Why Should You Use Open Source Switch?

Open networking seems to be more and more popular compared with traditional networks at present. As one of the most important parts in open network, open source switch has raised much attention. Then, what is open source switch? Why should you use it? Just read through this post to get all the answers as well as the introduction on different types of open source switches.

What Is Open Source Switch?

Normally, an open source switch is a network switch whose hardware and software are provided by separate entities and can be changed independently without affecting each other. That is to say, the open source switch hardware can support multiple operating systems of different vendors, or the same operating system can be run on multiple hardware configurations.

It is obvious that the open source switches are contrary to closed switches, whose hardware and software are always purchased together. For example, if you buy a Juniper EX or MX, you need to buy JUNOS. If you buy a Cisco Catalyst switch, you have to buy IOS. By contrast, open source switch is full of choice. It gives vendors choice of rebranding an open switch by adding their own software and selling it all as a package.

Open Source Switch Types

Normally, open source switch can be divided as three types, namely, bare metal switch, white box switch and brite box switch.

Bare metal switch

A bare metal switch is an open source switch which is not loaded with any operating system and the open source switch hardware in it only has basic support from original design manufacturer. It comes with a boot loader called the Open Network Install Environment (ONIE), which allows you to load an operating system onto the switch. For such switch, you can choose to load the open source switch OS you want at any time. You can choose the applications you need to run first, and then choose the operating system that best supports the applications or best fits your operational environment. Finally, you choose the hardware to run it all. This is kind of like how we've been building servers.

White Box Switch

A white box switch can be regarded as a bare metal switch with network OS preloaded. Such switch is also non-branded. It's still an open switch because the OS and the hardware are not integrated. You just got a package of a bare metal switch and an operating system.

Brite Box Switch

A brite box switch is made by an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM), and is often the same switch offered by the ODMs as bare metal but with a brand name like Dell or HP. It can be regarded as a branded white box switch.

Why Should You Use Open Source Switch?

From the definition and different types of open source switch, you may find it beneficial to use it. It has the following advantages:

• Multiple choice: There's a multitude of operating systems you can load for different needs, such as Broadcom's FastPath, Big Switch Networks' Switch Light, Cumulus Networks' Cumulus Linux, Pica8's PicOS, etc.
• Flexible software solution: It offers composable networking solution with open source Network Operating System (NOS). You can replace the NOS you installed before and then choose another one for your actual needs.
• Enable premium NOS applications: It enables you to selectively load an open source switch OS, which offers a scalable solution to enable both network operators and vendors to get premium open source NOS applications rapidly. Some software (Cumulus Linux, PicOS, etc.) support a rich set of L2/L3 networking features that are compatible with a wide variety of 10G, 25G, 40G and 100G hardware platforms from multiple vendors.
• Realize customizable infrastructures in network: It gives you option to deploy the right combination of hardware platform, network operating system and individual software components to best suit their specific use scenarios.
• Reduce failure domains and improve overall performance: The flexibility of combination on open source switch hardware and software enables you to install and operationalize individual protocol stacks as applications or micro-features. This facilitates the design of composable networks, thus reduces failure domains and improve performance.

Last but not least, compared with open source switch, the traditional analytics tools are not good enough to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by SDN such as network programmability, automation and optimization.

Conclusion

From all the above, you may have a general understanding of what an open source network is and why you should use it. Among the three open source switch types, bare metal switches only matter to commercial software providers (like Facebook or Google). White or brite box solutions are the only real open switching choices for normal-sized network operators. For example, you can use the combination of an open 10Gb switch with a NOS you want as white box solution for your small-to-medium-sized network construction.

Original Source: http://www.cables-solutions.com/open-source-switch-wiki.html

Everything You Should Know About Cumulus Linux

Nowadays, many new small-and-medium-sized internet companies choose to use a bare metal switch with a third party network operating system (NOS) for network construction. The NOS they choose is consistent with the Open Network Install Environment (ONIE), a network OS installer which supports loading a network OS of choice, and then changing to a different network OS later. Among all the network operating systems, Cumulus Linux is a very popular choice. Then, what is Cumulus Linux? What are the advantages of this NOS? Is it reliable to use? Let’s find out the answers together in the following text.

What Is Cumulus Linux?

Cumulus Linux is a powerful open network operating system designed for data center network infrastructures. It accelerates networking functions on a network switch, acting as a platform for modern data center networking tools to get networks managed like servers. This Debian-based network operating system (NOS) can be run on hardware produced by a broad partner ecosystem. That is to say, you can accelerate networking constructs on a broad range of industry-standard switches from different vendors with various port densities, form factors and capabilities.

