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ONIE and Cumulus Linux on a switch
Going Cumulus
Conclusions
Traditionally minded network administrators might not like Cumulus and ONIE because they are very different from the standard tools for managing switches. On the other hand, a Linux server administrator with classical command-line skills will soon feel at home, despite facing some new shortcuts and technologies.
Living somewhere between these two worlds, I really enjoy troubleshooting networks with well-known Linux tools, and I am pretty sure the automation aspects will be an exciting feature for most administrators: You can easily integrate Cumulus into existing standard solutions, and it does not impose any limits on the administrator who is looking for more automation. In some cases, Cumulus might also save you some money, because bare metal switches are often considerably less expensive than their brand-name competitors.
Infos
- Cumulus Networks: http://cumulusnetworks.com
- Price list for Cumulus Linux: http://cumulusnetworks.com/product/pricing/
- ONIE: http://www.onie.org
- ONIE Installer download: http://github.com/opencomputeproject/onie
- ONIE documentation: http://opencomputeproject.github.io/onie/docs/user-guide/
- Switch Light: http://www.bigswitch.com
- MLNX-OS: http://www.mellanox.com
- Collectd: http://collectd.org
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