Initial Switch Access

Owned by Tracy Yang (Unlicensed)
Mar 03, 2023
3 min read

Initial configuration of the switch requires user to connect either a terminal or a computer to the switch console port. Once user gets access to the switch and establishes CLI (command-line interface) over the serial console connection, then assign an IP address to the management port and create an IP route to the gateway. Keep the following points in mind:

  • The console port provides local serial access to the switch.
  • The Ethernet management port is used for out-of-band network management tasks. Before using the management port for the first time, an IP address must be assigned to that port.

Console Port

The console port is located at the front of the switch, as shown in Figure 1. User can connect a terminal or a computer to the console port using a serial or RS-232 cable. The accessory kit includes an RJ45 to DB9 adapter cable.

Port Settings

Use the following port settings to connect a terminal or a computer to the switch console port:

Baud rate: 115200

Data bits: 8

Stop bits: 1

The default width for a terminal session through the console port is 80 characters. That means that the width of the terminal client should be a minimum of 80 characters to properly use the console port. Most terminal client default width is 80 characters.

Ethernet Management Port

Pica8 switches provide one or two Ethernet management ports for switch configuration and out-of-band network management. Please see Figure 1, which shows the console and management ports of the Pica8 P-3930 switch. The port labelled ETHERNET is the management port, while the port labelled CONSOLE is the console port.

Figure 1 Console and Management Ports

Assigning an IP Address to Management Interface

Once granted initial access to the switch, user needs to configure the management IP address and default gateway in either L2/L3 mode or OVS mode. This section describes the configurarion in  L2/L3 mode.

For detail of configuration in OVS mode, please refer to Configuring IP addressing in OVS mode.

The management IP address is used to maintain and manage the device. You can configure the management interface eth0 and eth1 with static IP addresses or through dynamic address allocation using DHCP. If the static IP address is not assigned, the system will try to obtain the management port IP address dynamically from the DHCP server by default.

NOTE:

When switching from OVS mode to L2/L3 mode, the static IP address of the management port configured before will still be used if there is no user configuration for it in the new mode.

Configuring Management Interface

Step1          Set static IP addresses for management interface eth0 and eth1.

                    set system management-ethernet eth0 ip-address {IPv4 | IPv6} <ip_address>

NOTE:

  • When configuring the IP address for eth1 interface, replace eth0 with eth1 in the command.
  • If the static IP address is not assigned, the system will try to dynamically obtain the management port IP address from the DHCP server which is also the factory setting.

Step2          Set the gateway address for management interface eth0 and eth1.

            set system management-ethernet eth0 ip-gateway {IPv4 | IPv6} <ip_address>

NOTE:

When configuring the gateway for eth1 interface, replace eth0 with eth1 in the command.

Configuration Example

Step1         Set static IP addresses for management interface eth0 and eth1.

admin@Xorplus# set system management-ethernet eth0 ip-address IPv4 192.168.10.5/24
admin@Xorplus# set system management-ethernet eth1 ip-address IPv4 192.168.20.5/24

Step2         Set the gateway address for management interface eth0 and eth1. 

admin@Xorplus# set system management-ethernet eth0 ip-gateway IPv4 192.168.10.1     
admin@Xorplus# set system management-ethernet eth1 ip-gateway IPv4 192.168.20.1

Step3         Commit the configuration.

admin@XorPlus# commit

Step4         Verify the configuration.

    • Run run show system management-ethernet command to view the configuration information, status and traffic statistics information of the management interface.      
admin@XorPlus# run show system management-ethernet
eth0     Hwaddr: 00:18:23:30:e5:72       State: UP
               Gateway  : 192.168.10.1
               Inet addr:
                   192.168.10.5/24
       Traffic statistics
               Input Packets......................3620
               Input Bytes........................462971
               Output Packets.....................597
               Output Bytes.......................75459

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