Management interfaces are used in order to provide access to switch management user interfaces (e.g. CLI, WebUI). NVIDIA switches support out-of-band (OOB) dedicated interfaces (e.g. mgmt0, mgmt1) and in-band dedicated interfaces. In addition, most NVIDIA switches feature a serial port that provides access to the CLI only.

On switch systems with two OOB management ports, both of them may be configured on the same VLAN if needed. In this case, ARP replies to the IP of those management interfaces is answered from either of them.

Configuring Management Interfaces with Static IP Addresses

If your switch system was set during initialization to obtain dynamic IP addresses through DHCP and you wish to switch to static assignments, perform the following steps:

1. Enter Config configuration mode. Run: 

   switch > enable
   switch # configure terminal

2. Disable setting IP addresses using the DHCP using the following command: 

   switch (config) # no interface <ifname> dhcp

3. Define your interfaces statically using the following command: 

   switch (config) # interface <ifname> ip address <IP address> <netmask>

Configuring IPv6 Address on the Management Interface

1. Enable IPv6 on this interface. Run:

   switch (config) # interface mgmt0 ipv6 enable

2. Set the IPv6 address to be configured automatically. Run:

   switch (config) # interface mgmt0 ipv6 address autoconfig

3. Verify the IPv6 address is configured correctly. Run:

   switch (config) # show interfaces mgmt0 brief

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) 

DHCP is used for automatic retrieval of management IP addresses.

For all other systems (and software versions) DHCP is disabled by default. 

<localhost># ssh admin@<ip-address>
NVIDIA Onyx Switch Management
Password:
NVIDIA switch
NVIDIA configuration wizard
Do you want to use the wizard for initial configuration? yes
Step 1: Hostname? [my-switch]
Step 2: Use DHCP on mgmt0 interface? [yes] no
<localhost>#

Default Gateway

To configure manually the default gateway, use the “ip route” command, with “0.0.0.0” as prefix and mask. The next-hop address must be within the range of one of the IP interfaces on the system. 

switch (config)# ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.10.0.2
switch (config)# show ip route
Destination       Mask              Gateway         Interface     Source       Distance/Metric
default           0.0.0.0           10.10.0.2       mgmt0         static       0/0
10.10.0.0         255.255.254.0     0.0.0.0         mgmt0         direct       0/0

In-Band Management

In-band management is a management path passing through the data ports. In-band management can be created over one of the VLANs in the systems.

The in-band management feature does not require any license. However, it works only for the system profile Ethernet. It can be enabled with IP Routing.

To set an in-band management channel:

1. Create a VLAN. Run: 

   switch (config)# vlan 10
   switch (config vlan 10)#

2. Create a VLAN interface. Run: 

   switch (config)# interface vlan 10
   switch (config interface vlan 10)#

3. Configure L3 attributes on the newly created VLAN interface. Run: 

   switch (config interface vlan 10)# ip address 10.10.10.10 /24

4. (Optional) Verify in-band management configuration. Run: 

   switch (config)# show interfaces vlan 10
     Admin state: Enabled
     Operational state: Up
     Mac Address: f4:52:14:67:07:e8
     Internet Address: 10.10.10.10/24
     Broadcast address: 10.10.10.255
     MTU: 1500 bytes
     Arp timeout: 1500 seconds
     Icmp redirect: Disabled
     Description: N/A
     VRF: default
     Counters: Enabled
    RX
     0 Unicast packets
     0 Multicast packets
     0 Unicast bytes
     0 Multicast bytes
     0 Bad packets
     0 Bad bytes
    TX
     0 Unicast packets
     0 Multicast packets
     0 Unicast bytes
     0 Multicast bytes

Configuring Hostname via DHCP (DHCP Client Option 12)

This feature, also known as the DHCP Client Option 12, is enabled by default and assigns the switch system a hostname via DHCP as long as network manager configures hostname to the management interfaces’ (i.e. mgmt0, mgmt1) MAC address. If a network manager configures the hostname manually through any of the user interfaces, the hostname is not retrieved from the DHCP server.

To enable fetching hostname from DHCP server, run: 

switch (config interface mgmt0) # dhcp hostname

To disable fetching hostname from DHCP server, run: 

switch (config interface mgmt0) # no dhcp hostname

Management VRF 

Management VRF is a virtual routing function that is responsible for providing IP services for switch management. It is the only VRF where outband management interface mgmt0 belongs.

Initially, a system has only one VRF—the default VRF. This VRF supports both management and data forwarding functions. A management VRF can them be created—mgmt and user VRFs (mgmt VRF is not created with image upgrade automatically). The mgmt VRF is also created on reset factory flows.

When mgmt VRF is created, all mgmt interfaces are automatically moved to it. New management functions can be shutdown in a default VRF and created in the management VRF. Also, management services can be started in 'user' VRFs, with the only difference that the 'user' VRF does not have mgmt interfaces.

Following services are considered management services:

User VRF will have routing functions and its primary purpose is to perform routing of user traffic.

Default VRF is used to run some non-management system functions and can also be used to serve as a global routing instance for multi-VRF traffic.

When a service is moved from VRF to VRF, its configuration is removed.