Extreme Networks Auto Configuration Quick guide

Extreme Networks Application Note
Extreme Networks Auto Configuration: Simplify and
Reduce Costs for Deploying Switches in the Network
Abstract: As new businesses expand and existing organizations continue to evolve, there
is an immediate need to provide network connectivity to the most basic and critical
business applications within short lead times. Extreme Networks® addresses these
needs by providing a flexible and simple switch configuration solution – Extreme Networks
Auto Configuration feature. This feature enables plug-and-play deployment that allows
organizations to quickly build networks or replace faulty switches for business continuity.
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved.

Extreme Networks Application Note
Table of Contents
The Business Challenge
Solution
Benefits
Understanding Extreme Networks Auto Configuration
Description of DHCP Options Used for Extreme Networks Auto Configuration
Case Study: Configuring the DHCP Server in Linux Distributions
Case Study: Configuring the DHCP Server in Microsoft Windows Server 2008
Case Study: Deploying a Summit X250e-48t Switch with Extreme Networks
Auto Configuration Feature Enabled
3
3
3
4
6
7
8
15

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© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks Auto Configuration—Page 3
The Business Challenge
As new businesses expand and existing organizations
continue to evolve, there is an immediate need to provide
network connectivity to the most basic and critical
business applications within short lead times. Network
administrators are challenged by business goals to provide
connectivity to enterprise applications (or services) like
email, collaboration tools, Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales
applications and more, to users and groups (remote or
local) as quickly as possible. Some of the business factors
contributing to these challenges are listed below:
• New businesses are created to address the continually
changing consumer trends and business-to-business
requirements. There is an expectation that both
service providers and businesses involved should be
able to quickly create and deploy networks.
• Organizations are expanding in terms of both
personnel and geography, giving rise to the need for
new network segments to be up and running with
short lead times.
• Business continuity requirements mandate that
network administrators be prepared for situations
where faulty switches and routers in the network are
replaced and configured as quickly as possible.
• Shrinking IT budgets imply that CIOs and network
administrators have to cut both capital and opera-
tional expenditures. Time spent and costs involved in
staging, deployment, and configuration of network
equipment is often considered as overhead costs.
Solution
Extreme Networks addresses these challenges by
providing a flexible and simple switch configuration
solution which allows organizations to quickly build
networks or replace faulty switches for business continuity.
Extreme Networks Auto Configuration feature is aimed to
achieve plug-and-play deployment. This feature will be
available in future developments of ExtremeXOS®
operating system and supported on all ExtremeXOS-based
hardware platforms. Extreme Networks Auto
Configuration provides:
• Simple configuration which is easily enabled or
disabled and the ability to drop ship ExtremeXOS-
based switches into customer premises with feature
enabled in advance either by the channel partners,
system integrators or the Value-Added
Resellers (VAR).
• Standards-based solution making the most effective
use of protocols such as DHCP, and TFTP. DHCP is
used for dynamic configuration of network param-
eters; TFTP is used for the configuration download.
Extreme Networks Application Note
• Ability to download a configuration file in the stan-
dard ExtremeXOS configuration format (.cfg), as well
as script files (.xsf).
• Works with existing DHCP and TFTP infrastructure
in the network, with minimal customization.
• Ability to create a classification of switches based on
the hardware/platform type. Furthermore, this
classification is done outside of the ExtremeXOS
realm giving greater deployment flexibility.
Benefits
Regardless of the procurement and deployment procedure
adopted by customers, Extreme Networks Auto
Configuration can help customers reduce, and in some
cases eliminate both direct and indirect costs which
are normally incurred during the initial staging and
commissioning process.
• The ability to drop ship ExtremeXOS-based switches
into the customer premises helps reduce or eliminate
operational expenditure (OPEX) and costs involved in
staging and any initial switch configuration.
• Customers can choose to enable Extreme Networks
Auto Configuration in central equipment handling
locations (such as the headquarters or a central goods
receiving location) before they are shipped to the
appropriate branches for deployment. This helps
organizations by requiring minimal or no IT/Network
personnel in branch locations to deploy the switches.
• Reduce costs incurred for customization of configura-
tion with the ability to classify switches according to
function, hardware type, or location. Standards-based
classification (using DHCP) helps administrators
create flexible and easy-to-manage configurations.

