Arista DCS-7050CX3M-32S-R | 7050X3 32-Port 100G MACsec Switch, 6.4Tbps, 2x 10G SFP+

Q: What is MACsec and why is it important for this switch?
A: MACsec (IEEE 802.1AE) provides wire-speed encryption at the data link layer, securing traffic between leaf-spine tiers and data center interconnects without external encryption appliances. The DCS-7050CX3M-32S-R encrypts all QSFP ports at line rate with no performance penalty, ideal for compliance-sensitive and multi-tenant cloud environments.

Q: Can the 100G ports be broken out to lower speeds?
A: Yes. Each QSFP28 port supports flexible breakout: 100GbE, 40GbE, 4x25GbE, 4x10GbE, or 2x50GbE. This allows up to 128 ports of 10/25GbE connectivity from the 32 physical ports, enabling seamless migration from legacy 10G/40G infrastructure to modern 100G architectures.

Q: What deployment scenarios is this switch best suited for?
A: The DCS-7050CX3M-32S-R excels as a leaf switch in high-density leaf-spine fabrics, a collapsed spine in smaller deployments, or a secure data center interconnect (DCI) switch. Its MACsec capabilities make it ideal for multi-tenant cloud, financial services, and government deployments requiring layer 2 encryption.

Q: Does this switch support stacking or MLAG?
A: The switch supports 64-way MLAG for multi-chassis link aggregation, enabling active-active redundancy and horizontal scaling. It also supports 128-way ECMP for load balancing across large-scale 2-tier or 3-tier leaf-spine topologies, along with unequal-cost multi-pathing (UCMP) for flexible traffic engineering.

Q: What is the difference between the -R and -F suffix models?
A: The -R suffix indicates rear-to-front (exhaust out the front) airflow, while -F denotes front-to-rear (exhaust out the back) airflow. Choose the model that matches your data center hot-aisle/cold-aisle layout. Both models have identical port counts, features, and performance.