Manual:CRS3xx series switches

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Applies to RouterOS: v6.41 +

Summary

The Cloud Router Switch series are highly integrated switches with high performance CPU and feature-rich packet processor. The CRS switches can be designed into various Ethernet applications including unmanaged switch, Layer 2 managed switch, carrier switch and wired unified packet processing.

Warning: This article applies to CRS3xx series switches and not to CRS1xx/CRS2xx series switches.


Features

FeaturesDescription
Forwarding
  • Configurable ports for switching or routing
  • Full non-blocking wirespeed switching
  • Large Unicast FDB for Layer 2 unicast forwarding
  • Forwarding Databases works based on IVL
  • Jumbo frame support
  • IGMP Snooping support
Mirroring
  • Various types of mirroring:
    • Port based mirroring
    • VLAN based mirroring
    • MAC based mirroring
VLAN
  • Fully compatible with IEEE802.1Q and IEEE802.1ad VLAN
  • 4k active VLANs
  • Flexible VLAN assignment:
    • Port based VLAN
    • Protocol based VLAN
    • MAC based VLAN
  • VLAN filtering
  • From any to any VLAN translation
Bonding
  • Supports 802.3ad (LACP) and balance-xor modes
  • Up to 8 member ports per bonding interface
  • Up to 30 bonding interfaces
  • Hardware automatic failover and load balancing
Quality of Service (QoS)
  • Ingress traffic limiting
    • Port based
    • MAC based
    • IP based
    • VLAN based
    • Protocol based
    • DSCP based
  • Port based egress traffic limiting
Port isolation
  • Applicable for Private VLAN implementation
Access Control List
  • Ingress ACL tables
  • Classification based on ports, L2, L3, L4 protocol header fields
  • ACL actions include filtering, forwarding and modifying of the protocol header fields

Models

This table clarifies main differences between Cloud Router Switch models.

Model Switch Chip CPU Cores Wireless SFP+ port ACL rules Unicast FDB entries Jumbo Frame (Bytes)
CRS326-24G-2S+ Marvell-98DX3236 800MHz 1 - + 128 16,000 10218
CRS328-24P-4S+ Marvell-98DX3236 800MHz 1 - + 128 16,000 10218
CRS328-4C-20S-4S+ Marvell-98DX3236 800MHz 1 - + 128 16,000 10218
CRS305-1G-4S+ Marvell-98DX3236 800MHz 1 - + 128 16,000 10218
CRS309-1G-8S+ Marvell-98DX8208 800MHz 2 - + 680 32 000 10218
CRS317-1G-16S+ Marvell-98DX8216 800MHz 2 - + 680 128,000 10218
CRS312-4C+8XG Marvell-98DX8212 650MHz 1 - + 341 32,000 10218
CRS326-24S+2Q+ Marvell-98DX8332 650MHz 1 - + 170 32,000 10218
CRS354-48G-4S+2Q+ Marvell-98DX3257 650MHz 1 - + 170 32,000 10218
CRS354-48P-4S+2Q+ Marvell-98DX3257 650MHz 1 - + 170 32,000 10218

Abbreviations

  • FDB - Forwarding Database
  • MDB - Multicast Database
  • SVL - Shared VLAN Learning
  • IVL - Independent VLAN Learning
  • PVID - Port VLAN ID
  • ACL - Access Control List
  • CVID - Customer VLAN ID
  • SVID - Service VLAN ID

Port switching

In order to setup port switching on CRS3xx series switches, check the Bridge Hardware Offloading page.

Warning: Currently it is possible to create only one bridge with hardware offloading on CRS3xx series devices. Use the hw parameter to select which bridge will use hardware offloading.


Note: On CRS3xx series switches bridge STP/RSTP/MSTP, IGMP Snooping and VLAN filtering settings don't affect hardware offloading, since RouterOS v6.42 Bonding interfaces are also hardware offloaded.


VLAN

Since RouterOS v6.41 bridges provides VLAN aware Layer2 forwarding and VLAN tag modifications within the bridge. This set of features makes bridge operation more like a traditional Ethernet switch and allows to overcome Spanning Tree compatibilty issues compared to configuration when tunnel-like VLAN interfaces are bridged. Bridge VLAN Filtering configuration is highly recommended to comply with STP (802.1D), RSTP (802.1w) standards and is mandatory to enable MSTP (802.1s) support in RouterOS.

