ONIE Check and Preparation

This section provides guidelines for completing the ONIE environment verification and preparation prior to AsterNOS installation. ONIE (Open Network Install Environment) is the standard installation and boot environment for white-box switches, designed for deploying AsterNOS and other compatible network operating systems.

Environment Check and Preprocessing

ONIE Not Pre-installed

If the ONIE environment is not pre-installed on the device from the factory, the ONIE image must be provided and installed by the white-box hardware vendor or through their official channels. If technical assistance is required during installation, or to confirm whether the device is within the scope of support (refer to Hardware Compatibility List), please contact our technical support.

• Successful ONIE Installation: After the system reboots, it will enter the ONIE: Install OS mode by default.

ONIE Pre-installed

Connect a server or laptop to the switch’s serial port using a serial debugging tool. Power on the switch. If the ONIE environment is already pre-installed, it will automatically enter the ONIE GRUB menu page, with ONIE: Install OS selected by default.

Danger

NOTE:

If a third-party NOS is already installed on the device, it is necessary to uninstall all existing systems via ONIE first. Directly installing AsterNOS without this step may lead to installation failures due to partition conflicts, system anomalies, and other risks. To retain the original system or deploy a dual-system configuration, please contact technical support for compatibility assessment.

Step:

• Log in to the switch via the serial port and execute a reboot or power-cycle operation.

admin@sonic:~$ sudo reboot

• After a moment, a system selection interface will appear. Select ONIE within 10 seconds; otherwise, the system will default to booting into the original NOS.

• The ONIE GRUB menu will appear shortly. Select ONIE: Uninstall OS. This process will take some time to clear all existing systems and format their partitions.

• Wait for the process to complete. Upon successful clearance, the system will automatically reboot and enter the ONIE: Install OS page.

Hardware Platform Information Check

Before installation, it is mandatory to confirm that the hardware platform identifier in ONIE matches the current device model. Incorrect platform information will cause driver loading failures and prevent the system from booting.

• After completing the environment confirmation and selecting INSTALL_NOS, press Enter to enter the ONIE command-line page.

• Execute the following command to check the platform information:

cat /etc/machine.conf

If the onie_platform and onie_machine fields do not match the current hardware platform, they must be manually modified using the vi command. Details are provided in the table below:

Table 1 Hardware Platform Mapping

Product Name	Onie_machine	Onie_platform
AS7726_32X	accton_as7726_32x	x86_64-accton_as7726_32x-r0
DCS6500-48Z8C	muxi_dcs6500_48z8c	x86_64-muxi_dcs6500_48z8c-r0
DS2000	cel_ds2000	x86_64-cel_ds2000-r0
DS3000	cel_ds3000	x86_64-cel_ds3000-r
CX308P-48Y-N-V2	asterfusion_cx308p_48y_n	x86_64-asterfusion_cx308p_48y_n-r0
CX532P-N	asterfusion_cx532p_n	x86_64-asterfusion_cx532p_n-r0
CX532P-N-V2	asterfusion_cx532p_n	x86_64-asterfusion_cx532p_n-r0
CX564P-N	asterfusion_cx564p_n	x86_64-asterfusion_cx564p_n-r0
CX664D-N	asterfusion_cx664d_n	x86_64-asterfusion_cx664d_n-r0
CX732Q-N	asterfusion_cx732q_n	x86_64-asterfusion_cx732q_n-r0
CX732Q-N-V2	asterfusion_cx732q_n	x86_64-asterfusion_cx732q_n-r0
CX864E-N	asterfusion_cx864p_n	x86_64-asterfusion_cx864e_n-r0

After completing the check, proceed with the AsterNOS installation.