Network configuration

What is network configuration?

• Manual error: Network-related problems due to human error have climbed over the last four years, from less than 26% in 2020 to nearly 30% in 2024.  
• Lack of documentation: Without proper documentation of configuration changes, troubleshooting becomes more difficult, and the impact of errors can be harder to assess and correct.
• Security vulnerabilities: Inconsistent access controls, failure to revert to a previous stable configuration, and other misconfigured security settings can create vulnerabilities, exposing the network to unauthorized access and potential cyberattacks.
• Device compromise: With the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, hackers have more opportunities to exploit weak network configurations. Once compromised, these devices can grant attackers access to sensitive information and facilitate further exploits.
• Compliance violations: Improper network configurations can result in failure to meet industry regulatory requirements, leading to potential legal penalties, fines, and reputational damage.
• Expensive maintenance: Poorly configured networks often require significant time and resources to troubleshoot and resolve issues, driving up maintenance costs and operational inefficiencies.

Businesses continue to modernize their network configuration systems to help navigate the challenges outlined above. Key areas of innovations include:

• Cloud-based configuration management allows centralized, scalable management of network configurations, enabling easier updates, backups, and monitoring across distributed environments.
• Configuration task automation reduces the need for manual intervention in routine tasks like device setup, policy enforcement, and software updates.
• AI-driven optimization helps analyze traffic patterns, including those from hard-to-detect IoT devices, to optimize load balancing, proactively addressing performance bottlenecks or security threats and even offering firmware recommendations.
• Self-healing networks ensure that issues and failures are automatically detected and resolved, leading to faster recovery times and reduced downtime without human intervention.
• Real-time monitoring and predictive analytics using AI and ML monitor network performance in real time, identifying root causes of issues and offering recommendations before they impact operations

• Automatic device discovery: HPE Aruba Networking Central offers a device inventory page that summarizes device information to which configurations can then be applied.
• Group creation: Groups serve as containers for AP, gateway, and switch configurations, allowing common settings to be applied across multiple devices. Device-specific overrides, like IP address or hostnames, are applied after the group configuration.
• Site creation: A site defines a physical location for managed devices, such as APs, gateways, and switches. Sites can be organized by building, clusters, or logical groupings, and are used for monitoring, alerts, AI insights, and reporting.
• Configuration using templates or UI groups
  
  • Template groups use CLI-based configuration files with variables for device-specific settings, which is ideal for devices with similar configurations.
  • UI groups apply configurations via the HPE Aruba Networking Central web interface, allowing individual device settings to be adjusted. Best for workflow-driven deployments with flexibility for device-specific changes.

To further streamline network configurations at scale, HPE Aruba Networking Central’s device management includes a common configuration model across HPE Aruba Networking wired, wireless, and gateway products, new hierarchical configurations capabilities, and 90 new APIs.  

• Track changes: The "Audit Trail" tab displays the configuration status of devices, pending changes, local overrides, and who made the changes.
• Config rollback: If a switch loses connectivity to HPE Aruba Networking Central, it automatically reverts to the last stable configuration upon reconnection.