Advantages of Cumulus Linux

In addition to the functions such as BGP and OSFP that a normal NOS enables, the Cumulus Linux has three main features that many other operating systems don’t support, namely Automation, EVPN and MLAG.

• Automation: The biggest advantage of this feature is that it saves manpower by using automation tools. What’s more, it helps deployment and benefits from troubleshooting as well.
• EVPN: The full name of “EVPN” is Ethernet virtual private networks. This modern interoperable technology can not only help you get rid of the complexity of the layer 2 but also allows legacy layer 2 applications to operate over next-generation layer 3 networks.
• MLAG: It is an abbreviation for multi-chassis link aggregation group. As a new multi-device link aggregation technology for data center switch, MLAG configuration centralizes constituent ports on separate chassis, mainly serves as reliable load functionality to increase bandwidth and provide redundancy in emergent breakdown of one of the device.

Last but not least, in addition to the three main features, NCLU is another feature developed by Cumulus Networks to help those who have no idea how to use the Cumulus Linux OS. This is a function similar to the traditional CLI (Command Line Interface). It acts as a prompt command during configuration. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about the unfamiliarity to such a NOS you haven’t used before!

Is Cumulus Linux Stable?

Will the fault processing time be longer using the combination of a bare metal switch and an open network operating system Cumulus Linux? Actually, compared with the traditional network switch, the processing speed form this combination is basically the same as that of an Arista switch. It has very low latency as well.

In addition, the third-party systems such as Cumulus Linux based on Linux development have been very mature in today’s networking market just like the current operating systems (Windows, Linux, Redhat, Ubuntu, etc.) does. For example, FS N-serious switches are highly compatible with Cumulus Linux, and they both support EVPN and MLAG deployment.

Is Cumulus Linux Secure for My Data?

Of course it is secure. This NOS only process at the Control Plane. Your data is processed on hardware with chip and CPU. This is commonly known as isolation of the data layer and control layer.

Conclusion

From all the above, you may have a general understanding of the open network operating system Cumulus Linux. It is ideal to match with a bare metal switch in data center deployment. With this open NOS, you can accelerate networking constructs on switches from different vendors with various configurations easily and get easy deployment for future network construction.

Original Source: http://www.cables-solutions.com/cumulus-linux-wiki.html

What Is Open Source Networking and How to Achieve It?

The traditional network architecture has been unable to meet the needs of enterprises, operators and network users. It has complicated configuration on equipment and is slow in iteration. To solve this problem, open source networking has emerged! Then, what is open source networking? How to achieve it? Just read through this post to find the answers!

What Is Open Source Networking?

Open source networking, or open source network, is a new-generation network that offers you programmable customization service, centralized unified management, dynamic traffic monitoring, and automated deployment. It makes the transformation of the data center architecture change to virtualization and automation. This new-generation network focuses on technology decoupling, which Dell EMC calls an open network, is the core of the transformation to software defined network (SDN).

The SDN is a new network architecture proposed by the ONF (Open Networking Foundation) to facilitate the whole open source networking environment. This architecture separates the control plane from the data plane. It has central management for network state information Logically. And the underlying network hardware infrastructure is abstracted and defined by the upper layer application. With this architecture, enterprises and operators have unprecedented programmability, automation, and network control capabilities to build a highly scalable and flexible network to adapt to their changing business needs.

How to Achieve Open Source Networking?

The open source network involves the open networking stack from top to bottom. It starts from networking hardware disaggregation and modern 100G or 400G data center switch, and then to network operating systems, network controllers, virtualization, and orchestration. Therefore, to realize open source network, many aspects are involved. Among all these, the network operating systems and data center switches are essential in almost all the networks. Therefore, I’ll take a network switch from Dell as an example.

To realize the open source networking, the underlying open hardware platform is required. This can offer an open source network operating system. For example, the new Dell EMC Z9264F-ON switch offers optimum flexibility and cost-effectiveness for the web 2.0, enterprise, midmarket and cloud service provider with demanding compute and storage traffic environments.

Actually, there are many other examples as well. For instance, the FS bare metal switch N5850-48S6Q works well with the open source network operating system (NOS) Broadcom ICOS. It supports current and future data center requirements, including a x86-based control plane for easier integration of automation tools. Of course, it offers an ONIE installer for 3rd party network operating systems and compatibility with SDNs via OpenFlow 1.3.11 as well. Such combination can centrally manage and control network devices of different vendors and use the common API abstracted from the underlying network. It facilities the automation and management capabilities of the whole network.

