Compatible Devices

Networking-generic-switch supports two families of device drivers: Netmiko (SSH/CLI) and NETCONF. The Mechanism Driver architecture allows adding new devices of either type.

OpenStack Neutron v2.0 => ML2 plugin => Generic Mechanism Driver => Device plugin

Netmiko (SSH/CLI) Devices

These device plugins use Netmiko library, which in turn uses Paramiko library to access and configure the switches via the SSH protocol.

  • Arista EOS

  • ArubaOS-CX

  • Brocade ICX (FastIron)

  • Cisco IOS

  • Cisco NX-OS (Nexus)

  • Cisco 300-Series

  • Cumulus Linux (via NCLU)

  • Cumulus Linux(via NVUE)

  • Dell Enterprise SONiC

  • Dell Force10 (OS9)(netmiko_dell_force10)

  • Dell OS10 (netmiko_dell_os10)

  • Dell PowerConnect

  • Fake

  • HPE 5900 Series Switches

  • HPE 5900 Series Switches

  • Huawei (VRP V3 and V5)

  • Huawei (VRP V8)

  • Juniper Junos OS

  • Mellanox MLNX-OS

  • Nokia SR Linux OS

  • OpenVSwitch

  • Pluribus

  • Ruijie

  • SONiC

  • Supermicro

Cisco Nexus (netmiko_cisco_nxos)

Known working firmware versions: 10.3.7

Notes:

  • Default state for switches is well suited for networking-generic-switch as long as SSH is utilized and the underlying role provided to the account permits configuration of switchports.

  • Pre-configuration of upstream network trunk ports to the neutron networking nodes is advisable, however the ngs_trunk_ports setting should be suitable for most users as well.

  • Use of an “enable” secret through the secret configuration option has not been tested.

  • Security group limitations:

    • Only ingress rules allowed

    • Only IPv4 rules are implemented

    • Supports rules for protocols: tcp, udp, icmp

Dell Force10 OS9 (netmiko_dell_force10)

Known working firmware versions: 9.13.0.0

Notes:

  • Dell Force10 Simulator for 9.13.0 lacks the ability to set a switchport mode to trunk, which prevents automated or even semi-automated testing. That being said, creating VLANs and tagging/untagging works as expected.

  • Uplink switchports to the rest of the network fabric must be configured in advance if the ngs_trunk_ports switch device level configuration option is not utilized.

  • Use of SSH is expected and must be configured on the remote switch.

  • Set each port to “switchport” to enable L2 switchport mode.

  • Use of an “enable” secret through the switch level configuration option secret was the tested path. Depending on precise switch configuration and access control modeling, it may be possible to use without an enable secret, but that has not been tested.

  • Security groups not yet implemented

Known Issues:

  • bug 2100641 is alieviated by setting a port to “switchport” before attempting to utilize networking-generic-switch.

Dell Force10 OS10 (netmiko_dell_os10)

Known working firmware version: 10.6.0.2.74

Notes:

  • Uplink switchports may need to be configured as Trunk ports prior to the use of networking-generic-switch through a “switchport mode trunk” command. Further specific trunk configuration may be necessary, however NGS can leverage the ngs_trunk_ports configuration option and does appropriately tag switchports as permitted when creating/deleting attachments.

  • Password authentication for networking-generic-switch needs to be setup in advance, specifically “ip ssh server enable” and “ip ssh server password-authentication” commands.

  • This driver was tested without the use of an enable secret to permit a higher level of configuration access within the Switch.

  • Security groups not yet implemented

Sonic - Community Distribution (netmiko_sonic)

Known working firmware version: master branch - March 2025

Notes:

  • The driver expects to be able to SSH into the switch running SONiC, execute sudo, and then execute configuration commands.

  • Ports must be in Layer-2 mode. As such, sudo config interface ip remove $INTERFACE $IP_ADDRESS/$CIDR and sudo config switchport mode access $INTERFACE commands may be required.

  • Uplink switch ports should be configured in advance with the sudo config switchport mode trunk $INTERFACE command. Testing for the configuration utilized this advanced state configuration of the trunk uplink ports with the ngs_trunk_ports configuration option for Networking-Generic-Switch.

  • Security groups not yet implemented

NETCONF Devices

These device plugins use ncclient library to access and configure switches via the NETCONF protocol (RFC 6241). See Management Interfaces for details on NETCONF management interface behaviour.

NETCONF OpenConfig (netconf_openconfig)

Compatible with switches supporting OpenConfig YANG models over NETCONF. Known platforms include Cisco NX-OS (Nexus 9000), Arista EOS, Juniper Junos and Nokia SR OS.

Supported operations:

  • Network (VLAN) management — create and delete VLANs in a named network-instance.

  • Port management — assign access VLANs to switch interfaces.

  • Trunk port tagging — automatically tag/untag ngs_trunk_ports when networks are created or deleted.

  • Neutron trunk ports — dynamically add and remove subport VLANs on trunk ports via the Neutron trunk API.

  • Port enable/disable — administratively shut down inactive ports when ngs_disable_inactive_ports is set.

  • Default VLAN restore — restore ngs_port_default_vlan when a port is released.

Not yet supported: bond/LACP, L2VNI, security groups.