Extreme Networks Application Note
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Extreme Networks Application Note
Understanding Extreme Networks
Auto Configuration
This section describes the workings of the Extreme Networks
Auto Configuration feature in detail. We will first examine
the current procedure involved in procurement and
deployment of switches, followed by the new process
enabled by the feature. The rest of this section will cover
the technologies and methods used to achieve this
simplified deployment model.
Figure 1 shows the logistics involved when ExtremeXOS
switches are shipped from Extreme Networks to an end
customer.
• A customer could either directly place an order for
switches with Extreme Networks, or do the same via
either a system integrator, channel partner, or a
Value-Added Reseller (VAR).
• When direct orders are processed, Extreme Networks
ships the switches to the requested location by the
customer. This could either be the headquarters or a
central goods inward location. In either of these
locations, the switch could be staged for initial
configuration before deployment.
• Turnkey solutions provided by system integrators,
channel partners, or VARs could involve a staging and
initial configuration procedure before the switch is
actually deployed in the customer network. Alterna-
tively, any customization in configuration could also be
done at the customer premises prior to deployment.
• The switch could then be shipped to the actual location
of deployment (could be a branch location or a building
within the campus, or to a Network Operating Center
location managed by service providers).
The feature allows for the following scenarios as indicated
by the numbers in Figure 1 below.
1. In this scenario where a turnkey or managed network
infrastructure solution is delivered to the customer, the
system integrators, channel partners, or VARs could
enable the feature before shipping the switches out to
the customer location(s).
2. In this scenario where either the customer is managing
the network or a system integrator is required to
configure the switches within the customer premises
prior to deployment in the actual location, then
Extreme Networks Auto Configuration feature could
be enabled in a location (such as the headquarters
or a central staging location) before shipping the
switches to the actual location of deployment (such as
a branch office).
The Extreme Networks Auto Configuration feature can be
enabled using the “enable auto-provision” command.
When the command is executed, ExtremeXOS records the
fact that the switch will have to download the configura-
tion on the next reboot.
Upon successful download of a configuration file (and
execution in the case of a configuration script file) the
switch stores additional information which prevents the
switch from going through the configuration download
procedure during subsequent reboots.
The boot up procedure of a switch with the feature
(enabled) is described in Figure 2.
Figure 1: Logistics Overview
5507-01
System Integrator
Channel Partner
VAR Headquarters or
Central Inward
Location
Branch Location
Extreme Networks®
2
1

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Extreme Networks Auto Configuration capability for the
switch is enabled by setting a bit in the NVRAM using the CLI
command enable auto-provision. This feature is disabled by
default. The shell prompt of a switch indicates that the
switch has been configured for Extreme Networks Auto
Configuration. The format of the prompt is shown below.
(auto-provision) X450a-24t.1 #
• The switch boots up with the auto-provisioning
configuration stored or set in the NVRAM.
• DHCP client functionality will be automatically enabled.
ExtremeXOS will attempt to discover a DHCP server on
both “Default” and the Management (“Mgmt”)
VLANs. In particular, discovery of a DHCP server will
first be attempted on the “Default” VLAN (bound to
VR-Default) and only upon failure to discover a Default
VLAN will the switch attempt to perform the discovery
on the “Mgmt” VLAN (bound to VR-Mgmt). The
discovery procedure alternates until a DHCP server
(that can serve the needs of auto-provisioning, i.e. a
server which can provide - the TFTP Server IP Address,
and a valid configuration file in the form of .cfg or .xsf).
• Upon receiving a DHCP OFFER from a server,
ExtremeXOS will send a DHCP REQUEST to the
server with:
– Standard options 1, 3, 43, and 60
– Vendor-class identifier option (60) set to the
switch type (or the hardware/platform type, for
e.g. X250e-24t)
– Vendor-encapsulated options (option 43), with
vendor-specific options 100, 101, and 102 [Ex-
plained later in this section].
• Upon receiving a DHCP ACK from a server,
ExtremeXOS will perform the following:
– Configure the received IP address on the
appropriate VLAN
– Configure the default gateway
– Record the filename received via vendor-specific
option 101
• Initiate a TFTP transaction to the TFTP server IP
address in order to retrieve the configuration file.
• If the configuration file format type is .cfg (i.e. a
standard ExtremeXOS configuration in XML format),
then ExtremeXOS will configure the switch to use
this configuration which will take effect upon
subsequent reboot.
• If the configuration file format type is .xsf (i.e. an
ExtremeXOS execute script format), then ExtremeXOS
will execute the script file, and will save the configura-
tion thus applied.
• The fact that Extreme Networks Auto Configuration
process was completed is saved in NVRAM and the
switch reboot is performed.
• Upon subsequent reboot, the switch is now configured
and ready to use in the network.
Figure 2: Example of Deployment Automation Using DHCP
5503-01
DHCP DISCOVER
[Options 1, 3, 43, 60]
DHCP OFFER
DHCP REQUEST
[Options 1, 3, 43, 60]
TFTP GET
[Download configuration file via TFTP]
END OF TFTP TRANSACTION
• Store configuration file or configuration script
• Configure ExtremeXOS to use downloaded config file, OR
execute configuration script and save
DHCP ACK
[TFTP Server IP Address,
Configuration Filename, SNMP
Trap Receiver IP Address]
Branch Office
REBOOT
ExtremeXOS® Switch TFTP ServerDHCP Server
CONSOLECONSOLE
MGMT =MGMT =
FAN =FAN =
PSU-I =PSU-I =
PSU-E =PSU-E =
STACK NO
Stack
Ports
Stack
Ports
St-1St-1
St-2St-2
11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 1010 1111 1212 1313 1414 1515 1616 1717 1818 1919 2020 2121 2222 2323 2424
Headquarters

