Extreme Fabric Automation (EFA) is a
micro-services-based scalable fabric automation application.
EFA automates and orchestrates SLX IP fabrics and tenant networks, with support for
the following:
Building and managing small
data center (non-Clos) fabrics and 3-stage and 5-stage IP Clos fabrics
Managing tenant-aware Layer 2
and Layer 3 networks
Integrating Virtual Management ecosystem platforms, such as VMWare vCenter,
OpenStack, and Microsoft SCVMM
Providing a single point of
configuration for your entire fabric
EFA consists of core K3s containerized services that interact with each other and
with other infrastructure services to provide the core functions of fabric and
tenant network automation. For more information, see EFA Microservices.
TPVM (Third-Party Virtual
Machine) is a guest VM that resides on Extreme SLX devices. You can run EFA
from the SLX 9150, SLX 9250, or SLX 9740 TPVM. In this context, EFA
leverages the K3S Kubernetes cluster as an underlying infrastructure for the
EFA services deployment. The K3S cluster is a single instance and an
important component for supporting high availability. A maximum of 24
devices is supported, either 24 devices in one fabric or 24 devices across
multiple fabrics.
EFA on an external VM
You can deploy EFA on an external Virtual Machine to support more than 24
devices or based on where tools are deployed in the data center.
EFA for high availability
A high-availability cluster is a group of servers that provide continuous up
time, or at least minimum down time, for the applications on the servers in
the group. If an application on one server fails, another server in the
cluster maintains the availability of the service or application. You can
install EFA on a two-node cluster, including on TPVM, for high
availability.