Open Source Networking Advantages

• With an open source networking, there is no need to configure each device as in the past or wait for vendors to release new products.
• It offers a common open programming environment for operators, enterprises, third-party software vendors and network users, accelerating the innovation speed of new services and functions of network deployment.
• The network reliability and security can be improved through automated centralized network device management, unified deployment strategies and fewer configuration errors.

Conclusion

From all the above, you may have a general understanding of “what is open source network” and how to achieve it. This new-generation network offers you a programmable, automated system to help build a highly scalable and flexible network. It is promising in future network reconstruction. You can achieve it with common solutions involved with network switch, open source network operating system, etc.

Original Source: http://www.cables-solutions.com/open-source-networking-wiki.html

Network OS Systems for Bare Metal Switch

As you may know that a network switch with no network operating system (NOS) is referred to as a bare metal switch. Unlike a white box switch with vendor’s own or 3rd party already loaded NOS, a bare metal switch allows you to load a network OS according to your own will. After installing the NOS, these two types of switches are normally regarded as the same. Then, how to choose network OS systems for bare metal switches? Listed below are three popular choices, namely Cumulus Linux, IP Infusion OcNOS™ and Pica8 PICOS.

Option 1: Network OS Cumulus Networks Cumulus Linux

Cumulus Linux is a powerful open network OS designed by Cumulus Networks to help build and operate large data center networks. Therefore, the Cumulus Linux is a perfect match for a data center switch which operates in bigger networks such as enterprise, data center and metro Ethernet scenarios. It is a true Linux distribution with a hardware abstraction layer that runs on a variety of commodity hardware. Cumulus Linux uses automated tools to manage the network infrastructure and hopes to automate the configuration of network switches with these existing tools.

Additionally, Cumulus Linux offers economical scalability and choice flexibility to run multiple network paths without the need for multiple switches. The main features of Cumulus Linux lie in the following aspects:

• Economical Scalability: Customers can get increased operational efficiency with commodity hardware and a standardized Linux stack.
• Built for the Automation Age: This Debian-based Linux distribution offers a completely open architecture and is designed for easy automation.
• Standardized Toolsets: It allows open source and commercial Linux applications to run natively. You can use your own automation or other tools to improve efficiency and multiply the number of switches per operator.
• 70+ Hardware Platforms for Choice: You can choose compatible hardware based on your needs and your budget flexibly.

Cumulus Linux enables modern data center architectures while providing a transition path for traditional data center architectures. It supports layer 2, layer 3 and overlay architectures. This open architectural approach enables a wide range of solutions such as Clos, L3 network, L2 network, campus expansion, out of band management, etc.

Option 2: Network OS IP Infusion OcNOS™

OcNOS™ is designed to address the needs of public, private or hybrid cloud networks. It offers Carrier-grade network OS for bare metal switches. It includes many advanced capabilities such as extensive switching and routing protocol support, MPLS, SDN, etc.

In addition to providing industry standard CLI, OcNOS™ supports all standard MIBs , other standard operation and management tools as well. The main features are:

• Support Multiple Deployments: The several abstraction layers allow seamless portability across diverse network hardware.
• Modular Software Design: This design can make it customized, built and packaged with minimal software features to reduce CapEx and device footprint.
• Wide Interoperation: With CLI and SNMP management, the the OcNOS-based network node is easy to operate and interoperate with another vendor node.
• Support for disruptive networking technologies: It enables SDN support through OpenFlow and can provide custom programmable network operations.

Option 3: Network OS Pica8 PICOS

The PICOS is also an open Linux-based network OS built on the robust Debian Linux environment for bare metal switches. It supports all major L2 and L3 switching. What’s more, it can leverage a vast array of standard Linux tools and supports IPv4 and IPv6 static routing as well.

In addition to the basic features mentioned above, the PICOS supports other functions depending on its two different editions. For PICOS enterprise edition, it supports CrossFlow dual control plane technology for improved OpenFlow integration, scale, and management. For PICOS SDN edition, it uses OpenFlow to control MPLS, GRE, NVGRE or VXLAN tunnels, delivering on the promise of open programmability.

Conclusion

From all the above, you may have a general understanding of the three main network OS systems. You can choose a proper one according to your actual needs. For example, if you need a Debian-based Linux distribution NOS with Clos solution for a 40GB switch, Cumulus Linux is a wise choice.

Original Source: http://www.cables-solutions.com/network-os-systems-bare-metal-switch.html