Extreme Networks Application Note
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks Auto Configuration—Page 6
Extreme Networks Application Note
Description of DHCP Options Used for
Extreme Networks Auto Configuration
The following vendor options are used in DHCP:
• vendor-class-identifier (option 60)
• vendor-encapsulated-options (option 43)
Vendor-class identifier (option 60): The vendor-class
identifier is included by the DHCP clients to identify the
vendor type and the model by the DHCP server. ExtremeXOS
switches use the “Switch-type” as the vendor-class identifier
(option 60). This option has to be configured in DHCP
servers to provide the required attributes based on the
specific hardware or platform type.
Vendor-encapsulated options (option 43): The vendor-
encapsulated options can contain the either a single vendor-
specific value or one or more vendor-specific sub options.
ExtremeXOS allocates and uses the following vendor-specific
sub-options:
• Option 100: TFTP Server IP Address
• Option 101: Configuration Filename (.xsf or .cfg
extension)
• Option 102: SNMP Trap Receiver IP Address

Extreme Networks Application Note
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks Auto Configuration—Page 7
Extreme Networks Application Note
option space EXTREME;
option EXTREME.tftp-server-ip code 100 = ip-address;
option EXTREME.cong-le-name code 101 = text;
option EXTREME.snmp-trap-ip code 102 = ip-address;
class “PRIMECORP-Edge-without-POE” {
match if (option vendor-class-identier = “X250e-48t”);
vendor-option-space EXTREME;
option EXTREME.tftp-server-ip 10.120.89.80;
option EXTREME.cong-le-name “primecorp_x250e_edge.cfg”;
option EXTREME.snmp-trap-ip 10.120.91.89;
}
class “PRIMECORP-Edge-x450e-POE” {
match if (option vendor-class-identier = “X450e-48p”);
vendor-option-space EXTREME;
option EXTREME.tftp-server-ip 10.120.89.80;
option EXTREME.cong-le-name “primecorp_x450e_edge.xsf”;
option EXTREME.snmp-trap-ip 10.120.91.89;
}
subnet 10.127.8.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option routers 10.127.8.254;
option domain-name-servers 10.127.8.1;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
pool {
deny dynamic bootp clients;
range 10.127.8.170 10.127.8.190;
allow members of “PRIMECORP-Edge-without-POE”;
allow members of “PRIMECORP-Edge-x450e-POE”;
}
}
Case Study: Configuring the DHCP Server in Linux Distributions
ExtremeXOS software version 12.5.1. was used in this case study.
As mentioned earlier, Extreme Networks Auto Configuration feature is architected using standards-based protocols such as
DHCP and TFTP. The DHCP server could be running in any operating system and hardware. However, it should provide support
for vendor-class identifier and vendor-encapsulated options. A sample or snippet of the DHCP configuration file (dhcpd.conf) is
provided below that can be used in standard Linux distributions such as RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), or Fedora Core, etc.

Extreme Networks Application Note
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks Auto Configuration—Page 8
Extreme Networks Application Note
Case Study: Configuring the DHCP Server in Microsoft Windows
Server 2008
ExtremeXOS software version 12.5.1. and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 were used in this case study.
In this section, we will describe the steps required to configure the DHCP Server in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 to work with
the Extreme Networks Auto Configuration feature. In particular, we will configure the DHCP server to serve the required
information for ExtremeXOS switches of type X450e-48p.
NOTES
In a Microsoft Windows 2008 Server, ensure that the role DHCP is installed and a scope to ser ve DHCP clients exists. In this example
we have defined a scope “PrimeCorp Corp Clients” which uses the IP Address range 192.168.2.101 – 192.168.2.150.
Steps: Open the DHCP Server program.
Steps: On the left pane, right click on the super scope IPv4 → Click “Define Vendor Classes…”

