan module slots are located on the rear panel of the switch. Fans are ordered separately for base model 7720-32C. Fans are included with other models.

For more information about the fan modules used in the switch, see Fan Modules for Use with Your Switch.

Power Supplies

Each switch supports up to two hot-swappable internal modular AC or DC power supplies that provide enough power for the needs of the switch. The power supplies can be AC, DC, or both AC and DC. Power supply slots are located in the rear of the switch. Power supplies are ordered separately for base model 7720-32C. Power supplies are included with other models.

For more information about the power supplies used in the switch, see Power Supplies for Use with Your Switch.

Stacking Ports

Each switch comes equipped with two stacking ports, also referred to as Universal Ethernet ports. When running Switch Engine, these ports can be used in either stacking mode or Ethernet mode. When in stacking mode, up to eight systems can be stacked using qualified direct attach cables or optical transceivers. Fabric Engine does not support stacking; the stacking ports can be used as Ethernet ports if Fabric Engine is in non-fabric mode.

Note

7720 Series switches can only be stacked with themselves and with 7520 Series using Native V400 stacking and QSFP28 cables.

Stacking cables are ordered separately.

For information about stacking ports, see Universal Ethernet Ports.

For information about optical modules, see the Extreme Optics website.

For information about stacking, see Build Stacks.

Secure Boot

Secure boot establishes a chain-of-trust relationship in the boot process. The chain- of-trust is established by cryptographic checks at each stage of the boot process to validate the integrity and authenticity of the next stage before it can execute. The current implementation validates boot images. It cannot be disabled after it has been programmed on the device. There is no command-line interface or commands to enable or disable secure boot. The status of the boot image verification can be monitored in the operating system.

For more information, see Secure Boot.

Operating Temperatures

The 7720 supports the following operating temperatures with front-to-back cooling:

0°C (32°F) to 50°C (122°F) at sea level
0°C (32°F) to 45°C (113°F) up to 1800 m (6000 ft)
0°C (32°F) to 40°C (104°F) above 1800 m (6000 ft), up to 3000m (10,000 ft)

The 7720 supports the following operating temperatures with back-to-front cooling:

0°C (32°F) to 45°C (113°F) at sea level
0°C (32°F) to 40°C (104°F) up to 1800 m (6000 ft)
0°C (32°F) to 35°C (95°F) above 1800 m (6000 ft), up to 3000m (10,000 ft)

Feature Licensing

Extreme 7720 switches support Unified Licensing, so that you can use them with multiple operating systems. There are two methods of acquiring feature licenses: manual or through ExtremeCloud IQ^TM (XIQ).

For Switch Engine licensing, see the Feature License Requirements for your version of the Switch Engine operating system.

For Fabric Engine licensing, see the Licensing chapter in the Fabric Engine User Guide for your version of the Fabric Engine operating system.

For XIQ licensing, see ExtremeCloud IQ.