Open Network Linux is a Linux distribution for "bare metal" switches, that is, 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.

Packet Forwarding

Open Network Linux supports multiple switch fabric APIs including: OF-DPA, OpenNSL and SAI. Specific information about hardware support for the different APIs can be found in the HCL

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

Recent Updates

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
... Lots of news that did not get mentioned here ... sigh
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