Extreme Networks Application Note
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks Auto Configuration—Page 9
Steps: In the “DHCP Vendor Classes” dialog box, click “Add” → Enter the Display name “PRIMECORP-Edge-X450e-POE” →
Enter an appropriate description → In the data-section, under ASCII, type “X450e-24P” → Click “OK”
Steps: In the left pane, right click on the super scope “IPv4” → Click “Set Predefined Options…”

Extreme Networks Application Note
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks Auto Configuration—Page 10
Steps: → Select Option class “PRIMECORP-Edge-X450e-POE” → Click “Add”
Steps: In the option type window, enter “TFTP Server” in the Name → Select the Data type as “Binary” → Enter the option
code as “100” → Enter an appropriate description → Click “OK”

Extreme Networks Application Note
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks Auto Configuration—Page 11
Steps: In the “Predefined Options and Values” dialog box, Click “Add” → Enter “Configuration File” in the Name → Select
the Data type as “String” → Enter the option code as “101” → Enter an appropriate description → Click “OK”
Steps: In the “Predefined Options and Values” dialog box, Click “Add” → Enter “EPICenter / Trap Receiver” in the Name →
Select the Data type as “Binary” → Enter the option code as “102” → Enter an appropriate description → Click “OK”

Extreme Networks Application Note
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks Auto Configuration—Page 12
Steps: Expand the Scope already defined as “PRIMECORP Corp Clients” → Right click on “Scope Options” → Click
“Configure Options…”
Steps: In the “Scope Options” dialog box, select “Advanced” tab → Select “PRIMECORP-Edge-X450e-POE” for “Vendor
Class” → Select “100 TFTP Server” option → In the “Data entry” section, enter the binary equivalent of the IP address of the
TFTP server [In this example, the TFTP Server IP Address is 192.168.2.10, which is reflected in binary as C0 A8 02 0A] →
Click “OK”

Extreme Networks Application Note
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks Auto Configuration—Page 13
Steps: Select the option “101 Configuration File” → In the “Data entry” section, enter the configuration file name which
should be used for this class of switches → Click “OK”
Steps: Select the option “102 EPICenter / Trap Receiver” → In the “Data entry” section, enter the binary equivalent of the IP
address of EPICenter or a third-party SNMP Trap Receiver [In this example, the IP address is 10.120.91.89, which is
reflected in binary as 0A 78 5B 59] → Click “OK”

Extreme Networks Application Note
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks Auto Configuration—Page 14
Steps: Verify that all the vendor-encapsulated options are present in the “Scope Options”

Extreme Networks Application Note
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Case Study: Deploying a Summit X250e-48t switch with Extreme Networks
Auto Configuration Feature Enabled
In this section, we will observe the switch behavior when deployed in the network. The case study uses the DHCP configuration
for devices which fall under the class “PRIMECORP-Edge-without-POE.” Please refer to the class description in the case study
for using DHCP server in linux distributions.
1. When a console connection to the switch exists, the following information will be logged on the console. Notice that the
switch has detected the auto-provision configuration and warns the user about configuration changes.
Loading EXOS Image ...
Running Image ...
Starting ExtremeXOS 12.5.0b10
Copyright (C) 1996-2010 Extreme Networks. All rights reserved.
Protected by US Patent Nos: 6,678,248; 6,104,700; 6,766,482; 6,618,388; 6,034,957; 6,859,438;
6,912,592; 6,954,436; 6,977,891; 6,980,550; 6,981,174; 7,003,705; 7,017,082; 7,046,665;
7,126,923; 7,142,509; 7,149,217; 7,152,124; 7,154,861; 7,245,619; 7,245,629; 7,269,135.
(pending-AAA) login:
Authentication Service (AAA) on the master node is now available for login.
admin
password:
ExtremeXOS
Copyright (C) 2000-2010 Extreme Networks. All rights reserved.
Protected by US Patent Nos: 6,678,248; 6,104,700; 6,766,482; 6,618,388; 6,034,957; 6,859,438;
6,912,592; 6,954,436; 6,977,891; 6,980,550; 6,981,174; 7,003,705; 7,017,082; 7,046,665;
7,126,923; 7,142,509; 7,149,217; 7,152,124; 7,154,861; 7,245,619; 7,245,629; 7,269,135.
==============================================================================
Press the <tab> or ‘?’ key at any time for completions.
Remember to save your conguration changes.
This switch currently has all management methods enabled for convenience reasons.
Please answer these questions about the security settings you would like to use.
Telnet is enabled by default. Telnet is unencrypted and has been the target of
security exploits in the past.

