Labnario Huawei From Scratch

In my previous post I wrote about upgrade of Huawei S5300 switch. The question is, what to do if flash memory is too small to fit more than one software. As it was mentioned last time, you can format flash from bootrom menu and download a new software using FTP, from bootrom menu. In this post I will show you how to deal with this problem more smoothly. You can come up against this problem in Huawei S3328TP-SI switch, where flash capacity is 15MB. Let’s take it as an example.

<S3328>display version
Huawei Versatile Routing Platform Software
VRP (R) Software, Version 5.30 (S3328 V100R003C00SPC301)
Copyright (C) 2008-2009 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Quidway S3328TP-SI uptime is 0 day, 0 hour, 4 minutes

As you can see flash capacity is 15MB:

<S3328>dir
Directory of flash:/

   0   -rw-        61  Jan 01 2008 00:22:13   private-data.txt
   1   -rw-       660  Jan 01 2008 00:16:23   vrpcfg.zip
   2   -rw-       396  Jan 01 2008 00:12:06   hostkey
   3   -rw-   7068108  Jan 01 2008 00:20:12   s3328-v100r003c00spc301.cc
   4   -rw-       540  Jan 01 2008 00:12:11   serverkey
   5   -rw-    343712  Jan 01 2008 00:04:49   bootrom330.bin
   6  -rw-        60  Jan 01 2008 00:00:53   $_patchstate_a
   7  -rw-         4  Jan 01 2008 00:01:37   notilogindex.txt

14632 KB total (6268 KB free)

Any time you want to upgrade huawei’s device you have 2 methods to do this. The first of them is to use CLI (command line interface), the second is to use bootrom menu. Using CLI is the most popular method. You can configure FTP server on the device and use your PC as FTP client or install FTP server on your PC and treat the device as FTP client. Anyway, you can use TFTP or serial (slow connection) instead of FTP. Sometimes it is not possible to get CLI because there is a problem with software file. It is damaged or does not exist. In this case we can use bootrom menu to download a new software and upgrade the device. Let’s take S5300 as an example.

Upgrade of Huawei S5300 switch from CLI

Huawei S5300 as FTP server:

#
FTP server enable
#
local-user labnario password simple labnario
local-user labnario privilege level 15
local-user labnario ftp-directory flash:
local-user labnario service-type ftp
#
interface MEth0/0/1
 ip address 192.168.0.20 255.255.255.0
#

How to log into Huawei S3300 switch? It is very simple. Which method you will chose depends on what you want to do on this device. If you want to upload file to or download it from the switch, use FTP or SFTP. If you want to configure the switch, use telnet, SSH or HTTP methods. Each time you can access the switch using console port,  locally or remotely, in case a console server is configured.

telnet S3300

#
telnet server enable
#
aaa
local-user labnario password cipher &EU15O"Q3/;Q=^Q`MAF4
local-user labnario privilege level 15
local-user labnario service-type telnet
#
user-interface vty 0 4
 authentication-mode aaa
 protocol inbound all
#

To start working with Huawei devices, it is necessary to look at CLI (Command Line Interface). All Huawei datacom devices use the same OS called VRP (Versatile Routing Platform). As an example we can take NE40E router with V600R001C00SPC900 software installed. When you establish connection with the router, it does not matter it is telnet, ssh or console, you enter the user view with the prompt of <Quidway>. The prompt < > indicates user view and the prompt [ ] indicates other views. To start configuring the router you should move from user view to system view. You can do this by using “system-view” command.

<Quidway> system-view
[Quidway]

From system view you are able to configure all functions available in VRP software. Let’s assume that you want to configure MPLS, both globally and on Ethernet interface.

[Quidway]
[Quidway]mpls
[Quidway-mpls]quit
[Quidway]interface GigabitEthernet 1/0/5
[Quidway-GigabitEthernet1/0/5]mpls

Besides command line views the system adopts a hierarchical protection mode that has 16 command levels. The default command levels are as follows:

• Level 0 – visit
• Level 1 – monitoring
• Level 2 – configuration
• Level 3 – management

For sure all network engineers know the word Cisco… Some of them know the word Juniper… Has anyone heard about Huawei?

Probably some of you have but it is still not so popular like its competitors. It seems to be a niche in IP networks worldwide. What is a reason of it? I’ll leave this question without any answer. Maybe you can answer it. Please let me know your opinion.

Datacom devices are small part of Huawei’s portfolio, which let you build end-to-end solution, both for telecom and enterprise networks. Besides Datacom Technology, in Huawei’s portfolio, we can find Radio Access, Fixed Access, Transport Network, Core Network and Software.

As Huawei is getting more and more popular it is time to show you that it is really an alternative for other vendors. This blog is just to popularize Huawei’s datacom devices throughout the world. What I want to do in this blog is to show you potential of this equipment, configuration tricks and technologies used by this equipment. I wouldn’t like to talk about Huawei as a company but about technical aspects of working in Huawei.

I hope this blog will be helpful for you and become the first knowledge base, for Huawei Datacom devices, on the internet.

Enjoy!