VLAN Filtering

The main VLAN setting is vlan-filtering which globally controls vlan-awareness and VLAN tag processing in the bridge. If vlan-filtering=no, bridge ignores VLAN tags, works in a shared-VLAN-learning (SVL) mode and cannot modify VLAN tags of packets. Turning on vlan-filtering enables all bridge VLAN related functionality and independent-VLAN-learning (IVL) mode. Besides joining the ports for Layer2 forwarding, bridge itself is also an interface therefore it has Port VLAN ID (pvid).

Note: Since RouterOS v6.41 all VLAN switching related parameters are moved to the bridge section. On CRS3xx series devices VLAN switching must be configured under the bridge section as well, this will not limit the device's performance, CRS3xx is designed to use the built-in switch chip to work with bridge VLAN filtering, you are able to achieve full non-blocking wire-speed switching performance while using bridges and bridge VLAN filtering. Make sure that all bridge ports have the "H" flag, which indicates that the device is using the switch chip to forward packets.


Sub-menu: /interface bridge


Property Description
vlan-filtering (yes | no; Default: no) Globally enables or disables VLAN functionality for bridge.
pvid (1..4094; Default: 1) Port VLAN ID (pvid) specifies which VLAN the untagged ingress traffic is assigned to. It applies e.g. to frames sent from bridge IP and destined to a bridge port.


Sub-menu: /interface bridge port


Property Description
frame-types (admit-all | admit-only-untagged-and-priority-tagged | admit-only-vlan-tagged; Default: admit-all) Specifies allowed ingress frame types on a bridge port. Only has effect when ingress-filtering is enabled.
ingress-filtering (yes | no; Default: no) Enables or disables ingress filtering, which checks if an entry exists for the ingress port and the VLAN ID in the bridge VLAN table. Should be used with frame-types to specify if the ingress traffic should be tagged or untagged.
pvid (1..4094; Default: 1) Port VLAN ID (pvid) specifies which VLAN the untagged ingress traffic is assigned to.

VLAN Table

Bridge VLAN table represents per-VLAN port mapping with an egress VLAN tag action. tagged ports send out frames with a learned VLAN ID tag. untagged ports remove VLAN tag before sending out frames if the learned VLAN ID matches the port pvid.

Sub-menu: /interface bridge vlan


Property Description
bridge (name) The bridge interface which the respective VLAN entry is intended for.
disabled (yes | no; Default: no) Enables or disables Bridge VLAN entry.
tagged (interfaces; Default: none) Interface list with a VLAN tag adding action in egress. This setting accepts comma separated values. E.g. tagged=ether1,ether2.
untagged (interfaces; Default: none) Interface list with a VLAN tag removing action in egress. This setting accepts comma separated values. E.g. tagged=ether3,ether4.
vlan-ids (1..4094) The list of VLAN IDs for certain port configuration. This setting accepts VLAN ID range as well as comma separated values. E.g. vlan-ids=100-115,120,122,128-130.


Setup examples

Port Based VLAN

Note: It is possible to use the built-in switch chip and the CPU at the same time to create a Switch-Router setup, where a device acts as a switch and as a router at the same time. You can find a configuration example in the CRS-Router guide.


MAC Based VLAN

Alt text
MAC Based VLAN

Note: The CRS3xx Switch Rule table is used for MAC Based VLAN functionality, see this table on how many rules each device supports.


Note: MAC-based VLANs will only work properly between switch ports. ACL rules used together with port pvid property will not set the correct VLAN ID when packets are being forwarded to the CPU.


