Dell EMC SmartFabric OS10 User Guide Release 10.5.0

OpenFlow

Switches implement the control plane and data plane in the same hardware. Software-defined network (SDN) decouples the software (control plane) from the hardware (data plane). A centralized SDN controller handles the control plane traffic and hardware configuration for data plane flows.

The SDN controller is the "brain" of an SDN. The SDN controller uses north-bound application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the business logic applications and south-bound APIs to set up controlled network devices, such as OS10 switches.

OpenFlow is an implementation of SDN. OpenFlow enables programmable networks. You can develop SDN controller network applications using representational state transfer (REST) or JAVA APIs (north-bound APIs) to business logic applications. The SDN controller uses OpenFlow south-bound APIs to communicate with the switches and relay information from business logic applications.

Advantages of an SDN include customization, accelerating new feature development, lower operating costs, and fostering an open, multi-vendor environment.

OS10 supports OpenFlow protocol versions 1.0 and 1.3.

OS10 supports OpenFlow-only mode. In this mode, the SDN controller controls data path of the switch. The OpenFlow pipeline processes all data packets.

Supported Platforms

• S4048–ON
• S4048T-ON
• S4100-ON
• S4248FB-ON
• S4248FBL-ON
• S6010–ON
• Z9100–ON
• Z9264F-ON

OS10 OpenFlow implementation reserves VLANs 1 and 4095.

The following is a known OpenFlow restriction in OS10:

Converting the switch from OpenFlow mode back to Normal mode removes all OpenFlow configurations. The switch returns to the pre-Openflow status. The management, interface (maximum transmission unit (MTU) and LLDP), and authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) settings specified in the Normal mode are retained.

To start up the switch in Factory Default mode, you must:

1. Delete the startup configuration using the delete startup-configuration command.
2. Enter the reload command.
   NOTE Do not use the no openflow or no mode openflow-only command.

   OS10# delete startup-configuration
   OS10# reload