Arista DCS-7060CX5-56D8-F — 56×100G + 8×400G Mixed-Speed Leaf/Aggregation Switch with Forward Airflow
The
Arista DCS-7060CX5-56D8-F is a 2RU, mixed-speed platform delivering
56 × 100G QSFP100 ports and
8 × 400G QSFP-DD ports with
8.8 Tbps of non-blocking switching capacity and
825 ns cut-through latency. Built on the 7060X5 platform and optimized for heterogeneous leaf/aggregation deployments, the CX5-56D8 is purpose-built for networks where 100G and 400G interconnects coexist — typical in multi-generation fabric migrations, aggregation layers serving mixed-speed leaf tiers, and edge deployments with blended port speed requirements. The “
-F” suffix denotes
front-to-rear (forward) airflow, the standard configuration for traditional hot-aisle/cold-aisle data center designs where cool air is supplied from the front of the rack. For rear-to-front airflow, see the
DCS-7060CX5-56D8-R.
Key Features at a Glance
- 56 × 100GbE QSFP100 ports for native leaf uplinks and aggregation to existing 100G infrastructure
- 8 × 400GbE QSFP-DD ports supporting 400G, 200G, and 100G speeds — up to 32 × 100G via breakout
- 8.8 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity with blended port speeds
- 825 ns cut-through latency for consistent, low-jitter performance across all active ports
- 57 MB shared packet buffer for AI, storage, and bursty east-west workloads
- Unique mixed-speed design eliminates the need for separate 100G and 400G platforms during fabric migrations
- Front-to-rear airflow (“-F”) for standard hot-aisle/cold-aisle data center deployments
- Redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and hot-swappable fan trays
- Full L2/L3 feature set: VXLAN, EVPN, MLAG, 128-way ECMP, BGP, and advanced routing
- Rich telemetry: LANZ, sFlow, AEM, and streaming telemetry
- Runs Arista EOS® with open APIs, Python/Bash scripting, and CloudVision® integration
8.8 Tbps Mixed-Speed Non-Blocking Architecture
The
DCS-7060CX5-56D8-F delivers
8.8 Tbps of full-duplex, non-blocking switching capacity by seamlessly blending 56 × 100G and 8 × 400G ports into a single forwarding fabric. Every port operates simultaneously at its native line rate without oversubscription — a critical requirement for aggregation switches where heterogeneous leaf tiers must converge without bottlenecks. The CX5-56D8 is optimized for the specific use case of networks containing both 100G and 400G leaf infrastructure, eliminating the need to operate separate aggregation platforms for different port speeds.
825 ns Cut-Through Latency
Operating in cut-through switching mode, the
7060CX5-56D8-F delivers
825 nanoseconds of port-to-port latency with consistent, low-jitter performance across all 64 active ports (56 × 100G + 8 × 400G). For aggregation and leaf-spine edge deployments, 825 ns represents solid cut-through performance at blended port speeds.
Port Density and Multi-Speed Flexibility
The 7060CX5-56D8 provides a uniquely balanced port mix optimized for mixed-generation fabrics:
- 56 × 100GbE QSFP100 ports: Native 100G uplinks to existing leaf infrastructure, fixed-speed 100G operation without breakout complexity
- 8 × 400GbE QSFP-DD ports: Native 400G connections to next-generation 400G leaf switches or spine interconnects
- Dual 200GbE breakout: Each QSFP-DD port can be configured as 2×200G for specific aggregation patterns
- Quad 100GbE breakout: Each QSFP-DD port can be configured as 4×100G, extending the effective 100G port count to 88 (56 + 8×4)
- 1 × SFP+ port: 1/10GbE management and out-of-band connectivity
This port density allows a single CX5-56D8 to serve as the aggregation tier for a fabric with both 100G and 400G leaf switches without requiring dedicated hardware for each speed class. A fabric can evolve from 56 native 100G + 8 native 400G to 88 total 100G (via breakout) or hybrid configurations, all from the same platform.
57 MB Deep Shared Buffer for Mixed-Speed Bursts
The
57 MB shared packet buffer of the CX5-56D8 is critical for aggregation layer operation where traffic from 56 leaf switches must converge at the same uplink rate. Unlike fixed-per-port buffer architectures, the shared pool dynamically allocates buffer capacity to the ports and queues that need it most — a critical property when traffic mixes 100G and 400G sources with asymmetric patterns. Two deployment categories benefit directly:
- Mixed 100G/400G leaf aggregation: When 56 × 100G leaf switches send traffic toward 8 × 400G spine connections, the aggregation layer must absorb many-to-few incast patterns. The 57 MB shared buffer prevents the head-of-line blocking and packet drops that force retransmissions and inflate latency — particularly important when multiple 100G leaf sources simultaneously target the same 400G uplink.
