Overview

Dell EMC Networking OS 9 (also known as FTOS or DNOS9) is the operating system for Dell PowerEdge and Force10 chassis-based switches. SiteRM controls these devices using the sense.dellos9 Ansible collection.

Property Value
Ansible network_os sense.dellos9.dellos9
Ansible Collection sense-dellos9-collection
VLAN Creation Yes
BGP Control Yes
BGP Multipath No
QoS (network-level) Yes (max 3 rate limits per port — see notes)
Ping / Traceroute Yes

Ansible Inventory Configuration

inventory:
  dellos9_s0:
    network_os: sense.dellos9.dellos9
    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 9 devices:

show running-config
show lldp neighbors detail
show interfaces
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
  • LLDP neighbors: remote hostname, port, chassis ID — used for topology stitching
  • Running configuration: VLAN definitions, switchport trunk memberships, port-channel members

VLAN Creation and Deletion

SiteRM creates VLAN interfaces on Dell OS 9 with the following commands:

Create VLAN (example: VLAN 3607, VRF lhcone, port hundredGigE 1/7)

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
 tagged hundredGigE 1/7
 no shutdown

Note on tagged syntax: Dell OS 9 uses tagged <interface> inside the VLAN interface stanza (not switchport trunk allowed vlan as in OS 10).

Delete VLAN

no interface Vlan 3607

Port-level cleanup (removing from trunk) is handled via no tagged inside the interface, but Dell OS 9 automatically removes the VLAN from all tagged ports when the VLAN interface is deleted.

BGP Configuration

Dell OS 9 has specific requirements for BGP that differ from other platforms:

  1. IPv6 neighbors must be declared in address-family ipv4 multicast (or ipv4 vrf <NAME>) first, then activated in address-family ipv6 unicast.
  2. The no neighbor <IP> activate must appear in the IPv4 address-family to prevent IPv4 activation of an IPv6 neighbor.

Create BGP (example: ASN 64513, VRF lhcone)

# Step 1: Prefix lists
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
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

# Step 3: IPv4 address-family (required for IPv6 neighbor declaration)
router bgp 64513
 address-family ipv4 vrf lhcone
  neighbor fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 remote-as 65000
  neighbor fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 no shutdown
  no neighbor fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 activate

# Step 4: IPv6 address-family
router bgp 64513
 address-family ipv6 unicast vrf lhcone
  network 2605:d9c0:2:fff1::/64
  neighbor fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 activate
  neighbor fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 soft-reconfiguration inbound
  neighbor fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 route-map sense-abc123-mapin in
  neighbor fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 route-map sense-abc123-mapout out

Delete BGP

no ipv6 prefix-list sense-abc123-from
no ipv6 prefix-list sense-abc123-to
no route-map sense-abc123-mapin permit 10
no route-map sense-abc123-mapout permit 10
router bgp 64513
 address-family ipv4 vrf lhcone
  no neighbor fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 remote-as 65000
 address-family ipv6 unicast vrf lhcone
  no network 2605:d9c0:2:fff1::/64

Ping and Traceroute

SENSE can issue active probes from Dell OS 9 devices (requires IP assigned to a SENSE VLAN interface).

Ping

# IPv6 with VRF
ping vrf lhcone fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 count 10 timeout 5

# IPv6 without VRF
ping fc00:0:0:0:0:0:0:17 count 10 timeout 5

# IPv4
ping vrf lhcone 10.0.0.1 count 10 timeout 5

Traceroute

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

# IPv4
traceroute vrf lhcone 10.0.0.1

Switch Configuration in main.yaml

dellos9_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
  rate_limit: true            # Enable per-port QoS (max 3 rate limits per port)
  vlan_range:
    - 3600-3699
    - 3985-3989
  allports: false
  ports:
    hundredGigE 1/1:
      capacity: 100000         # Port capacity in Mbps
    hundredGigE 1/7:
      capacity: 100000
      isAlias: urn:ogf:network:remote-site.net:2024:switch_s0:port_xyz
      wanlink: true

Known Limitations and Notes

  • QoS rate limits: Dell OS 9 allows a maximum of 3 rate-limit policies per port. If more than 3 SENSE paths with rate limiting are active on a single port simultaneously, subsequent QoS rules will fail. SENSE does not enforce this limit automatically — it is the admin’s responsibility to configure sites appropriately.
  • BGP neighbor quirk: IPv6 BGP neighbors must be declared in address-family ipv4 before activation in address-family ipv6. This is a Dell OS 9 platform limitation that SiteRM handles automatically through its two-step BGP template.
  • BGP Multipath: Not supported on Dell OS 9. Each path requires a separate VLAN and BGP peer.
  • 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 9.11 and 9.14