  • Enable switching on ports by creating a bridge with enabled hw-offloading.
/interface bridge
add name=bridge1 vlan-filtering=yes
/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge1 interface=ether2 hw=yes
add bridge=bridge1 interface=ether7 hw=yes
  • Add VLANs in the Bridge VLAN table and specify ports.
/interface bridge vlan
add bridge=bridge1 tagged=ether2 untagged=ether7 vlan-ids=200,300,400
  • Add Switch rules which assign VLAN id based on MAC address.
/interface ethernet switch rule
add switch=switch1 ports=ether7 src-mac-address=A4:12:6D:77:94:43/FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF new-vlan-id=200
add switch=switch1 ports=ether7 src-mac-address=84:37:62:DF:04:20/FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF new-vlan-id=300
add switch=switch1 ports=ether7 src-mac-address=E7:16:34:A1:CD:18/FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF new-vlan-id=400

Protocol Based VLAN

Alt text
Protocol Based VLAN

Note: The CRS3xx Switch Rule table is used for Protocol Based VLAN functionality, see this table on how many rules each device supports.


  • Enable switching on ports by creating a bridge with enabled hw-offloading.
/interface bridge
add name=bridge1 vlan-filtering=yes
/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge1 interface=ether2 hw=yes
add bridge=bridge1 interface=ether6 hw=yes
add bridge=bridge1 interface=ether7 hw=yes
add bridge=bridge1 interface=ether8 hw=yes
  • Add VLANs in the Bridge VLAN table and specify ports.
/interface bridge vlan
add bridge=bridge1 tagged=ether2 untagged=ether6 vlan-ids=200
add bridge=bridge1 tagged=ether2 untagged=ether7 vlan-ids=300
add bridge=bridge1 tagged=ether2 untagged=ether8 vlan-ids=400
  • Add Switch rules which assign VLAN id based on MAC protocol.
/interface ethernet switch rule
add mac-protocol=ip new-vlan-id=200 ports=ether6 switch=switch1
add mac-protocol=ipx new-vlan-id=300 ports=ether7 switch=switch1
add mac-protocol=0x80F3 new-vlan-id=400 ports=ether8 switch=switch1

VLAN Tunneling (Q-in-Q)

Since RouterOS v6.43 it is possible to use a provider bridge (IEEE 802.1ad) VLAN filtering and hardware offloading at the same time on CRS3xx series switches. The configuration for CRS3xx switches is described in the Bridge VLAN Tunneling (Q-in-Q) section.

Ingress VLAN translation

It is possible to translate a certain VLAN ID to a different VLAN ID using ACL rules on an ingress port. In this example we create two ACL rules, allowing a bidirectional communication. This can be done by doing the following:

Alt text
CRS3xx Ingress VLAN translation
  • Create a new bridge and add ports to it with hardware offloading:
/interface bridge
add name=bridge1 vlan-filtering=no
/interface bridge port
add interface=ether1 bridge=bridge1 hw=yes
add interface=ether2 bridge=bridge1 hw=yes
  • Add ACL rules to translate a VLAN ID in each direction:
/interface ethernet switch rule
add new-dst-ports=ether2 new-vlan-id=20 ports=ether1 switch=switch1 vlan-id=10
add new-dst-ports=ether1 new-vlan-id=10 ports=ether2 switch=switch1 vlan-id=20
  • Add both VLAN IDs to the bridge VLAN table:
/interface bridge vlan
add bridge=bridge1 tagged=ether1 vlan-ids=10
add bridge=bridge1 tagged=ether2 vlan-ids=20
  • Enable bridge VLAN filtering:
/interface bridge set bridge1 vlan-filtering=yes

Note: Bidirectional communication is limited only between two switch ports. Translating VLAN ID between more ports can cause traffic flooding or incorrect forwarding between same VLAN ports.


Warning: By enabling vlan-filtering you will be filtering out traffic destined to the CPU, before enabling VLAN filtering you should make sure that you set up a Management port


(R/M)STP

CRS3xx series switches are capable of running STP, RSTP and MSTP on a hardware level. For more detailed information you should check out the Spanning Tree Protocol manual page.

Bonding

Since RouterOS v6.42 all CRS3xx series switches support hardware offloading with bonding interfaces. Only 802.3ad and balance-xor bonding modes are hardware offloaded, other bonding modes will use the CPU's resources. You can find more information about the bonding interfaces in the Bonding Interface section. If 802.3ad mode is used, then LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) is supported.