- East-west traffic within the leaf tier: When multiple 100G leaf switches send leaf-to-leaf traffic through the aggregation layer, the buffer provides headroom to absorb these events without drops, even when several incast events coincide at high utilization.
Aggregation-Optimized Fabric Support: VXLAN, EVPN, and 128-Way ECMP
The
7060CX5-56D8-F delivers the full Arista EOS aggregation feature set:
- VXLAN: Aggregation-layer VXLAN routing for multi-tenant overlay fabrics
- EVPN: BGP-based control plane for distributed MAC/IP learning and seamless MAC mobility across leaf tiers
- Up to 128-way ECMP: Maximum path diversity across the aggregation tier, distributing leaf-to-spine load evenly across all uplinks
- BGP and IS-IS: Full-featured underlay routing for IP fabric and eBGP-based CLOS topologies
- MLAG (Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation): Redundant dual-homed leaf switch connectivity without STP convergence dependency
Telemetry, Monitoring, and Real-Time Insight
The
DCS-7060CX5-56D8-F includes Arista’s full telemetry stack for aggregation-layer observability:
- LANZ (Latency Analyzer): Per-port, real-time queue depth visibility and microburst detection — essential for diagnosing congestion at the aggregation layer. LANZ provides visibility to detect incast patterns on 400G uplinks caused by convergence from the 56 × 100G leaf ports.
- sFlow: Continuous traffic sampling for leaf-to-spine flow analysis and capacity planning
- AEM (Advanced Event Management): Rule-based, programmable alerting for link events and queue thresholds at the aggregation tier
- Streaming Telemetry: High-frequency counter and state export to gRPC collectors and third-party NMS tools
EOS Automation and Extensibility
Running on
Arista EOS®, the
DCS-7060CX5-56D8-F is built for automation-first network operations:
- Native on-box Python and Bash scripting via the Linux shell for event-driven automation
- JSON-RPC eAPI for programmatic configuration — integrates with Ansible, Terraform, Salt, and Nornir
- CloudVision® for centralized configuration management, zero-touch provisioning, network-wide change control, and topology visualization
- OpenConfig and gNMI/gRPC for model-driven management and high-frequency streaming state export
- Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP): Fully automated day-0 configuration without manual intervention
Front-to-Rear Airflow and Data Center Fit
The “
-F” airflow configuration provides
front-to-rear (forward) cooling, where cool air enters from the non-port side of the switch and exhausts from the port side. This is the standard configuration for:
- Traditional hot-aisle/cold-aisle containment deployments where cold air is supplied from the front of the rack
- Racks where the majority of compute and network gear already uses front-to-rear airflow
- Colocation facilities that standardize on forward airflow for all customer equipment
- New data center builds following ASHRAE thermal guidelines
Port Speeds and Breakout Configurations
- 56 × 100GbE QSFP100: Native 100G for direct leaf switch uplinks; cannot be broken out further
- 8 × 400GbE QSFP-DD native: Full-rate 400G for spine connectivity or next-generation 400G leaf uplinks
- Dual 200GbE breakout: Each QSFP-DD port can be configured as 2×200G
- Quad 100GbE breakout: Each QSFP-DD port can be configured as 4×100G, extending the effective port count to 88 total 100G (56 native + 32 from breakout)
Routing and Fabric Support
- ECMP: Up to 128-way equal-cost multipath with 4K groups and 16K members
- Dynamic Load Balancing (DLB): Real-time traffic engineering and load rebalancing across ECMP paths for leaf-to-spine optimization
- BGP and IS-IS: Full-featured routing protocols for IP fabric aggregation topologies
- VXLAN/EVPN: Overlay fabric support for multi-tenant isolation and seamless MAC mobility
Table Sizes and Forwarding Capacity
- MAC addresses: 128K entries
- IPv4 LPM routes: 800K entries
- IPv6 LPM routes: 500K entries
- ACL entries: 2304 ingress / 512 egress
- IPv4 multicast groups: Full line-rate multicast support for fabric-wide replication
QoS and Traffic Management
- Queue structures: 8 unicast + 2 multicast queues per port with strict priority and weighted round-robin scheduling
- Flow control: Per-Priority Flow Control (PFC) and Data Center Bridging (DCB/DCBX) for lossless Ethernet and RoCEv2 support
- Classification: 802.1p and DSCP-based traffic classification with ECN support
- Congestion management: Tail Drop and ECN for fair congestion signal distribution across mixed-speed paths
Telemetry and Analytics
- LANZ: Latency Analyzer for per-port queue depth and real-time congestion visibility at mixed speeds
- Streaming telemetry: GPB and JSON encoded gRPC export to Prometheus, Grafana, and third-party collectors
- sFlow: Continuous packet sampling for leaf-to-spine traffic analysis
