RBFS Manual Installation

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

  • Provision the switch with an IP address either through manual configuration or through DHCP.

  • Ensure that you have set up an HTTP server that will make available the downloaded images for ONIE to use. For more information, refer to the Installing over the Network section of the ONIE User Guide.

  • If you are installing RBFS using a USB thumb drive, refer to Installing using a USB thumb drive section of the ONIE User Guide.

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-stop
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