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Arista Southwest Region Newsletter

Welcome to the September 2026 Newsletter for Arista customers in the U.S. Southwest Region!

We welcome your feedback on the newsletter. If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to improve the newsletter, please reach out to southwest@arista.com.

Leadership Perspectives — Recent Blogs from Arista Leadership

  • The Next Frontier for AI Fabrics: Scale Across Networking --- Sep 22nd, 2026: Jayshree Ullal and Brendan Gibbs introduce Arista's Scale-Across strategy and REACH framework, demonstrating how the 7800 AI Spine and SRv6 unite geographically distributed data centers to bypass local power and space constraints for massive AI workloads.

    Read Blog

  • Racing Against Machine-Speed Threats: How Arista Is Using AI --- Sep 2nd, 2026: Kenneth Duda and Jason Bevis detail how Arista combines AI-assisted code analysis with fundamental EOS architectural advantages—like a single codebase and control-plane isolation—to neutralize security threats at machine speed.

    Read Blog

Explore All Blogs

Southwest Region Tech Tip of the Quarter

Your new network colleague: Ask AVA

Tired of clicking through multiple dashboards to piece together a troubleshooting picture?

Meet Ask AVA, your new CloudVision AI colleague that allows you to interact with your network using natural language.

Why it matters: Ask AVA leverages your high-quality data in Arista's Network Data Lake (NetDL) to answer specific questions about your network. Instead of manually correlating MAC addresses and routing tables across different screens, you can simply ask AVA to summarize active network events, generate CPU and memory visualizations, or even run ping and traceroute commands directly from impacted devices.

Pro Tip: You can enable Ask AVA (currently in Beta) by navigating to the Settings > Features tab in your CVaaS tenant. Once enabled, click the "A" icon in the top right corner of any CloudVision screen to open the chat interface. If you are logging in after a long weekend, try starting with: "Create a list of Events that have occurred over the last 24 hours and recommend which events I should address first."

Check out last month's Newsletter to learn more about Ask AVA! To view, select "March 2026" in the top left navigation menu.

Integrated Packet Capture for Modern Arista Networks

By: Gurinder Sandhu, Systems Engineer

Even with today’s advances in AI and automation, there are times when network engineers still need to examine exactly what is happening on the wire. Whether troubleshooting is performed by a human operator or assisted by AI, packet captures remain one of the most valuable tools for diagnosing complex network behavior.

That need for packet-level visibility remains important in modern EVPN/VXLAN spine-and-leaf networks, where traffic can traverse multiple paths across a distributed fabric. Arista is now extending that architecture with troubleshooting capabilities that are deeply integrated into the network itself.


Packet Capture as Part of the Network

The Arista Recorder Node enables packet capture from switches throughout an Arista environment. Rather than deploying separate packet-capture infrastructure at multiple locations, a Recorder Node can be connected to the network and used as a centralized destination for captures from across the fabric.

Operations are managed through Arista CloudVision, providing a common platform for both network management and packet-capture workflows.


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Recorder Node Integration into the Leaf - Spine Topology


In a typical spine-and-leaf topology, the Recorder Node can be connected to a leaf switch. From CloudVision, an operator can initiate a packet capture on any spine or leaf switch, and the captured traffic is automatically transported to the Recorder Node using GREenSPAN tunnels for storage and analysis.

When broader visibility is required, packet captures can also be initiated from multiple switches simultaneously.


Capture Once, Analyze What Matters

Once packets have been captured, operators can retrieve the complete capture as a PCAP file or export a filtered set of packets using specific criteria. For example, filtering can be based on:

  • A specific time range
  • A particular capture session
  • Source or destination networks
  • Other supported filtering criteria

This keeps exported PCAP files manageable, while the complete capture remains available on the Recorder Node.


Simplifying Network Troubleshooting

The goal is simple: make packet capture a native capability of the network rather than a separate operational process.

Recorder Node is an integrated part of the Arista network and is managed through the same CloudVision platform used to operate the spine-and-leaf network. This gives network teams a single platform for network management and packet capture, with both operational workflows built directly into CloudVision.

Let us show you how Arista is making networks smarter with integrated tools designed to simplify monitoring, troubleshooting, and packet-level visibility. To learn more, click on the link below.

Upcoming Events

Arista hosts various events throughout the year for you! Members of our team organize these informative events to showcase Arista's ability to not only help improve your network, but to also assist by providing a set of tools to improve your operations!

Click on the boxes below to be directed to Arista's website for additional lists of Webinars and Events.

  • Webinars

    We make it easy for you to view products that are of interest, all virtually! Technical members of the team showcase outstanding explanations of the products. Click below to see our list of Webinars.

    Arista Webinars

  • Events

    Join us in person to get a closer look at our list of products and solutions, as well as get the chance to meet members of the team. Click below to see our list of upcoming Events.

    Upcoming Events

Software Updates

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Stay informed on the latest software updates across all Arista products and services.

Software Version Release Date
EOS 4.35.6M
4.34.8M
4.33.10M
4.36.2F		 August 18th, 2026
August 18th, 2026
August 18th, 2026
August 15th, 2026
CVP Portal 2026.2.1
Appliance 7.2.0
Sensor 1.4.2		 September 9th, 2026
July 2nd, 2026
July 8th, 2026
DMF 8.10.1 September 18th, 2026
CV-CUE 2026.2.0 May 21st, 2026
Arista NDR 5.3.5 July 16th, 2025
TerminAttr 1.45.1 July 10th, 2026
VeloCloud SD-WAN
Orchestrator/Gateway/Edge		 7.0.0 July 2026

View All Latest Software Updates

Security Advisories and Field Notices

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Stay informed on the latest platform security and field notice updates. For more information on Arista's statement on AI-Enhanced Security and Resilience regarding Mythos and project Glasswing, click here.

Security Advisories


  • Are you a CloudVision Customer? Leverage the following workflow to remediate PSIRTs affecting your EOS devices


  • Not a CloudVision Customer? Leverage the Arista ANTA PSIRT CLI workflow to generate a report that illustrates which CVEs are impacting your devices — ANTA PSIRT CLI Feature

Field Notices


View All of the Latest Advisories & Notices

Product Updates

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Stay up to date on all new Arista Product Releases, as well as End of Sale/End of Support Notices.

New Product Releases

End of Sale / End of Software Support


View All Latest End of Sale & Support Notices

Did You Know?

Arista has revamped their certifications! The new Arista Certified Engineer (ACE) program is now organized by specific tracks like Cloud Data Center, Campus, and Automation to better align with your job role.

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Start your ACE journey now

Your Southwest Regional Team is Here to Support Your Success.

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Let's Connect

Thanks for reading! Your local Arista team is here to help you navigate your evolving network needs. Reach out anytime to southwest@arista.com for more information or technical guidance. Until next month—stay connected!

Contact Your Local Team