To create a hardware offloaded bonding interface, you must create a bonding interface with a supported bonding mode:

/interface bonding
add mode=802.3ad name=bond1 slaves=ether1,ether2

This interface can be added to a bridge alongside with other interfaces:

/interface bridge
add name=bridge
/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge interface=bond1 hw=yes
add bridge=bridge interface=ether3 hw=yes
add bridge=bridge interface=ether4 hw=yes

Note: Don't add interfaces to a bridge that are already in a bond, RouterOS will not allow you to add an interface that is already a slave to a bridge as there is no need to do it since a bonding interface already contains the slave interfaces.


Make sure that the bonding interface is hardware offloaded by checking the "H" flag:

/interface bridge port print 
Flags: X - disabled, I - inactive, D - dynamic, H - hw-offload 
 #     INTERFACE                                 BRIDGE                                 HW
 0   H bond1                                     bridge                                 yes
 1   H ether3                                    bridge                                 yes
 2   H ether4                                    bridge                                 yes

Note: The built-in switch chip will always use Layer2+Layer3+Layer4 for transmit hash policy, changing the transmit hash policy manually will have no effect.


Port isolation

Since RouterOS v6.43 is it possible to create a Private VLAN setup on CRS3xx series switches, example can be found in the Switch chip port isolation manual page.

IGMP Snooping

CRS3xx series switches are capable of using IGMP Snooping on a hardware level. To see more detailed information, you should check out the IGMP Snooping manual page.

DHCP Snooping and DHCP Option 82

CRS3xx series switches are capable of using DHCP Snooping with Option 82 on a hardware level. To see more detailed information, you should check out the DHCP Snooping and DHCP Option 82 manual page.

Mirroring

Mirroring lets the switch 'sniff' all traffic that is going in a switch chip and send a copy of those packets out to another port (mirror-target). This feature can be used to easily set up a 'tap' device that allows you to inspect the traffic on your network on a traffic analyzer device. It is possible to set up a simple port based mirroring where, but it is also possible to setup more complex mirroring based on various parameters. Note that mirror-target port has to belong to same switch. (See which port belong to which switch in /interface ethernet menu). Also mirror-target can have a special 'cpu' value, which means that 'sniffed' packets will be sent out of switch chips cpu port. There are many possibilities that can be used to mirror certain traffic, below you can find most common mirroring examples:

  • Port Based Mirroring
/interface ethernet switch
set switch1 mirror-source=ether2 mirror-target=ether3

Note: Property mirror-source will send an ingress and egress packet copies to the mirror-target port. Both mirror-source and mirror-target are limited to a single interface.


/interface ethernet switch
set switch1 mirror-source=none mirror-target=ether3
/interface ethernet switch rule
add mirror=yes ports=ether1,ether2 switch=switch1

Note: Using ACL rules, it is possible to mirror packets from multiple ports interfaces. Only ingress packets are mirrored to mirror-target interface.


  • VLAN Based Mirroring
/interface bridge
set bridge1 vlan-filtering=yes
/interface ethernet switch
set switch1 mirror-target=ether3 mirror-source=none
/interface ethernet switch rule
add mirror=yes ports=ether1 switch=switch1 vlan-id=11

Warning: By enabling vlan-filtering you will be filtering out traffic destined to the CPU, before enabling VLAN filtering you should make sure that you set up a Management port


  • MAC Based Mirroring
/interface ethernet switch
set switch1 mirror-target=ether3 mirror-source=none
/interface ethernet switch rule
add mirror=yes ports=ether1 switch=switch1 dst-mac-address=64:D1:54:D9:27:E6/FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
add mirror=yes ports=ether1 switch=switch1 src-mac-address=64:D1:54:D9:27:E6/FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
  • Protocol Based Mirroring
/interface ethernet switch
set switch1 mirror-target=ether3 mirror-source=none
/interface ethernet switch rule
add mirror=yes ports=ether1 switch=switch1 mac-protocol=ipx
  • IP Based Mirroring
/interface ethernet switch
set switch1 mirror-target=ether3 mirror-source=none
/interface ethernet switch rule
add mirror=yes ports=ether1 switch=switch1 src-address=192.168.88.0/24
add mirror=yes ports=ether1 switch=switch1 dst-address=192.168.88.0/24

There are other options as well, check the ACL section to find out all possible parameters that can be used to match packets.

