Open Network Linux is a Linux distribution for open hardware switches, i.e. network forwarding devices built from commodity components. ONL uses ONIE to install onto on-board flash memory.
Open Network Linux is a part of the Open Compute Project and is a component in a growing collection of open source and commercial projects including CORD and Stratum.

Packet Forwarding

Open Network Linux supports multiple switch fabric APIs including: OF-DPA, OpenNSL and SAI.

Open Network Linux is compatible with most forwarding agents including: FRRouting, Quagga, BIRD, Facebook FBOSS, Google gNOS and Azure SONiC.

Open Source Platform Services

Open Network Linux provides the OS and platform management parts of the ONF's CORD and Stratum projects.

For a list of ONL supported hardware platforms, see the Hardware Compatibility List.

Recent Updates

March 20th, 2018: Google, Facebook and BSN demonstrate multiple next-gen network operating systems based on Open Network Linux at OCP Summit
March 12th, 2018: Announced as founding member of the ONF's Stratum project
March 2018: Launched the ONL Certification site
January 2018: Multiple new Delta, Mellanox, Quanta and Accton switches along with Spectre and Meltdown patches
August 2017: Quanta IX1 and IX2 Added to ONL
Sep 2017: Added support for Accton AS5912x/AS5912xk
July 2017: Netberg platforms added to ONL
March 2017: Delta Networks platforms added to ONL
January 24th, 2017: Steve Noble and Kyle Forster present at Facebook's Disaggregate 2017
December 16th, 2016: Rob Sherwood who brought the conept of Open Network Linux to the OCP is moving to Facebook more here. Rob will continue to be a evangelist for ONL.
December 14th, 2016: Support for Mellanox Switches (SN2700, SN2100 and SN2410) added.
July 27th, 2016: Added installed mode for permanent installation of ONL on hardware. ex: latest-deb7-amd64-installed.installer will install to disk while latest-deb7-amd64-swi.installer will install using a software image (swi), the default behavior.
June 28th, 2016: Added support for Accton AS5512 (Nephos/MediaTek switch), updated disk partitioning and started providing OpenNSL packages.
May 27th, 2016: Added support for Wedge 100: updated Wedge purpose built image to support Wedge 100 and provided ONIE installer for Wedge 100.
February 20th, 2016: Added support for Dell Z9100-ON and updated documentation on building to include example from clean Debian 8 install.
January 31st, 2016: Added binaries and updated documentation for the OCP OpenNetworkLinux repository. Binary links are named latest-2.0-AMD64.installer and latest-2.0-PPC.installer
January 28th, 2016: OpenNetworkLinux has officially moved to the Open Compute Project github repository at github.com/opencomputeproject/OpenNetworkLinux
January 4th, 2016: Added support for Accton 7712, 7716, 5812, 5812, Interface Masters Niagara 29xx, WNC sst1
October 26th, 2015: Added support for Quanta LY6 and LY8 Rangeley based switches
October 2, 2015: Added support for Edge-Core AS5712, fixes for persist.
May 19, 2015: Added Support for Dell S6000-ON and Dell S4048-ON switches
March 12, 2015 Blog: Attention World: The Network is Now Open!
March 10, 2015 Open Network Linux formally accepted into Open Compute as a Project
November 24, 2014: Announce: Open Route Cache and ONL Platform code committed to ONL
May 8, 2014: Gave an ONL Update at Open Compute Engineering Workshop in San Antonio
April 16, 2014: Hosted Webinar on Open Network Linux, SDN, and the Indigo OpenFlow agent.
April 4, 2014: Added preliminary support for Accton and DNI boxes.
March 20, 2014: This website goes live!
March 3, 2014: Rob Sherwood presents ONL tutorial at Open Network Summit 2014: Watch Video
January 27, 2014: Presentation and Demo at Open Compute Project: Read slides from talk.
January 26, 2014: Code released on github.com/opennetworklinux/ONL
November, 2013: Initial Proposal at Open Compute Project Engineering Workshop in San Antonio: Read slides