The ExtremeWare® network operating system is the backbone for all Extreme Networks products. Delivering uncompromised network services, management and security, ExtremeWare is ideally suited to meet the demanding needs of enterprise and service provider networks.

The ExtremeWare product line includes:

ExtremeXOS™
ExtremeXOS is an open, modular and extensible network operating system providing significant scalability and resiliency capabilities. ExtremeXOS operating system supports the BlackDiamond® 10808, the BlackDiamond 8800 series and the Summit® X450 series.

ExtremeXOS scales the network for communications and newly connected devices while delivering increased reliability and unique adaptability from its modular platform. Based on proven technology such as POSIX, XML and TCL, this open architecture approach delivers higher availability and ease of integrating third party applications when contrasted with the closed, monolithic network operating systems that are limited by their inflexibility and inability to adapt themselves for changes.

ExtremeXOS has been designed from ground up to support the next generation Internet Protocol, IPv6. You may not be planning to use IPv6 at this time, however, IPv6-enabled computers are readily available today. IPv6 support in ExtremeXOS provides you with the power to control undesired IPv6 traffic in your network and the assurance of network uptime in the presence of IPv6. When you are ready to rollout IPv6, ExtremeWare XOS provides investment protection due to its IPv6 support.

ExtremeWare
ExtremeWare Network Operating System delivers the uncompromising network services, management and security needed in today's demanding service provider, enterprise and co-located networks. Its standards-based Multi-Layer Switching and comprehensive security and management give service providers and enterprise networks alike the tools they need to make the most of their networking assets. Summit, Alpine® and BlackDiamond 6800 product families support the ExtremeWare operating system.

ExtremeWare® Operating System, Version 7.6

The ExtremeWare Operating System (OS) delivers the comprehensive security, intuitive management and robust network service required in today’s demanding service provider and enterprise networks.

ExtremeWare starts by establishing a secure network environment. Advanced features such as policy-based network access and Denial of Service (DoS) protection help to meet the high expectations of network security. This foundation of a well-guarded and highly available network infrastructure is essential in today’s business environment, especially as the stakes rise due to compliance requirements and new security legislation.

Management complexity can be a common hindrance associated with the growth and repurposing taking place as service providers roll out new services and enterprises centralize networks and continue to build out applications such as storage and data warehousing. This is complicated by the integration of new applications such as wireless and VoIP. ExtremeWare simplifies this next wave of network growth with powerful features such as Link Layer Discovery (LLDP) device discovery, UniStack stacking technology and sFlow flow-based monitoring that simplify the setup and maintenance of large convergence networks.

A field-proven OS, ExtremeWare has benefited from extensive deployment in a wide range of network topologies and service applications. This has enabled continuous refinement of ExtremeWare, establishing a basis for resilient networks, capable of voice-quality connections.

Comprehensive Security

• Create a hardened network infrastructure against exploits and misuse
• Enforce dynamic policy-based network privileges using 802.1x, web-based or MAC-based authentication
• Mitigate security violations with threat detection and response

Easily Managed Growth

• Aggregate large quantities of desktops, servers, clusters, wireless laptops, PDAs and VoIP phones
• Scale networks simply and transparently using UniStack®—Layer 2 and Layer 3 switch stacking
• Seamlessly integrate networks mixed with ExtremeWare and ExtremeXOS™ based platforms

Field-Proven Operating System

• Establish network reliability with a proven architecture, running on over 10 million ports worldwide
• Increase the integrity of emerging real-time convergence applications such as: IP Telephony, streaming media and wireless
• Increase network availability with EAPS sub 50ms failover
  

ExtremeWare Innovation

EAPS V2 - Carrier-Class Ethernet Resiliency
To support the triple play of voice, video and data, networks must deliver highly-reliable transport for the three different application types. Network failure events should be completely transparent to the end users, making interruptions in voice, video or data applications imperceptible.

The answer to the challenge of service resiliency over Ethernet networks is Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching (EAPS) from Extreme Networks®. A service-aware ring-based protection scheme, EAPS uses a standard Ethernet MAC and is capable of meeting the carrier-class benchmark of 50ms.

EAPS v2 supports a variety of complex network topologies, including dual-attached rings and subtended rings giving metro Ethernet service providers and enterprise networks greater flexibility for protecting a broad variety of network architectures and topologies.

