Managing the ExtremeXOS Software
The software platform is a distributed software architecture.
The distributed architecture consists of separate binary images organized into discrete
software modules with messaging between them. The software and system infrastructure subsystem
form the basic framework of how the software applications interact with each other, including
the system startup sequence, memory allocation, and error events handling. Redundancy and data
replication is a built-in mechanism of the operating system. The system infrastructure
provides basic redundancy support and libraries for all of the software applications.
Note
For information about downloading and upgrading a new
software image, saving configuration changes, and upgrading the BootROM, see
Software Upgrade and Boot Options.
Like any advanced operating system, the operating system gives you the tools to manage your
switch and create your network configurations.
The following enhancements and functionality have been added to the switch operating
system:
- File system administration
- Configuration file management
- Process control
- Memory protection
- File system administration
- With the enhanced file system, you can move, copy, and delete files
from the switch. The file system structure allows you to keep, save, rename, and maintain
multiple copies of configuration files on the switch. In addition, you can manage other
entities of the switch such as policies and access control lists (ACLs).
- Configuration file management
- With the enhanced configuration file management, you can oversee and
manage multiple configuration files on your switch. In addition, you can upload, download,
modify, and name configuration files used by the switch.
- Process control
- With process control, you can stop and start processes, restart
failed processes, and update the software for a specific process or set of processes.
- Memory protection
- With memory protection, each function can
be bundled into a single application module running as a memory protected process under
real-time scheduling. In essence, the software protects each process from every other
process in the system. If one process experiences a memory fault, that process cannot
affect the memory space of another process.
The following sections describe in more detail how to manage the software.