- AEM (Advanced Event Management): Programmable alerting for link events and queue thresholds
- SNMP and syslog: Traditional network monitoring and centralized log aggregation
Automation and Management
- EOS CLI: Industry-standard command-line interface with full configuration scripting
- JSON-RPC eAPI: RESTful API for programmatic configuration and state retrieval
- Python/Bash: Native on-box scripting for event-driven automation and custom plugins
- CloudVision: Centralized configuration management, topology visualization, and change control
- OpenConfig/gNMI: Model-driven telemetry and standards-based configuration
- Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP): Automated day-0 bring-up without manual configuration
Security Features
- Secure boot: Digitally signed EOS images prevent unauthorized firmware modifications
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Granular operator and administrator privilege separation
- Authentication: TACACS+, RADIUS, LDAP, and SSHv2 for centralized access control
- ACLs: L2/L3/L4 traffic filtering for tenant isolation and security policy enforcement
- Control Plane Policing (CoPP): Protect the switch CPU from volumetric attacks targeting the management plane
Reliability and High Availability
- Redundant power supplies: Dual 1+1 hot-swappable PSUs for uninterrupted aggregation operation through PSU failures
- Redundant fans: 3 fans with N+1 redundancy; failure of any single fan does not impact cooling
- Stateful Fault Repair (SFR): Automatic recovery from software faults without traffic loss
- Stateful Fault Containment (SFC): Isolate faults to prevent network-wide propagation
- Smart System Upgrade (SSU): Non-disruptive EOS upgrades with graceful control plane convergence
- Accelerated Software Update (ASU): Fast, hitless software patching without traffic interruption
Deployment Scenarios and Industry Applications
- Mixed 100G/400G Leaf-Aggregation Fabrics: The primary use case the CX5-56D8 is engineered for — 56 × 100G leaf uplinks aggregated with 8 × 400G spine connections. The 57 MB buffer absorbs many-to-few incast patterns when multiple 100G leaf sources target the same 400G spine uplink. Eliminates the need for separate aggregation platforms during a 100G-to-400G fabric migration.
- Edge Aggregation with Blended Port Speeds: Networks where 100G and 400G leaf tiers coexist can be served from a single CX5-56D8 platform. The 56 × 100G QSFP100 ports provide native 100G connectivity while 8 × 400G QSFP-DD ports provide forward-looking 400G capacity without redesigning the aggregation tier.
- Fabric Migration and Generational Transitions: Organizations upgrading from pure 100G to mixed 100G/400G leaf infrastructure can use the CX5-56D8 as a single aggregation platform throughout the transition period. As 100G leaves are retired and replaced with 400G, the platform adapts without replacement.
- Leaf-to-Leaf East-West Communication: The 57 MB buffer and 8.8 Tbps non-blocking capacity support leaf-to-leaf traffic patterns where multiple 100G sources converge at the aggregation layer. 128-way ECMP distributes leaf-to-leaf traffic across 8 × 400G uplinks without bottlenecks.
Power Efficiency and Thermal Management
The
DCS-7060CX5-56D8-F delivers approximately
8 W per active 100G port and
5 W per active 400G port at typical utilization, with redundant power supplies rated for
high conversion efficiency. For a mixed-speed 2RU platform handling 56 × 100G + 8 × 400G, this power envelope represents strong energy efficiency relative to the blended bandwidth delivered. Three N+1 redundant fan trays with tool-less replacement ensure continuous operation through thermal events without scheduled maintenance.
Similar Arista Models to Consider
- Arista DCS-7060DX5-32-F – 1RU, 32×400G pure spine switch with 57 MB buffer and 825 ns latency. Ideal for all-400G spine deployments requiring maximum port density in compact form factor.
- Arista DCS-7060DX5-64S-F – 2RU, 64×400G massive-scale spine with 114 MB buffer. For hyperscale or high-density all-400G fabric deployments.
Related 7060X5 Resources
Arista 7060 Series Switches: Architecture, Models, and Deployment Guide
Unified Mixed-Speed Aggregation for Blended Leaf Infrastructure
The
Arista DCS-7060CX5-56D8-F is the specialized platform for networks where 100G and 400G leaf infrastructure coexist. With 56 × 100G QSFP100 ports and 8 × 400G QSFP-DD ports unified in a single 2RU aggregation switch, the CX5-56D8 eliminates the operational complexity of managing separate platforms for different port speeds. Its 8.8 Tbps non-blocking capacity, 57 MB shared buffer, and full EOS automation make it the ideal choice for fabric migrations, heterogeneous edge deployments, and organizations seeking a single aggregation platform that grows alongside evolving leaf infrastructure. Available from BrightStar Systems fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty.
