Using SONiC to run MSN2100 switch

The Mellanox/NVidia MSN2100 switch came with a bare ONIE system and is not Plug and Play. NVidia service can not provide setting up assistance without a ONYX//Cumulus/SONiC entitlement. I installed the community version of SONiC from sonic.software for sonic-mellanox.bin.

After the installation, the switch is automatically configured with all 16 ports as routers with a preset IP from 10.0.0.0 to 10.0.0.30. This rendered the switch useless since no two ports can talk with each other.

The following steps resolved the issue and made it a normal dummy switch:

Once log in the management interface:

Step 1: sudo bash # to bring a root interface;

Step 2: config vlan add 100 # This create a vlan;

Step 3: config interface ip remove Ethernet0 10.0.0.0 # do this to all 16 interfaces to remove their router status;

Step 4: config vlan member add 100 -u Ethernet0 # do this to all 16 interfaces to group all ports to a vlan;

Step 5: config clock timezone America/New_York # set time zone of the switch;

Step 6: config clock YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS # set time;

Step 7: cp /etc/sonic/config_db.json ~/ # make a backup of the initial configuration;

Step 8: config save -y # save current configuration;

Step 9: reboot

Then you will get a working switch.

Certainly, do not forget to reset the management password and management port (eth0) ip.

Enjoy.