Bare Metal Orchestrator can onboard a switch in ONIE, NOS, or NSO mode.
ONIE and NOS modes are for onboarding Dell switches. In the ONIE mode, you can collect switch inventory details such as the boot mode. You can also install supported operating systems. After you install the operating system, you can change the mode to NOS.
In the NOS mode, the switch controller connects through the management interface of the switch and collects inventory details. For information about onboarding Dell switches, see Managed device discovery overview.
The NSO mode is for onboarding Cisco switches. To onboard a Cisco switch, you must first register a Cisco NSO instance in Bare Metal Orchestrator. Bare Metal Orchestrator then communicates with the switch using this instance and a nso-sku-pack to collect inventory details. For information about onboarding a Cisco switch, see Onboard a Cisco switch in Bare Metal Orchestrator.
Switch configuration is performed with YAML files on Bare Metal Orchestrator. These files are templates that contain configuration settings for an individual switch. You can update the file with attributes that can trigger specific work flows like firmware updates and operating system deployment. You can use the sample switch YAML file to create a switch, update the required configurations, and apply them on the target switch.
For more information about the supported configurations, see Managing switch configurations.
You can perform the following operations on a switch:
- Creating, editing, and deleting a switch
- Viewing switch inventory details
- Reinitializing a switch