Recently se released the new version of DentOS 2.0 which includes support for Marvell and Mellanox arm64 and amd64 and MAC/ASiC systems, compatibility improvements, and more.
For those who are unaware of this system, they should know that It is based on the Linux kernel and designed to equip switches, routers, and specialized networking equipment. The development is carried out with the participation of Amazon, Delta Electronics, Marvell, NVIDIA, Edgecore Networks and Wistron NeWeb (WNC). Initially, the project was funded by Amazon to equip network equipment on its infrastructure.
About DentOS
To manage packet switching in DentOS, the SwitchDev subsystem of the Linux kernel is used, which allows you to create drivers for Ethernet switches that can delegate frame forwarding and network packet processing to specialized hardware chips.
Software padding is based on the standard Linux networking stack, the NetLink subsystem, and tools such as IPRoute2, tc (traffic control), brctl (bridge control), and FRRouting, as well as VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) , LLDP (link layer). Discovery Protocol) and MSTP (Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol).
The system environment is based on the ONL distribution (Open Network Linux), which in turn uses the base Debian GNU/Linux package and provides an installer, configurations, and drivers to run on the switches.
ONL is developed by the Open Compute project and is a platform for creating specialized network devices that support installation on over a hundred different switch models. It includes drivers to interface with indicators used in switches, temperature sensors, coolers, I2C buses, GPIOs, and SFP transceivers.
For management, you can use the IpRoute2 and ifupdown2 tools, as well as gNMI (gRPC Network Management Interface). YANG (Yet Another Next Generation, RFC-6020 ) data models are used to define the configuration.
Main novelties of DentOS 2.0
In this new version, in addition to the compatibility with the systems already mentioned at the beginning, we can also find that support for compatibility with NAT-44 and NA(P)T for address translation (NAT) from the internal range to public addresses at the level of ordinary ports (layer 3, network layer) and VLAN ports (network bridges) on the switch.
It is also highlighted that added support for PoE controllers (Power over Ethernet) for Power over Ethernet management.
In addition, changes have been made to improve the performance and scalability of firewall configurations, as well as improvements to ACL-based resource management.
On the other hand, also it is noted that the ability to connect controllers was provided custom to configure port isolation.
Of the other changes that stand out in this new version of DentOS 2.0:
- Added support for flags to recognize local (intranet) IP addresses.
- Provides options for configuring 802.1Q network interfaces (VLANs) and routing traffic through them.
- The IpRoute2 and Ifupdown2 packets are used for configuration.
- Based on "devlink", an API for getting information and changing device parameters is implemented, support for local trap counters and dropped packets is implemented.
Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details In the following link. The DentOS code is written in C and is distributed under the Eclipse Public License.
Download and get dentOS 2.0 Beeblebrox
For those who are interested in being able to test this system, they should know that is available for Marvell and Mellanox ASIC based switches with up to 48 10 gigabit ports.
Besides that work with various ASICs and network data processing chips is supported, including Mellanox Spectrum, Marvell Aldrin 2, and Marvell AC3X ASICs with implementation of hardware packet forwarding tables.
Ready-to-install DentOS images are prepared for ARM64 (257 MB) and AMD64 (523 MB) architectures and system images can be obtained from the link below.