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Would you like to disable Telnet? [y/N]:
SNMP access is enabled by default. SNMP uses no encryption, SNMPv3 can be
congured to eliminate this problem.
Would you like to disable SNMP? [y/N]:
All ports are enabled by default. In some secure applications, it maybe more
desirable for the ports to be turned off.
Would you like uncongured ports to be turned off by default? [y/N]:
Changing the default failsafe account username and password is highly
recommended. If you choose to do so, please remember the username and
password as this information cannot be recovered by Extreme Networks.
Would you like to change the failsafe account username and password
now? [y/N]:
Would you like to permit failsafe account access via the management port?
[y/N]:
Since you have chosen less secure management methods, please remember to
increase the security of your network by taking the following actions:
* change your admin password
* change your failsafe account username and password
* change your SNMP public and private strings
* consider using SNMPv3 to secure network management trafc
!!!WARNING!!! Auto-Provision is enabled on the switch. Do not perform any manual conguration.
* (auto-provision) X250e-48t.1 #
* (auto-provision) X250e-48t.2 #
Auto-Provision completed successfully. Switch will reboot in one minute.
* (auto-provision) X250e-48t.2 # show auto-provision
-------------------------------------------------------
VR-Name Auto-Provision Status Number of attempts
-------------------------------------------------------
VR-Default Enabled (InProgress) 1
VR-Mgmt Enabled (InProgress) 0
2. The ExtremeXOS prompt on the switch will clearly display the auto-provision configuration in order to alert users to
refrain from manual configuration.
4. Upon completion of the auto-provision (i.e. discovery of the DHCP server, download of the configuration file, and
execution if necessary), the following message is logged on the console.
3. The status of Extreme Networks Auto Configuration can be retrieved using the CLI Command “show auto-provision,”
which will display the number of DHCP DISCOVER attempts on each VR.

Extreme Networks Application Note
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Extreme Networks, the Extreme Networks logo, EPICenter, ExtremeXOS and Summit are either registered trademarks or trademarks
of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other names and marks are the property of their respective owners. Specifications are subject to change
without notice. 1731_01 11/10
www.extremenetworks.com
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3585 Monroe Street
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Phone [phone]
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X250e-48t.5 # ls
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root 0 192458 Aug 14 10:00 primecorp_x250e_edge.cfg
1K-blocks Used Available Use%
16384 532 15852 3%
X250e-48t.1 # show vlan
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name VID Protocol Addr Flags Proto Ports Virtual
Active router
/Total
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
authvlan 7 ----------------------LN-------------------- ANY 0 /44 VR-Default
corp 2 -------------------------------------------- ANY 0 /0 VR-Default
corpvoice 4 -------------------------------------------- ANY 0 /0 VR-Default
crmapps 6 -------------------------------------------- ANY 0 /0 VR-Default
Default 1 -------------------------------T------------ ANY 0 /2 VR-Default
Mgmt 4095 -------------------------------------------- ANY 1 /1 VR-Mgmt
quarantine 3 -------------------------------------------- ANY 0 /0 VR-Default
sales 5 -------------------------------------------- ANY 0 /0 VR-Default
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flags : (B) BFD Enabled, (c) 802.1ad customer VLAN, (C) EAPS Control VLAN,
(d) NetLogin Dynamically created VLAN, (D) VLAN Admin Disabled,
(E) ESRP Enabled, (f) IP Forwarding Enabled,
(F) Learning Disabled, (i) ISIS Enabled, (L) Loopback Enabled,
(l) MPLS Enabled, (m) IPmc Forwarding Enabled,
(M) Translation Member VLAN or Subscriber VLAN,
(n) IP Multinetting Enabled, (N) Network Login VLAN, (o) OSPF Enabled,
(O) Flooding Disabled, (p) PIM Enabled, (P) EAPS protected VLAN,
(r) RIP Enabled, (R) Sub-VLAN IP Range Congured,
(s) Sub-VLAN, (S) Super-VLAN, (t) Translation VLAN or Network VLAN,
(T) Member of STP Domain, (V) VPLS Enabled, (v) VRRP Enabled,
Total number of VLAN(s) : 8
5. On subsequent reboot, the configuration file in use can be verified by using either “show switch” CLI command. In the
snippet below, we have shown the file that is downloaded to the switch using the “ls” command.
6. As an example, the snippet below shows the various VLANs created in the switch, as a result of the use of the down-
loaded configuration file (primecorp_x250e_edge.cfg).