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This article reviews Arista switches based on my experience with them and Cisco and other vendor switches. At the time of this article, I’d worked with Arista switches for two years and used them at multiple levels in the network infrastructure.
I’ve been working with switches for twenty-seven years, including Cisco, 3COM, and HP, to name a few. Many at multiple levels within the network infrastructure. I’m glad to have added Arista to my list of experiences, but read on for more details.
Introduction to Arista
Arista was launched in 2008, led by an experienced team. Their products are in Fortune 500 global companies in many industries. They also have wireless and security products, which aren’t in this review.
The Arista switch platform is extensive and includes small businesses, access, distribution, and core layer products. They can or support Layer 2 and Layer 3 features.
The switch operating system is similar to Cisco, so there’s a small learning curve, if any.
Technologies
I’ve used the switches in the data center for layers 2 and 3, local and on the WAN side. For virtual switch technology, Arista uses MLAG, equivalent to Cisco’s vPC. On the local data center layer, I’ve used MLAG and found it easy to configure. Check out my article Arista MLAG configuration and comparison of MLAG and vPC.
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) and Virtual ARP (VARP) are two supported virtual routing redundancy protocols. I recommend VARP on the Arista platform. Also, if using MLAG, VARP is recommended.
They support OSPF and BGP; as mentioned, I’ve used Arista switches on the WAN side. They work great with BGP and peering for Internet access. For more information and for BGP and OSPF configuration on Arista, visit my article, Internet BGP with Arista.
LLDP, QoS, ACLs, EtherChannels, and many other features or technologies found in Cisco switches are supported. Some models support VRFs or multiple VRFs. Also, the switches have a dedicated management port and are in their own VRF and a console port.
EOS Operating System
Arista switches run their EOS (Extensible Operating System), a Linux-based network operating system. A virtual machine instance (vEOS) is also available. Arista CloudEOS and vEOS Router is a platform release of EOS supported on Amazon Web Service (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and other public clouds. It is also supported on customer equipment running Linux and VMware hypervisors.
EOS is very similar to Cisco’s IOS. So, if you are familiar with Cisco, there is a small, if any, learning curve. However, I found some differences, especially when configuring BGP, which you can find in my article Internet BGP with Arista.
One feature I like about their EOS, specifically vEOS, is it’s free. Yes, free. This makes it convenient to be used in network simulators like GNS3. I’ve used vEOS in GNS3 to become familiar with EOS and learn and test some features/technologies.
This image is from GNS3 testing MLAG on Arista using Cisco switches for creating MLAG interfaces.
For example, in GNS3, I learned and tested MLAG and BGP on Arista using EOS.
Visit these links if you want to learn more about EOS and vEOS.
CloudVision
I contemplated putting CloudVision under Technologies but thought it could use its own section.
CloudVision is a cloud-based, graphical view of the switches. Cisco has similar products like DNA or Prime. CloudVision provides an inventory view of devices that includes model, serial number, and status, software version, to name a few.
Configurations and configuration views are available. Routing information, for example, BGP peering, has a graphical view in CloudVision.
One other feature in CloudVision that I like is the compliance status of EOS. Based on the EOS version, you can see any known bugs or security CVEs.
There are a lot of features in CloudVision, but there are too many to list here, and some I haven’t used yet. For more information, visit the Arista CloudVision page.
Familiar with Cisco?
If you’ve worked with Cisco’s access and distribution layer switches, like the 3700, 3800, and 9300 series, for example, you may be familiar with their stacking feature. Well, Arista doesn’t have that.
When I was researching replacing Cisco with Arista, I found out Arista does not have switch stacking and power sharing. Upon finding this out, I did some thinking and research into not having the stacking feature.
I’ve worked with Cisco switches since 1998 and the models I mentioned previously. The stacking feature is nice but is it necessary?
I’ve thought a lot about the stacking option and read articles and posts on social media and websites about the subject. There are pros and cons and valid arguments on both sides. I can list many here, but I have no problem using Arista in place of switches that support stacking.
Reputation, Team, and Support
Arista is used in small deployments to large corporations and all in-between and multiple industries. Their product line continues to grow, as does their reputation. Following Arista on multiple social media platforms and in the news, they are by far not the new kid on the block.
Arista’s technical support has been excellent. Having worked recently with Support from Cisco and Palo Alto Networks, so far, Arista has surpassed them. Arista supports proactive cases for scheduled deployments or changes, which I’ve used, and very happy with the results.
The Sales and Sales Engineer team are very good. They are knowledgeable, friendly, always available, and communicate well.
Pricing and Licensing
This section does not bash any company and may stir up some debate.
I, and many others, have become dissatisfied with the pricing and complex licensing of other network/switch companies. You need a degree in this one company’s licensing model to make it make sense. Alright, I’ll say it, I’m referencing Cisco.
At the time of this article, Cisco requires the purchase of its DNA license with a switch, whether you use DNA or not. I’m not saying DNA is a bad product, but I should not have to buy a license for something that is optional. Depending on the switch model, this can be an additional ~$2K per switch.
Also, with Cisco, depending on the licensing, connectivity to a license server is required. This server can be cloud-based or on-premise. If using cloud-based, holes need to be opened on the firewall. If using the on-premise option, then no holes in the firewall but a local server to manage (updates, resources, any or if any, vulnerabilities).
Arista does not require a license server (local or cloud), and their licensing is simple. Their pricing is close to Cisco’s, but it can vary depending on the supplying vendor and many other factors.
Conclusion
Arista’s product lineup stands out as a robust and competitive choice for any networking needs. I would confidently recommend Arista switches in the data center, WAN, corporate environments, remote offices, or access layers. For those considering new installations or replacements, Arista deserves serious consideration.
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