Installing ONL Manually

You can install open network Linux (ONL) manually on a bare-metal switch. Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) should be installed on the switch. The Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) is an open-source utility that provides an installation environment for bare-metal switches. ONIE is used to install different network operating systems (NOS) on a device.

The RtBrick ONL installer images are compatible with ONIE and can be used by ONIE to install an RtBrick ONL (Open Network Linux) on a bare-metal switch.

  • When installing ONL, any existing configurations on the switch will be deleted.

  • The current RBFS configurations can be retrieved via a REST call from the RESTCONF endpoint. If you have saved the RBFS configuration using this method, you can load it onto the switch through a RESTCONF endpoint. For more information, refer to the following sections of the RtBrick documentation.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that ONIE has been installed on the switch by the vendor of the switch. If ONIE is not unavailable with the switch, contact the switch vendor.

  • Ensure that the switch management interface has been provisioned with an IP address either through manual configuration or through DHCP.

  • Ensure that you have set up the necessary infrastructure to download RtBrick ONL installer images on your environment. For information, see section RtBrick Tools Installation.

  • Ensure that you have set up an HTTP server that will make available the downloaded images for ONIE to use. For more information, see
    https://opencomputeproject.github.io/onie/user-guide/index.html#installing-over-the-network

Installation Procedure

To install the ONL image, perform the following steps:

On a fresh box, ONL prompt is not available, so skip to ONIE prompt section.

ONL prompt section:

Option 1: Manually select ONIE boot mode

  1. Connect to the console port

  1. Reboot the device

root@bl1-pod1:~# reboot

  1. Once the selection menu appears as shown in the selection menu below, select "ONIE" and press enter.

                    GNU GRUB  version 2.02

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Open Network Linux                                                         |
|*ONIE   <----- Select this one                                              |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

      Use the ^ and v keys to select which entry is highlighted.
      Press enter to boot the selected OS, `e' to edit the commands
      before booting or `c' for a command-line.

  1. Select "ONIE: Install OS" from the next selection menu displayed.

                     GNU GRUB  version 2.02
 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |*ONIE: Install OS   <----- Select this one                                  |
 | ONIE: Rescue                                                               |
 | ONIE: Uninstall OS                                                         |
 | ONIE: Update ONIE                                                          |
 | ONIE: Embed ONIE                                                           |
 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

      Use the ^ and v keys to select which entry is highlighted.
      Press enter to boot the selected OS, `e' to edit the commands
      before booting or `c' for a command-line.

  1. Wait for the "ONIE:/ #" prompt.

NOTICE: ONIE started in NOS install mode.  Install mode persists
NOTICE: until a NOS installer runs successfully.

** Installer Mode Enabled **
ONIE:/ #
ONIE:/ #
ONIE:/ #

Provide the URL of the ONL installer image location.

ONIE:/ # onie-nos-install http://server.example.net/_/images/latest/rtbrick-onl-ins
taller/rtbrick-onl-installer-spine-q2c-21.9.1.d

Wait until the device displays the "login:" prompt after the image upgrade completes. You can then log into the device and verify the image version.

Option 2: Preselect ONIE boot mode

  1. Connect to the console port

  2. Select ONIE boot mode

root@onl>bl1-pod1:~ # onl-onie-boot-mode --help
usage: onl-onie-boot-mode [-h] [--onie-only]
                          {install,rescue,uninstall,update,embed,diag,none}

positional arguments:
  {install,rescue,uninstall,update,embed,diag,none}

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --onie-only           Do not set ONIE boot menu option.
root@onl>bl1-pod1:~ #

root@onl>bl1-pod1:~ # onl-onie-boot-mode install
The system will boot into ONIE install mode at the next restart.
root@onl>bl1-pod1:~ #

  1. Reboot switch

root@onl>bl1-pod1:~ # reboot

ONIE prompt section:

You must update the URL of the ONL installer image location as per your specific HTTP server configuration.

ONIE:/ # onie-discovery-stop
NOTICE: The 'onie-discovery-stop' command is deprecated and will be removed in 2019.02.
NOTICE: Use 'onie-stop' instead.
discover: installer mode detected.
Stopping: discover... done.

ONIE:/ # onie-nos-install http://server.example.net/_/images/latest/rtbrick-onl-ins
taller/rtbrick-onl-installer-spine-q2c-21.9.1.d

discover: installer mode detected.
Stopping: discover... done.

Info: Attempting http://server.example.net/_/images/latest/rtbrick-onl-installer/rtbrick-onl-installer-spine-q2c-21.9.1.d ...

Connecting to server.example.net (198.51.100.125)
installer 100% |*******************************| 1176M 0:00:00 ETA

ONIE: Executing installer: http://server.example.net/_/images/latest/rtbrick-onl-installer/rtbrick-onl-installer-spine-q2c-21.9.1.d