Flashing NEC Switches

NEC provides two models of switch that supports OpenFlow, the IP8800/S3640-24T2XW and the IP8800/S3640-48T2XW. The switches must be manually flashed with OpenFlow capable firmware to make them OpenFlow capable. This page explains how to flash the switch to make it OpenFlow capable.

Materials Needed

The SD card must contain the following for the switch to be able to boot off of it:

• OpenFlow capable firmware (k.img)
• Software license for OpenFlow capable firmware (license.dat)
• Configuration file for OpenFlow specific features (openflow.conf)

Overview

These are the general steps required to get the switch up and running as an OpenFlow device:

1. Create VLANs
2. Create openflow.conf
3. Save k.img, license.dat, and openflow.conf onto SD card
4. Cold boot switch off of SD card
5. Enjoy

Some Caveats

The SD card

NEC provides a certified SD card with the switch. They recommend that you only use this card.

The License

Each license is specific to a certain switch; a switch will not boot properly if the license is missing, misnamed, or if the license for the wrong switch is used.

Sometimes the license is labeled with a specific switch's serial number instead of being labeled "license.dat." In that case, the serial number can be found on a silver sticker on the front of the switch, or by typing show version at the terminal:

# show ver
Date 2000/01/09 01:20:34 UTC
Model: AX3640S-48T2XW
S/W: OS-L3L Ver. 10.7 
H/W: Main board
       AX-3640-48T2XW-L [WA03CL48T2XWS0E0693K007:80330300:111:1B514-1B512]    
     Module slot1 PS-M(AC)
       AX-F2430-PSA01 [WA0PSA010000C110093D006]
     Module slot2 FAN-M
       AX-F2430-FAN01 [WA1FAN010000C140093D004]

In this case, "WA03CL48T2XWS0E0693K007" is the serial number and should match the name of the correct license for this specific switch.

Note: If the license is named after the switch's serial number, the license must be renamed to "license.dat."

Creating the openflow.conf file

openflow.conf is a simple text file that contains OpenFlow specific configurations. The following are the three parameters you can specify in the file.

no-save

when specified in the .conf file, configuration changes won't be saved to the SD card. Specifying this parameter in openflow.conf will prevent you from creating and removing virtual switches from the CLI.

double-wide-mode

When specified, all ten OpenFlow specific header fields will be matched.

setvsi

more detailed use of this parameter can be found in the virtual switch article.

Creates an instance of a virtual switch. You can also use this configuration command from the CLI.

setvsi is followed by several parameters:

setvsi <vlan id> <list of ports> <tcp|ssl> <controller ip address[:port]> [<cacert> <my cert> <my private key>] [dpid <datapath id>] [hwlimit <max entrynum>] [max-backoff <backoff time>] [echo-interval <interval time>]

to get setvsi working at minimal, you need only the following parameters:

setvsi <vlan id> <list of ports> <tcp|ssl> <controller ip address[:port]> [dpid <datapath id>]

Example openflow.conf file

openflow.conf resides in /mnt/ once the switch is booted.

> cat /mnt/openflow.conf 
double-wide-mode

setvsi 1 1,2,3,4,9.1 tcp 172.16.4.180 dpid 0x0123456789ab
setvsi 2 5-8,9.2 tcp 172.16.4.64 dpid 0x01234567abcd
setvsi 3 15-18,19.2 tcp 172.16.4.64 dpid 0x01234567abcd

Note that the no-save option is omitted to make editing from the CLI easier.