UniStack Stacking Technology
UniStack stacking delivers the benefits of a chassis at the cost of a stackable, in an architecture designed to support today’s evolving network applications. The resulting network simplification results in lower management and maintenance costs while enhancing overall availability.

Stacking allows for a network configuration where multiple chassis are physically linked together and logically act as a single manageable switch. As a result, network complexity is greatly reduced, leading the way to a simple, inexpensive and resilient architecture. Stacking may be used with the Summit® 400-24 and Summit 400-48 or with the Summit 200-24, Summit 200-48 and Summit 300-24. Stacking allows for redundant uplinks on two different switches, which is considerably more resilient than having both redundant ports on a single non-stacked switch. Even in the very unlikely event of multiple failures, stacking will continue to operate.

Intelligent Network Access
ExtremeWare provides advanced Layer 3 features that can be used to increase the security of a network, reducing the susceptibility to virus and worm outbreaks, and establishing consistent application performance.

By leveraging VLANs, ACLs and QoS, each network user is given a different level of access to the network. In order to deliver these dynamic policies, Network Login is used, providing standards based 802.1x, web-based and MAC-based authentication. This means that either an 802.1x client or some form of basic web browser is used to take advantage of dynamic policy assignment. To authenticate devices such as VoIP phones, MAC address-based techniques such as MAC- based VLANs or MAC-based RADIUS authentication can be used as an alternative.

Working with EPICenter® Policy Manager, ExtremeWare effectively creates a linkage between networks resources and users, automating network security configuration and performance parameters and reducing the complexity of configuration of these policies.

ExtremeWare 7.6 Feature Highlights

The ExtremeWare Operating System 7.6 runs on all Extreme Networks "i" series switches, and on Summit 200, Summit 300 and Summit 400 series edge switches. Common code with Extreme Networks’ switches means Plug and Play compatibility on Extreme Networks Summit, Alpine® and BlackDiamond® 6800 family of switches, as well as consistent behavior and stable performance right out of the box.

Security

• Network Login with MAC-based, web-based and 802.1x access methods
• Guest VLANs for 802.1x
• Integrated with Sygate host integrity checking
• Denial of Service (DoS) Protection
• MAC Address Security with lockdown, limiting and aging
• IP Address Security with DHCP Option 82 and DHCP Enforcement, Source IP Lockdown
• IP Destination Address (IPDA) Subnet Lookup
• NAT
• Layers 2 - 4 Access Control Lists (ACLs)
• RADIUS/TACACS+ authentication
• SSH2/SCP2/SFTP secure shell and copy
• SNMPv3 authentication and encryption
• Access profile for SNMP/Vista/CLI
• Routing Access Policies and Authentication
• Port Mirroring—tagged and untagged
  

Scalability

• IP Multinetting
• VLAN support
• UniStack—Switch stacking for up to eight chassis per stack. Ring or Daisy chain (Available on select Summit platforms)
• VLAN translation, remapping of VLAN IDs (i)
• VMAN, VLAN tunnels of 802.1 Q or Cisco ISL VLANs (i)
• Static multicast routes
• IGMP snooping, static membership and filters
• PIM Snooping (i)
• PIM/DM dense mode (i)
• DVMRP (i)

Ease of Management

• RMON, rich set of MIBs
• SMON, sFlow, NetFlow (i)
• Tightly integrated with EPICenter network management system
• IEEE 802.1ab Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP)

High Availability

• Hitless failover and hitless upgrade support on BlackDiamond 6800 MSM-3
• LACP IEEE 802.3ad
• Layer 2 loop detection
• Spanning Tree IEEE 802.1D, IEEE 802.1Q and IEEE 802.1w, IEEE 802.1s and PVST+, per VLAN Spanning Tree
• Extreme Multiple Instances of Spanning Tree Protocol (EMISTP)
• Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching (EAPS) v2
• RIPv1/v2
• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)v2, NSSA Option, Opaque LSAs
• Equal Cost Multi Path (ECMP)
• VRRP and Extreme Standby Router Protocol (ESRP)
• BGP4, E-BGP, I-BGP, Route Reflection, Community Attributes and Route Flap Damping (i)
• IS-IS (i)
• Policy-based routing (i)
• Server load balancing (i)
• Web cache redirection (i)

(i) An item appended by this symbol is only supported with the "i" series of Extreme Network products. Please see the individual switch data sheets for a list of supported standards and features on each platform.