PICOS 3.7.0  has improved to provide a more reliable and higher performance system. This document describes the differences between PICOS 3.7.0 and 2.11.x which includes the following sections:

Linux kernel & rootfs are Updated

In PICOS 3.7.0, Linux kernel and rootfs are updated, the following table describes the details of several platforms.

Significant Changes on PICOS startup/shutdown with systemd

In PICOS 3.7.0, systemd is used to manage/control the services, this brings the difference of the PICOS service management command under the Linux shell, as shown in the following table:

Installation and Upgrade

Partitioning

The system partitions of PICOS 3.7.0 has the following characteristics:

•   Partitions – PicOS and PicOS2 and User-Data – are created amid ONIE installation.

•   Backup partition for upgrade in 2.11.x is removed.

•   The size of PICOS partitions is increased to 2G.

•   Create an extra partition for user data.

•   A 1G/4G flash is used in N3132 or N3048. Rootfs, Kernel and user data including configurations are located in the UBIFS partition which is mounted on /mnt/open/(/dev/mtd6). 

•   Other NOSes including user data will be removed when install PICOS under ONIE environment.

Image File

The image file of PICOS 3.7.0 has the following characteristics:

• All X86 platforms share one installation and upgrade package with the name fixed as: onie-installer-picos-VERSION-x86.bin, where VERSION is the release version. X86 platform are listed below:

• •  Edgecore AS4630-54PE
  •  Edgecore AS5712-54X 
  •  Edgecore AS5812-54T
  •  Edgecore AS5812-54X
  •  Edgecore AS7312-54X
  •  Edgecore AS7326-56X
  •  Edgecore AS7712-32X
  •  Edgecore AS7726-32X
  •  Edgecore AS7816-64X

  •  Edgecore AS5835-54X

  •  DELL N3248P-ON
  •  DELL N3248PXE-ON
  •  DELL N3224PX-ON
  •  DELL N3248X-ON
  •  DELL S4048-ON
  •  DELL S4148F-ON
  •  DELL S4148T-ON
  •  DELL S4128F-ON
  •  DELL S5224F-ON
  •  DELL S5296F-ON  

  •  DELL S5212F-ON

  •  DELL S5248F-ON

  •  DELL Z9100-ON

  •  DELL Z9264F-ON

  •  DELL N3224T-ON

  •  DELL S4128T-ON

   
• Have only one single image file for ARM and PowerPC platforms – for example onie-installer-picos-n3048-3.7.0.bin - which can be used for installation and upgrade.

•   The size of the image file is 230-250M.

Commands – onie-nos-install/upgrade/upgrade2

In PICOS 3.7.0, the upgrade/upgrade2 command options have following changes:

•   Option "no-md5-check" is removed from command upgrade/upgrade2. If the md5 file is available in the same directory of the image file, will check it over the image file.

•   Option "backup-file" is not available in N3048 and N3132.

•   Option "no-license-check" is removed from upgrade/upgrade2.

•   If upgrade/upgrade2 with "factory-default", all system configurations will be reset to default values. The installed license key will be kept.

Upgrade (2.11.x -> 3.7.0)

It’s not supported to upgrade directly from the version before 2.11.x to 3.7.0. If you want to do so, there are two ways to achieve this:

•   Method 1: Use the ONIE installation method to install a brand new system of PICOS 3.7.0. This is the recommended method.

•   Method 2: First upgrade to 2.11.x (x indicates any version number of 2.11), then upgrade to 3.7.0.

When upgrading from 2.11.x to 3.7.0, please pay attention to the following points:

•   User can only use command "upgrade" but not "upgrade2" to go to 3.7.0.

•   Cannot return to 2.11.x if fail to upgrade to 3.7.0 because of unexpected event such as power outage.

•   S4148 with non-EFI ONIE cannot be upgrade to 3.7.0 from 2.11.x.

•   User data will be lost if upgrade to 3.7.0.

Return to 2.11.x (3.7.0 -> 2.11.x)

When downgrading from 3.7.0 to 2.11.x, you need to pay attention to the following points:

•   Downgrade from 3.7.0 to 2.11.x is not allowed by using "upgrade" command.

•   Use onie-nos-install to downgrade PICOS from 3.7.0 to 2.11.x. Before proceeding this, we first need to use ONIE to uninstall PICOS. On the ARM platform, execute the onie_uninstaller command at the ONIE prompt to uninstall the current version PICOS. On the x86 platform, select the "ONIE: Uninstall OS" option in the GRUB menu to uninstall the current version PICOS.

Please refer to the following link for PICOS 3.7.0 installation and upgrade guide:

Installing or Upgrading PICOS

PICOS Monitor

The PICOS Monitor process is a daemon service managed by systemd, it starts before PICOS, and is responsible for the following functions.

•   Monitor PICOS processes.

Restart PICOS or reboot system if key processes are crashed, the key processes including pica_lcmgr and pica_sif and xorp_rtrmgr in L2/L3 mode and ovs-vswitchd ovsdb-server in OVS mode.

•   Manage Watch Dog.

•   Secure the key config Files.

•   Health Checking - CPU and Memory and Storage.

•   System/Diag LED.

Please refer to the following links for PICOS monitor configuration guide:

PICOS Monitor

Fan Control

•   In PICOS 2.11, the same policy of fan control is applied to all support platforms.

•   In PICOS 3.7, different platform has different policy of fan control by customizing it in the drive code. 

Hardware Relative Features

4x100G and 6x40G for S4148F and S4148T

•   Switch over to 4x100G from 6x40G or vice versa with command "sudo picos_boot port-layout" under Linux shell.

•   Restart PICOS service to come into effective.

•   Under SFP mode, port names look like qe-1/1/x.1 ~ qe-1/1/x.4. For example, qe-1/1/25 is broken into qe-1/1/25.1, qe-1/1/25.2, qe-1/1/25.3 and qe-1/1/25.4. 

•   Hardware limitation – if power cycle the switch, wait for 10 - 30 seconds before power on.

N3132 

•   Auto Speed Negotiation – support 10G in addition to 1G/2.5G/5G.

•   Management interface is changed to eth0. Startup configuration will be lost if upgrade to 3.7.0 from 2.11.x.

MLAG 

MLAG feature is redesigned in 3.7.0 to make it easier to deploy. If MLAG is deployed in 2.11.x, after upgrading to 3.7, the MLAG configurations need to be modified manually. The following table list all the MLAG commands in 2.11.x and 3.7.0.

DHCP

The DHCP feature has been refined in 3.7.0. If DHCP is deployed in 2.11.x, after upgrading to 3.7, some of the DHCP configurations need to be modified manually. The following table list all the DHCP commands in 2.11.x and 3.7.0.

NTP

NTP supports connecting to the NTP server through the inband management port, which facilitates flexible networking.

When inband management interface is used to connect with the NTP server, after the upgrade is complete, the user needs to manually configure the NTP source interface as the inband management interface.

The following table list all the DHCP commands in 2.11.x and 3.7.0.

Port Breakout

PICOS 3.7.0 simplifies port splitting configuration and is easier to employment. The following table list  the commands in 2.11.x and 3.7.0.

Miscellaneous

System LED behaviors differently when stop PICOS.