PICOS 3.1.0 is inherited from PICOS 2.11.16 and has improved to provide a more reliable and higher performance system. This document describes the differences between PICOS 3.1.0 and 2.11.16 which includes the following sections:

Dell Platforms are Covered in 3.1.0 Regression

Dell platforms covered in 3.1.0 regression are as follows:

•   N3132PX

•   N3048EP-ON

•   S4148F-ON

•   S4048-ON

Linux kernel & rootfs are Updated

In PICOS 3.1.0, Linux kernel and rootfs are updated, the following table describes the details.

Significant Changes on PicOS startup/shutdown with systemd

In PICOS 3.1.0, 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 3.1.0 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 3.1.0 has the following characteristics:

•   Have only one single image file – for example onie-installer-picos-s4148-3.1.0.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 3.1.0, 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 -> 3.1.0)

It’s not supported to upgrade directly from the version before 2.11.x to 3.1.0. 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 3.1.0. This is the recommended method.

•   Method 2: First upgrade to 2.11.x (x indicates any version number of 2.11), then upgrade to 3.1.0.

When upgrading from 2.11.x to 3.1.0, please pay attention to the following points:

•   User can only use command "upgrade" but not "upgrade2" to go to 3.1.0.

•   Cannot return to 2.11.x if fail to upgrade to 3.1.0 because of unexpected event such as power outage.

•   S4148 with non-EFI ONIE cannot be upgrade to 3.1.0 from 2.11.x.

•   User data will be lost if upgrade to 3.1.0.

Return to 2.11.x (3.1.0 -> 2.11.x)

When downgrading from 3.1.0 to 2.11.x, you need to pay attention to the following points:

•   Downgrade from 3.1.0 to 2.11.x is not allowed by using "upgrade" command.

•   Use onie-nos-install to downgrade PICOS from 3.1.0 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 3.1.0 installation and upgrade guide:

http://intranet.pica8.com/display/PicOS31sp/Installing+or+Upgrading+PicOS

Management VRF

Management VRF – New Feature

PICOS 3.1.0 supports VRF function including management VRF.

•   Based on VRF-lite with static routing. 

•   The management routing is separated from the data plane routing to protect the management network.

•   eth0 is separated from In-band management interfaces completely.

•   Maximum of 4 VLAN interfaces can be configured as in-band management interfaces by using set system inband vlan-interface <vlan-interface> command.

•   Add VRF option to CLI command ping/traceroute under operational mode.

Management VRF – Work Flow

The work flow and configuration procedure of management VRF are as follows:

•   By default, eth0 and all VLAN interfaces are in the default VRF i.e VRF0.

•   Create a new VRF, say VRF1.

•   Move all VLAN interfaces, except the VLAN interface purposed for in-band management, to VRF1 manually.

•   Use set system inband enable true command to enable the inband management function for all the L3 VLAN interfaces in the default VRF. Use set system inband vlan-interface <vlan-interface> command to set a specified L3 VLAN interface in the default VRF as the inband management port. 

Management VRF – Limitation

Management VRF has the following configuration limitations:

•   If "set system inband enable true", any vlan-interface in management/default VRF (VRF0) can be used as in-band/management vlan interface.

•   User can enable in-band on at most 4 vlan-interfaces with the CLI command, et system inband enable vlan-interface xxxx".

•   Cannot expect to-and-fro packet go through the same interface for all connections.

Please refer to the following links for VRF configuration guide:

http://intranet.pica8.com/display/PicOS31sp/VRF+Configuration+Guide

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:

http://intranet.pica8.com/display/PicOS31sp/PICOS+Monitor

Fan Control

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

•   In PICOS 3.1, 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 3.1.0 from 2.11.16.x.

Miscellaneous

•   Remove configuration files /pica/config/pica_startup.boot and /pica/config/pica.conf if change from FLEX mode to QSFP or SFP mode.

•   System LED behaviors differently when stop PicOS.