Arista DCS-7280CR3A-32S-R | 7280R3A 32-Port 100G Switch, 2x 400G, 3.6Tbps

Q: What is the maximum port configuration for this switch?
A: The DCS-7280CR3A-32S-R supports flexible port configurations with a maximum of 2x 400G ports, 18x 200G ports, or 36x 100G ports. The 30x QSFP100/200 ports can operate at 100G or 200G speeds, while the 2x QSFP-DD ports support 200G or 400G. Breakout configurations enable up to 56 total interfaces at lower speeds including 25G and 10G.

Q: What data center architectures does this switch support?
A: The 7280CR3A-32S-R supports all common data center architectures including Layer 2 MLAG for active-active topologies, Layer 3 ECMP for scalable leaf-spine designs, and EVPN-VXLAN overlay networking. It is suitable for universal leaf and spine deployments, Internet peering, and high-performance cloud environments with predictable low-latency performance.

Q: What is the difference between the -R and -F airflow models?
A: The -R suffix indicates rear-to-front (reverse) airflow, where cool air enters from the rear and exhausts from the front. The -F model has front-to-rear (standard) airflow. Choose the airflow direction based on your data center's hot aisle/cold aisle configuration. Both models include dual hot-swappable AC power supplies.

Q: Does this model support encryption?
A: The DCS-7280CR3A-32S-R base model does not include hardware encryption. For MACsec or IPsec encryption requirements, consider the 7280CR3AM-32S-R (TunnelSec) or 7280CR3AK-32S-R (large routing table plus encryption) variants, which provide line-rate AES-256 encryption on all ports.

Q: What routing scale does this switch support?
A: The standard 7280CR3A-32S-R supports typical enterprise routing scales. For large-scale Internet peering or service provider applications requiring over 256K routes, the 7280CR3AK-32S variant offers Arista FlexRoute engine with support for up to 5 million routes, making it suitable for BGP peering and MPLS applications.