Force10 Networks: FTOS - Force10 Operating System

FTOS - Force10 Operating System

FTOS Overview

FTOS powers the Force10 Reliable Networking product portfolio and has been hardened in some of the largest and most demanding environments in the world to meet stringent reliability, scalability and serviceability requirements. With FTOS, Force10 Networks is enabling businesses to cost effectively build end-to-end reliable networks while reducing operations and management overhead.

The advanced features and modular design of FTOS delivers the following operational advantages:

RELIABILITY ensures optimal network uptime and support for rich, dynamic application environments through a modular, fault-tolerant design as well as a rigorous testing process that results in more stable operations

PERFORMANCE AND PROCESS PREDICTABILITY is achieved in FTOS through scalable protocols and distributed processes that have been hardened in demanding data center environments to achieve rapid convergence

DAY-TO-DAY MANAGEMENT EFFICIENCIES help lower total cost of network ownership and reduce unplanned downtime attributed to human error through advanced inline monitoring and diagnostic features, an industry standard CLI, automated fault correction and configuration rollback

FTOS Features and Benefits

FTOS provides the consistency, reliability, scalability and serviceability required to streamline network management, reduce unplanned downtime related to operational error and lower the total cost of network ownership.

Operational Benefits	FTOS Features
Consistency A common interface across the Force10 Networks switch/router product portfolio simplifies management and reduces the total cost of network ownership	Common interface across chassis and fixed configuration switch/routers provides customers with optimized solutions for every part of their network Identical configuration, diagnostics, troubleshooting and maintenance across all platforms reduces downtime and speeds training to streamline management Unified management from the wiring closet to the data center results in simplified sparing, maintenance and life cycle management
Reliability The modular FTOS architecture and single code release deliver optimal application uptime	Modular architecture provides inherent process isolation and protected memory space Fault isolation restricts faults to specific processes so failures in one module does not affect other modules Hitless and stateful failover ensures that packets are forwarded during a control plane failure Single code release and train results in a stable code and fewer errors and restarts
Scalability Hardened in demanding data center environments, FTOS delivers performance and process predictability	Dedicated resources for each active network feature ensure that individual processes can scale under load Processes distributed to line cards enables systems to simultaneously run multiple processes without impacting performance Control plane inherits a high degree of maturity and stability from NetBSD’s high performance IP stacks and IPC mechanism
Serviceability FTOS reduces unplanned downtime that through corrective actions	Inline monitoring and diagnostics tools enable troubleshooting without system shutdown or disruption Industry standard CLI leverages existing knowledge base and tools, minimizing the need for retraining Third-party support through an XML interface enables integration with management platforms Advanced configuration control enables automated configuration rollback to a known working version while the change control system allows multiple configuration backups Automated fault correction sends health checks through the system to determine overall status and allows customers to program responses to any failed tests

FTOS Specifications

IEEE Compliance

802.1AB Link Layer Discovery Protocol
802.1D Bridging, STP
802.1p L2 Prioritization
802.1Q VLAN Tagging, Double VLAN Tagging, GVRP
802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol, PVST+
802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
802.1X Network Access Control
802.3ad Link Aggregation with LACP

RFC and I-D Compliance

General Internet Protocols

RFC 768 UDP
RFC 793 TCP
RFC 854 Telnet
RFC 783 TFTP
RFC 959 FTP
RFC 1321 MD5
RFC 1591 DNS Client
RFC 1661 PPP
RFC 1989 PPP Link Quality Monitoring
RFC 1990 PPP Multilink Protocol
RFC 1994 PPP CHAP
RFC 2615 PPP over SONET/SDH
draft-ietf-bfd-base-03 BFD

General IPv4 Protocols

RFC 791 IPv4
RFC 792 ICMP
RFC 826 ARP
RFC 1027 Proxy ARP
RFC 1042 Transmission
RFC 1305 NTPv3
RFC 1519 CIDR
RFC 1532 BOOTP Relay
RFC 1812 Routers
RFC 2131 DHCP Relay
RFC 2338 VRRP

General IPv6 Protocols

RFC 1981 Path MTU Discovery
RFC 2460 IPv6
RFC 2461 Neighbor Discovery
RFC 2462 Stateless Address
Autoconfiguration
RFC 2463 ICMPv6
RFC 2464 Transmission
RFC 2675 Jumbograms
RFC 3513 Addressin
RFC 3587 Global Unicast Address Format

RIP

RFC 1058 RIPv1
RFC 2453 RIPv2

OSPF

RFC 1587 NSSA
RFC 2154 MD5
RFC 2328 OSPFv2
RFC 2370 Opaque LSA
RFC 2740 OSPFv3
RFC 3623 Graceful Restart
RFC 4222 Prioritization and Congestion Avoidance

