Dell Networking Operating System
DNOS or Dell Networking Operating System is an operating system running on switches from Dell Networking. It is derived from either the PowerConnect OS (DNOS 6.x) or Force10 OS/FTOS (DNOS 9.x) and will be made available for the 10G and faster Dell Networking S-series switches, the Z-series 40G core switches and DNOS6 is available for the N-series switches.
Two version families
The DNOS family comes in a few main versions:
DNOS3
- DNOS 3.x: This is a family of firmware for the campus access switches that can only be managed using a web based GUI or run as unmanaged device.
DNOS6h a range of new fea
All DNOS 9.x based switches offer a wide range of layer2 and layer3 protocols. All features are available on all switches: some switch models (in the S-series) offer an additional license for layer3 or routing: this additional license is NOT required to use that protocol, but only required to get support from the Dell Networking support department on using these features. All interfaces on DNOS 9.x running switches are configured as a layer3 interface and by default shutdown. To use such an interface as an ethernet switchport you need to configure it as such (with the command "switchport") and then enable that port using "no shutdown". Unlike DNOS 6.x, DNOS 9.x only offers a command line interface (CLI) to configure and monitor the switch directly, though it is possible with the Automation Tools to create your own webGui on DNOS 9.x switches.
Layer2 capabilities
All standardized ethernet standards are supported by switches running FTOS including: Spanning Tree Protocol and RSTP, VLAN and the IEEE 802.1Q standards, QinQ or IEEE 802.1ad, Link Layer Discovery Protocol and LLDP MED. The S-series switches ending with a V and some of the E-series line-cards support Power over Ethernet or PoE with the standards for this protocol.
Layer3 capabilities
As mentioned above, by default an interface on a switch running DNOS 9.x are configured as a layer3 port. All these switches are thus routers with many interfaces that can (and most often are) reconfigured into a layer2 ethernet switch.
All DNOS 9 switches run at least the following routing protocols: Routing Information Protocol and RIP version 2, OSPF, IS-IS and Border Gateway Protocol version 4.
Open Automation
Under the name OpenAutomation 2.0 Dell Networking switches running DNOS 9.x offers a number of features under this name. These features include:[1]
Smart Scripting
Dell Networking switches support so called smart scripting. It is possible to develop scripts that run on the switches running DNOS 9. Both Perl and Python are supported as scripting languages to automate environment specific repetitive tasks or to build in custom behavior. Users who write such scripts are promoted to share these scripts with the user-community and make them available to other Force10/DNOS users.[2] Force10 introduced the smart scripting in FTOS in 2010, following other vendors like Cisco for their Nexus product range[3]
Bare metal provisioning
Dell Networking switches support a bare metal provisioning option: if you need to deploy a number of similar switches you can put both (desired/latest) firmware release and standard user-specific configuration on a USB key: when deploying the switches you can insert the USB key, power-up the switch and it will automatically load the correct firmware and configuration. In combination with smart scripting someone can combine these features for a fully automated installation and configuration of new switches. It is also possible to run BMP via the network: unless re-configured to start in 'normal' mode all DNOS 9.x switches (and the earlier FTOS switches) will check if there is a BMP server on the network by sending out a DHCP/BOOTP request at boot: if it gets the correct response from the DHCP server (IP address, address of TFTP server and a script/config file name) it will contact a TFTP server to download correct firmware and configuration files and run that. You can disable this feature during initial configuration so that the switch will boot from the firmware and configuration saved on the switch NVRAM memory.
Virtual server networking
Part of the Open Automation platform are special features for the use of virtualisation in your datacenter. Virtualisation allows you to create complete (virtual) server-systems running on a standard hypervisor farm. This will create new challenges for networking in such a datacenter, support automated configuration of datacenter switches to connect newly created virtual servers. The open automation platform has several features to support this.[4]
Network Automation
According to Dell the move to (server and datacenter) virtualisation is one of the most important developments in the IT industry. According to this vendor the industry must prevent that this path leads to getting locked-in into specific vendors due to the use of proprietary technologies. The open automation framework is an open framework that doesn't rely on proprietary solutions[4][5]
Alternative OS
On some models Dell Networking switches (currently the S3048-ON, S4048-ON, S4810-ON, S6000-ON and Z9100) it is possible to run an alternative network OS: Cumulus Linux. This will run instead of DNOS on top of NetBSD. Cumulus Linux is a complete Linux distribution which uses the full TCP/IP stack of Linux.[6]
Sources and references
- ^ Dell Force10 Open Automation 2.0[permanent dead link], visited 29 May 2013
- ^ Humair Ahmed offering DNOS9 scripts to others. Checked 10 May 2013
- ^ Networkcomputing.com: F10 enhances open automation framework with...., 9 November 2010. Visited: 29 May 2013
- ^ a b Technical Whitepaper: Network automation with F10 Open Automation Framework, downloaded 25 May 2013
- ^ Dell technical specsheet: Open Automation Framework Archived 2013-03-19 at the Wayback Machine, downloaded: 29 May 2013
- ^ IT Online: Dell decouples hardware and software, 7 February 2014. visited: 28 April 2014