Traffic Shaping

It is possible to limit certain type of traffic using ACL rules. For CRS3xx series switches it is possible to limit ingress traffic that matches certain parameters and it is possible to limit ingress/egress traffic per port basis. For ingress traffic QoS policer is used, for egress traffic QoS shaper is used.

  • Port Based Traffic Shaping
/interface ethernet switch port
set ether1 ingress-rate=10M egress-rate=5M
  • MAC Based Traffic Shaping
/interface ethernet switch rule
add ports=ether1 switch=switch1 src-mac-address=64:D1:54:D9:27:E6/FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF rate=10M
  • VLAN Based Traffic Shaping
/interface bridge
set bridge1 vlan-filtering=yes
/interface ethernet switch rule
add ports=ether1 switch=switch1 vlan-id=11 rate=10M

Warning: By enabling vlan-filtering you will be filtering out traffic destined to the CPU, before enabling VLAN filtering you should make sure that you set up a Management port


  • Protocol Based Traffic Shaping
/interface ethernet switch rule
add ports=ether1 switch=switch1 mac-protocol=ipx rate=10M

There are other options as well, check the ACL section to find out all possible parameters that can be used to match packets.

Note: The CRS3xx Switch Rule table is used for QoS functionality, see this table on how many rules each device supports.


Traffic Storm Control

Since RouterOS v6.42 it is possible to enable traffic storm control on CRS3xx series devices. A traffic storm can emerge when certain frames are continuously flooded on the network. For example, if a network loop has been created and no loop avoidance mechanisms are used (e.g. Spanning Tree Protocol), broadcast or multicast frames can quickly overwhelm the network, causing degraded network performance or even complete network breakdown. With CRS3xx series switches it is possible to limit broadcast, unknown multicast and unknown unicast traffic. Unknown unicast traffic is considered when a switch does not contain a host entry for the destined MAC address. Unknown multicast traffic is considered when a switch does not contain a multicast group entry in the /interface bridge mdb menu. Storm control settings should be applied to ingress ports, the egress traffic will be limited.

Note: The storm control parameter is specified in percentage (%) of the link speed. If your link speed is 1Gbps, then specifying storm-rate as 10 will allow only 100Mbps of broadcast, unknown multicast and/or unknown unicast traffic to be forwarded.


Sub-menu: /interface ethernet switch port


Property Description
limit-broadcasts (yes | no; Default: yes) Limit broadcast traffic on switch port.
limit-unknown-multicasts (yes | no; Default: no) Limit unknown multicast traffic on switch port.
limit-unknown-unicasts (yes | no; Default: no) Limit unknown unicast traffic on switch port.
storm-rate (integer 0..100; Default: 100) Amount of broadcast, unknown multicast and/or unknown unicast traffic is limited to in percentage of the link speed.


Warning: Devices with Marvell-98DX3236 switch chip cannot distinguish unknown multicast traffic from all multicast traffic. For example, CRS326-24G-2S+ will limit all multicast traffic when limit-unknown-multicasts and storm-rate is used. For other devices, for example, CRS317-1G-16S+ the limit-unknown-multicasts parameter will limit only unknown multicast traffic (addresses that are not present in /interface bridge mdb


  • For example, to limit 1% (10Mbps) of broadcast and unknown unicast traffic on ether1 (1Gbps), use the following commands:
/interface ethernet switch port
set ether1 storm-rate=1 limit-broadcasts=yes limit-unknown-unicasts=yes

MPLS hardware offloading

Since RouterOS v6.41 it is possible to offload certain MPLS functions to the switch chip, the switch must be a (P)rovider router in a PE-P-PE setup in order to achieve hardware offloading. Setup example can be found in the Basic MPLS setup example manual page.

Note: Currently only CRS317-1G-16S+ and CRS309-1G-8S+ using RouterOS v6.41 and newer are capable of hardware offloading certain MPLS functions. CRS317-1G-16S+ and CRS309-1G-8S+ built-in switch chip is not capable of popping MPLS labels from packets, in a PE-P-PE setup you either have to use explicit null or disable TTL propagation in MPLS network to achieve hardware offloading.


