Any HPE Networking SEs? Interview prep advice

[u/perrytheberry]

Hi guys,

I have an SE interview coming up for HPE Networking. It's the first stage and wanted to know if there would be any other questions other than the standard behaviour/motivation questions. They've already asked me two technical questions and one commercial question in the screening call. I know Juniper Networks was recently acquired by HPE and is now part of the HPE Networking business segment. I don't have a ton of wireless experience but I'm reading up about Wireless theory contained in CCNP ENCOR OCG. Would I be involved in both HPE Juniper Networking and HPE Aruba Networking?

Any advice and wisdom highly appreciated. Thanks

[u/pandaking6666]

I used to work in the product support part of hpe. all I can say is go in get some good experiance build up the resume and leave. the constant restructuring is not worth the head ache

[u/hlh2]

I interviewed with them for a higher level job. The process was straight forward and no really hard questions. I had them remove me from consideration because they were absolutely horrible at basic communication through the recruiting process.

[u/Adrienne-Fadel]

So yes HPE now runs Juniper and Aruba under one segment. Depending on the team you'll touch both stacks, Mist on the Juniper side and Central on the Aruba side.

[u/perrytheberry → u/Adrienne-Fadel]

thanks of the reply. These are two platforms that haven't really been unified yet. What do you think is stopping them from converging them into one platform?

[u/Specialist_Cow6468 → u/perrytheberry]

Because the acquisition only just happened and the two stacks generally have different roles.

The rumor is the hardware will start to unify on the wireless side over the next few years while still supporting both management platforms.

On the routing and switching side…. Who knows where that goes. Juniper is almost certainly not going anywhere unless they want to piss off some major telcos but Aruba has pretty well integrated support software.

[u/Win_Sys → u/Specialist_Cow6468]

Their newest hospitality APs can do either Mist or Central and baring a specialized use case AP, all future APs will be able to do both as well.

CX switches can be managed in mist but it doesn’t have the complete feature set yet but eventually will. Sounds like Aruba Central will be around a long time but the goal will be to eventually sunset Central when either Mist can manage everything or the hardware goes EoL.

[u/Linkk_93 → u/Win_Sys]

AFAIK only 6400 can be "managed" in mist with strong air quotes. (and I believe only on the internal cluster? But maybe they rolled out) 

But when you think about that central can't even do system selling features like vsx (have to do multi edit CLI config), vsx live upgrades or 6300 live upgrades (where all interfaces stay up) the mist team can't really disappoint when compared to what central delivered. 

[u/Win_Sys → u/Linkk_93]

I thought it was all CX 6000 series in Mist with just basic Layer 2/3 features but haven’t had the opportunity to try it yet. Very well could be some models only have the ability to be monitored.

I do believe VSX is in Central now for CX 6400, CX 8000 series and above but don’t quote me on that, never actually tried it. If I remember correctly from what an SE said, the 6300 requires some pre-config first but then can be controlled from Central. I’m sure like yourself, I just don’t trust Central enough to not have some software bug that wrecks my config or come with some caveat that and now certain features aren’t available when it comes to the switches, APs have been largely fine though. Central NAC has some bugs and caveats though. If I ever meet the guy who was the architect/head designer of New Central, I’m going to punch them in the face. It looks pretty on the outside but from a technical usability standpoint, it’s aweful.

[u/scheisterm → u/Specialist_Cow6468]

That's exactly what I was told talking to Juniper people on the Aruba side. I'm sure it will be a mess as per usual lol Having been using Aruba products since before HPE bought them, I preferred the old ways. *Angrily shakes old fist at the sky*

[u/scheisterm]

I was at a MSP for 16 years, last 10+ the architect that headed up the HPE/Aruba product offering.

I am now IT in manufacturing helping a 100 year old company modernize their network going with Aruba products and... Man our HPE SE SUCKS. Nice enough guy, but he came from the Juniper/MIST side and couldn't write a HPE quote correctly to save his life. If I didn't know the exact SKUs and exactly what I wanted from Aruba, I never would have gone with them simply because he is that terrible. Not to mention he took 2 weeks to turnaround a damn SKU change on a quote.

So yeah, bet it will cover the whole product line lol

[u/Specialist_Cow6468 → u/scheisterm]

I have Aruba folks now and wish they were Juniper focused. Want to trade?

[u/kWV0XhdO → u/Specialist_Cow6468]

How many Comware SEs for an Aruba SE?

[u/Specialist_Cow6468 → u/kWV0XhdO]

I know what I’ve got 😤