Overview

Dell EMC Networking OS 10 (DNOS10) is the operating system for Dell PowerSwitch series switches. SiteRM controls these devices using the sense.dellos10 Ansible collection.

Property Value
Ansible network_os sense.dellos10.dellos10
Ansible Collection sense-dellos10-collection
VLAN Creation Yes
BGP Control Yes
BGP Multipath Yes
QoS (network-level) No
Ping / Traceroute Yes

Ansible Inventory Configuration

inventory:
  dellos10_s0:
    network_os: sense.dellos10.dellos10
    host: 192.168.1.10
    user: admin
    pass: <password>            # or use sshkey
    # sshkey: /opt/siterm/config/ssh-keys/id-rsa-sense
    become: false
    ssh_common_args: "-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no"
    snmp_params:
      session_vars:
        community: public
        hostname: 192.168.1.10
        version: 2

Facts Collection

SiteRM executes the following commands to collect topology and interface information from Dell OS 10 devices:

show running-config
show lldp neighbors detail
show interface
show interface port-channel
show system

Information extracted:

  • System MAC address (show system)
  • Interface details: description, MAC, MTU, bandwidth/speed, operational status, IPv4/IPv6 addresses, VRF assignments, tagged VLAN members
  • Port-channel members and aggregated link state
  • LLDP neighbors: remote hostname, port, chassis ID — used for topology stitching
  • Running configuration: VLAN definitions, switchport trunk memberships, VRF assignments

VLAN Creation and Deletion

Create VLAN (example: VLAN 3607, VRF lhcone, port Port-channel 102)

interface vlan 3607
 mtu 9000
 ip vrf forwarding lhcone
 description urn:ogf:network:service+858b5c37...:vt+l2-policy::Connection_1
 ipv6 address fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:16/124
 no shutdown

interface Port-channel 102
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 3607

Note on switchport syntax: Dell OS 10 uses switchport trunk allowed vlan <id> on the physical or port-channel interface (not inside the VLAN interface stanza, unlike Dell OS 9).

Delete VLAN

no interface vlan 3607

Switchport cleanup: Dell OS 10 automatically removes the deleted VLAN from all trunk ports when the VLAN interface is deleted; no explicit no switchport trunk allowed vlan command is needed.

BGP Configuration

Dell OS 10 BGP configuration uses a two-step process:

  1. Step 1 (_before run): Prefix lists are configured first with ignore_errors: true. Dell OS 10 returns an error if the same prefix list is applied a second time, so the before-run is tolerant of failures.
  2. Step 2 (main run): Route maps and BGP neighbors are configured.

Create BGP (example: ASN 64513, VRF lhcone)

Step 1 — Prefix lists (run with ignore_errors: true):

ipv6 prefix-list sense-abc123-from permit 2001:48d0:3001:110::/64
ipv6 prefix-list sense-abc123-to permit 2605:d9c0:2:fff1::/64

Step 2 — Route maps and BGP:

# Route maps
route-map sense-abc123-mapin permit 10
 match ipv6 address sense-abc123-from
route-map sense-abc123-mapout permit 10
 match ipv6 address sense-abc123-to

# BGP router
router bgp 64513
 vrf lhcone
  address-family ipv6 unicast
   network 2605:d9c0:2:fff1::/64
  neighbor fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17
   remote-as 65000
   no shutdown
   address-family ipv6 unicast
     activate
     route-map sense-abc123-mapin in
     route-map sense-abc123-mapout out

Delete BGP

no route-map sense-abc123-mapin
no route-map sense-abc123-mapout

router bgp 64513
 vrf lhcone
  address-family ipv6 unicast
   no network 2605:d9c0:2:fff1::/64
  no neighbor fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17
no ipv6 prefix-list sense-abc123-from
no ipv6 prefix-list sense-abc123-to

Ping and Traceroute

SENSE can issue active probes from Dell OS 10 devices (requires IP assigned to a SENSE VLAN interface).

Ping

# IPv6 with VRF
ping6 vrf lhcone fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 -c 10 -i 5

# IPv6 without VRF
ping6 fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 -c 10 -i 5

# IPv4 with VRF
ping vrf lhcone 10.0.0.1 -c 10 -i 5

Note: Dell OS 10 uses the Linux-style -c (count) and -i (interval/timeout) flags, unlike Dell OS 9 which uses the count and timeout keywords.

Traceroute

# IPv6 with VRF
traceroute vrf lhcone fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17

# IPv4 with VRF
traceroute vrf lhcone 10.0.0.1

Switch Configuration in main.yaml

dellos10_s0:
  rsts_enabled: ipv4,ipv6    # Enable BGP control
  private_asn: 64513          # Private ASN assigned by SENSE team
  vrf: lhcone                 # VRF name for SENSE traffic
  vlan_mtu: 9000
  vlan_range:
    - 3600-3699
    - 3985-3989
  allports: false
  ports:
    hundredGigE 1/1:
      capacity: 100000         # Port capacity in Mbps
    Port-channel 102:
      capacity: 100000
      isAlias: urn:ogf:network:remote-site.net:2024:switch_s0:port_xyz
      wanlink: true

Known Limitations and Notes

  • QoS: Not supported on Dell OS 10 in SENSE. Rate limiting is not applied at the switch level for OS 10.
  • BGP prefix-list quirk: Dell OS 10 returns an error if a prefix-list is applied twice. SiteRM works around this by running prefix-list configuration separately with ignore_errors: true before the main configuration run.
  • BGP Multipath: Supported. Multiple VLAN + BGP peer pairs can share the same port with independent routing.
  • LLDP: Required on trunk ports for automatic topology discovery. Without LLDP, all inter-switch links must be manually defined via isAlias.
  • Tested versions: Dell OS 10.5.4.4