Switch Rules (ACL)

Access Control List contains of ingress policy and egress policy engines. See this table on how many rules each device supports (limited by RouterOS). It is advanced tool for wire-speed packet filtering, forwarding and modifying based on Layer2, Layer3 and Layer4 protocol header field conditions.

Note: ACL rules are checked for each packet until a match has been found. If there are multiple rules that can match, then only the first rule will be triggered. A rule without any action parameters is a rule to accept the packet.


Sub-menu: /interface ethernet switch rule


Property Description
copy-to-cpu (no | yes; Default: no) Clones the matching packet and sends it to the CPU.
disabled (yes | no; Default: no) Enables or disables ACL entry.
dscp (0..63) Matching DSCP field of the packet.
dst-address (IP address/Mask) Matching destination IP address and mask.
dst-address6 (IPv6 address/Mask) Matching destination IPv6 address and mask.
dst-mac-address (MAC address/Mask) Matching destination MAC address and mask.
dst-port (0..65535) Matching destination protocol port number.
flow-label (0..1048575) Matching IPv6 flow label.
mac-protocol (802.2 | arp | homeplug-av | ip | ipv6 | ipx | lldp | loop-protect | mpls-multicast | mpls-unicast | packing-compr | packing-simple | pppoe | pppoe-discovery | rarp | service-vlan | vlan | or 0..65535 | or 0x0000-0xffff) Matching particular MAC protocol specified by protocol name or number
mirror (no | yes) Clones the matching packet and sends it to the mirror-target port.
new-dst-ports (ports) Changes the destination port as specified. An empty setting will drop the packet. A specified port will redirect the packet to it. When the parameter is not used, the packet will be accepted. Multiple "new-dst-ports" are not supported on CRS3xx series switches.
new-vlan-id (0..4095) Changes the VLAN ID to the specified value. Requires vlan-filtering=yes.
new-vlan-priority (0..7) Changes the VLAN priority tag. Requires vlan-filtering=yes.
ports (ports) Matching ports on which will the rule apply on received traffic.
protocol (dccp | ddp | egp | encap | etherip | ggp | gre | hmp | icmp | icmpv6 | idpr-cmtp | igmp | ipencap | ipip | ipsec-ah | ipsec-esp | ipv6 | ipv6-frag | ipv6-nonxt | ipv6-opts | ipv6-route | iso-tp4 | l2tp | ospf | pim | pup | rdp | rspf | rsvp | sctp | st | tcp | udp | udp-lite | vmtp | vrrp | xns-idp | xtp | or 0..255) Matching particular IP protocol specified by protocol name or number.
rate (0..4294967295) Sets ingress traffic limitation (bits per second) for matched traffic.
redirect-to-cpu (no | yes) Changes the destination port of a matching packet to the CPU.
src-address (IP address/Mask) Matching source IP address and mask.
src-address6 (IPv6 address/Mask) Matching source IPv6 address and mask.
src-mac-address (MAC address/Mask) Matching source MAC address and mask.
src-port (0..65535) Matching source protocol port number.
switch (switch group) Matching switch group on which will the rule apply.
traffic-class (0..255) Matching IPv6 traffic class.
vlan-id (0..4095) Matching VLAN ID. Requires vlan-filtering=yes.
vlan-header (not-present | present) Matching VLAN header, whether the VLAN header is present or not. Requires vlan-filtering=yes.
vlan-priority (0..7) Matching VLAN priority.

Action parameters:

  • copy-to-cpu
  • redirect-to-cpu
  • mirror
  • new-dst-ports (can be used to drop packets)
  • new-vlan-id
  • new-vlan-priority
  • rate

Conditional parameters:

  • Layer2 conditions:
    • dst-mac-address
    • mac-protocol
    • src-mac-address
    • vlan-id
    • vlan-header
    • vlan-priority
  • Layer3 conditions:
    • dscp
    • protocol
    • IPv4 conditions:
      • dst-address
      • src-address
    • IPv6 conditions:
      • dst-address6
      • flow-label
      • src-address6
      • traffic-class
  • Layer4 conditions:
    • dst-port
    • src-port

Note: For VLAN related matchers or VLAN related action parameters to work, you need to enable vlan-filtering on the bridge interface and make sure that hardware offloading is enabled on those ports, otherwise these parameters will not have any effect.