IS-IS

RFC 1142 IS-IS
RFC 1195 IPv4 Routing
RFC 2763 Dynamic Hostname
RFC 2966 Domain-Wide Prefixes
RFC 3373 Three-way Handshake
RFC 3567 MD5
RFC 3784 Wide Metrics
draft-ietf-isis-igp-p2p-over-lan-06
Point-to-point Operation
draft-ietf-isis-ipv6-07 IPv6 Routing
draft-kaplan-isis-ext-eth-02 Extended Frame Size

BGP

RFC 1997 Communities
RFC 2385 MD5
RFC 2439 Route Flap Damping
RFC 2545 Multiprotocol Extensions for IPv6
RFC 2796 Route Reflection
RFC 2842 Capabilities
RFC 2858 Multiprotocol Extensions
RFC 2918 Route Refresh
RFC 3065 Confederations
RFC 4360 Extended Communities
draft-ietf-idr-bgp4-20 BGPv4
draft-ietf-idr-restart-06 Graceful Restart

Multicast

RFC 1112 IGMPv1
RFC 2236 IGMPv2
RFC 2362 PIM-SM
RFC 2710 MLDv1
RFC 3376 IGMPv3
RFC 3569 SSM
RFC 3618 MSDP
RFC 3810 MLDv2
RFC 3973 PIM-DM
RFC 4541 IGMP/MLD Snooping

Network Management

RFC 1155 SMIv1
RFC 1156 Internet MIB
RFC 1157 SNMPv1
RFC 1212 Concise MIB Definitions
RFC 1215 SNMP Traps
RFC 1493 Bridges MIB
RFC 1724 RIPv2 MIB
RFC 1850 OSPFv2 MIB
RFC 2011 IP MIB
RFC 2012 TCP MIB
RFC 2013 UDP MIB
RFC 2024 DLSw MIB
RFC 2096 IP Forwarding Table MIB
RFC 2465 IPv6 MIB
RFC 2466 ICMPv6 MIB
RFC 2558 SONET/SDH MIB
RFC 2570 SNMPv3
RFC 2571 Mangement Frameworks
RFC 2572 Message Processing and Dispatching
RFC 2574 SNMPv3 USM
RFC 2575 SNMPv3 VACM
RFC 2576 Coexistence between SNMPv1/v2/v3
RFC 2578 SMIv2
RFC 2579 Textual Conventions for SMIv2
RFC 2580 Conformance Statements for SMIv2
RFC 2665 Ethernet-like Interfaces MIB
RFC 2674 Extended Bridge MIB
RFC 2787 VRRP MIB
RFC 2819 RMON MIB (Groups 1, 2, 3, 9)
RFC 2863 Interfaces MIB
RFC 2865 RADIUS
RFC 3176 sFlow
RFC 3273 RMON High Capacity MIB
RFC 3416 Protocol Operations
RFC 3418 SNMPv2
RFC 3434 RMON High Capacity Alarm MIB
draft-grant-tacacs-02 TACACS+
draft-ietf-idr-bgp4-mib-06 BGP MIBv1
draft-ietf-isis-wg-mib-16 IS-IS MIB
f10-bgp4-v2 Force10 BGP MIB
(draft-ietf-idr-bgp4-mibv2-05)
f10-chassis Force10 E-Series Enterprise Chassis MIB
f10-copy-config Force10 File Copy MIB
f10-cs-chassis Force10 C-Series Enterprise Chassis MIB
f10-fib Force10 CIDR Multipath Routes MIB
f10-if-extension Force10 Enterprise Interface Extension MIB
f10-linkagg Force10 Enterprise Link Aggregation MIB
f10-mon Force10 Monitoring MIB
f10-products Force10 Product Object Identifier MIB
f10-smi Force10 Structure of Management
Information
f10-ss-chassis Force10 S-Series Enterprise Chassis MIB
f10-system-component
Force10 System Component MIB
f10-tc Force10 Textual Convention
f10-trap-alarm Force10 Trap Alarm MIB

Management Features

Industry-standard CLI
XML configuration and command output
Telnet, SSH v1/v2
TFTP, FTP, scp
NTPv3
SNMP v1/v2/v3
Syslog
sFlow traffic accounting
RADIUS/TACACS+ authentication
RMON (groups 1, 2, 3, 9)
Port mirroring
HP OpenView support

Feature capabilities vary between the E-Series, C-Series and S-Series due to hardware differences. Consult the data sheets and product manuals for specific details on supported software features for each platform.

FTOS Literature

Data Sheets

FTOS
CLI

White Papers

Business

Technical

Analyst Opinions

Readying Datacenter Networks for the Future
Cindy Borovick, IDC
The Case for the Unified Network Fabric
Zeus Kerravala, Industry Analyst
The Reliability Imperative for Enterprise Networks
Abner Germanow, IDC
Achieving Enterprisewide Reliability
Abner Germanow and Petr Jirovsky, IDC

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Products

FTOS - Force10 Operating System

FTOS Overview

FTOS Features and Benefits

FTOS Specifications

FTOS Literature