Warning: When vlan-protocol is set to 802.1Q, then VLAN related ACL rules are relevant to 0x8100 (CVID) packets, this includes vlan-id and new-vlan-id. When vlan-protocol is set to 802.1ad, then ACL rules are relevant to 0x88A8 (SVID) packets. For example, with 802.1Q the vlan-id matcher will match CVID packets, but with 802.1ad the vlan-id matcher will match SVID packets.


Port Security

It is possible to limit allowed MAC addresses on a single switch port on CRS3xx series switches. For example, to allow 64:D1:54:81:EF:8E start by switching multiple ports together, in this example 64:D1:54:81:EF:8E is going to be located behind ether1.

  • Create an ACL rule to allow the given MAC address and drop all other traffic on ether1 (for ingress traffic):
/interface ethernet switch rule
add ports=ether1 src-mac-address=64:D1:54:81:EF:8E/FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF switch=switch1
add new-dst-ports="" ports=ether1 switch=switch1
  • Switch all required ports together, disable MAC learning and disable unknown unicast flooding on ether1:
/interface bridge
add name=bridge1
/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge1 interface=ether1 hw=yes learn=no unknown-unicast-flood=no
add bridge=bridge1 interface=ether2 hw=yes
  • Add a static hosts entry for 64:D1:54:81:EF:8E (for egress traffic):
/interface bridge host
add bridge=bridge1 interface=ether1 mac-address=64:D1:54:81:EF:8E

Warning: Broadcast traffic will still be sent out from ether1. To limit broadcast traffic flood on a bridge port, you can use the broadcast-flood parameter to toggle it. Do note that some protocols depend on broadcast traffic, such as streaming protocols and DHCP.


Dual Boot

“Dual boot” feature allows you to choose which operating system you prefer to use, RouterOS or SwOS. Device operating system could be changed using:

  • Serial Terminal (/system routerboard settings set boot-os=swos)
  • Winbox
  • Webfig
  • Serial Console
Alt text
Winbox
Alt text
Webfig
Alt text
Serial Console

More details about SwOS are described here: SwOS manual

Configuring SwOS using RouterOS

Since RouterOS 6.43 it is possible to load, save and reset SwOS configuration, as well as upgrade SwOS and set an IP address for the switch by using RouterOS.

  • Save configuration with /system swos save-config

Note: Configuration will be saved on the same device with swos.config as filename, make sure you download the file off your device since the configuration file will be removed after a reboot.


  • Load configuration with /system swos load-config
  • Change password with /system swos password
  • Reset configuration with /system swos reset-config
  • Upgrade SwOS from RouterOS using /system swos upgrade

Note: The upgrade command will automatically install the latest available SwOS version, make sure that your device has access to the Internet in order for the upgrade process to work properly.


Property Description
address-acquisition-mode (dhcp-only | dhcp-with-fallback | static; Default: dhcp-with-fallback) Changes address acquisition method:
  • dhcp-only - uses only a DHCP client to acquire address
  • dhcp-with-fallback - for the first 10 seconds will try to acquire address using a DHCP client. If the request is unsuccessful, then address falls back to static as defined by static-ip-address property
  • static - address is set as defined by static-ip-address property
allow-from (IP/Mask; Default: 0.0.0.0/0) IP address or a network from which the switch is accessible. By default, the switch is accessible by any IP address.
allow-from-ports (name; Default: ) List of switch ports from which the device is accessible. By default, all ports are allowed to access the switch
allow-from-vlan (integer: 0..4094; Default: 0) VLAN ID from which the device is accessible. By defaull, all VLANs are allowed
identity (name; Default: Mikrotik) Name of the switch (used for Mikrotik Neighbor Discovery protocol)
static-ip-address (IP; Default: 192.168.88.1) IP address of the switch in case address-acquisition-mode is either set to dhcp-with-fallback or static. By setting a static IP address, the address acquisition process does not change, which is DHCP with fallback by default. This means that the configured static IP address will become active only when there is going to be no DHCP servers in the same broadcast domain

See also

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