Summary
The CCR3xx, CRS5xx series switches and CCR2116, CCR2216 routers have highly integrated switches with high-performance CPU and feature-rich packet processors. These devices can be designed into various Ethernet applications including unmanaged switch, Layer 2 managed switch, carrier switch, inter-VLAN router, and wired unified packet processor.
This article applies to CRS3xx, CRS5xx series switches, CCR2116, CCR2216 routers, and not to CRS1xx/CRS2xx series switches.
Features
| Features | Description |
|---|---|
| Forwarding |
|
| Routing |
|
| Spanning Tree Protocol |
|
| Mirroring |
|
| VLAN |
|
| Bonding |
|
| Traffic Shaping |
|
| Port isolation |
|
| Access Control List |
|
Models
This table clarifies the main differences between Cloud Router Switch models and CCR routers.
| Model | Switch Chip | CPU | Cores | 10G SFP+ | 10G Ethernet | 25G SFP28 | 40G QSFP+ | 100G QSFP28 | ACL rules | Unicast FDB entries | Jumbo Frame (Bytes) |
| netPower 15FR (CRS318-1Fi-15Fr-2S) | Marvell-98DX224S | 800MHz | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 128 | 16,000 | 10218 |
| netPower 16P (CRS318-16P-2S+) | Marvell-98DX226S | 800MHz | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | 128 | 16,000 | 10218 |
| CRS310-1G-5S-4S+ (netFiber 9/IN) | Marvell-98DX226S | 800MHz | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | 128 | 16,000 | 10218 |
| CRS320-8P-8B-4S+RM | Marvell-98DX226S | 800MHz | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | 128 | 16,000 | 10218 |
| CRS326-24G-2S+ (RM/IN) | Marvell-98DX3236 | 800MHz | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | 128 | 16,000 | 10218 |
| CRS328-24P-4S+ | Marvell-98DX3236 | 800MHz | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | 128 | 16,000 | 10218 |
| CRS328-4C-20S-4S+ | Marvell-98DX3236 | 800MHz | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | 128 | 16,000 | 10218 |
| CRS305-1G-4S+ | Marvell-98DX3236 | 800MHz | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | 128 | 16,000 | 10218 |
| CRS309-1G-8S+ | Marvell-98DX8208 | 800MHz | 2 | 8 | - | - | - | - | 1024 | 32,000 | 10218 |
| CRS317-1G-16S+ | Marvell-98DX8216 | 800MHz | 2 | 16 | - | - | - | - | 1024 | 128,000 | 10218 |
| CRS312-4C+8XG | Marvell-98DX8212 | 650MHz | 1 | 4 (combo ports) | 8 + 4 (combo ports) | - | - | - | 512 | 32,000 | 10218 |
| CRS326-24S+2Q+ | Marvell-98DX8332 | 650MHz | 1 | 24 | - | - | 2 | - | 256 | 32,000 | 10218 |
| CRS326-4C+20G+2Q+RM | Marvell-98DX8332 | 650MHz | 1 | 4 (combo ports) | - | - | 2 | - | 256 | 32,000 | 10218 |
| CRS354-48G-4S+2Q+ | Marvell-98DX3257 | 650MHz | 1 | 4 | - | - | 2 | - | 170 | 32,000 | 10218 |
| CRS354-48P-4S+2Q+ | Marvell-98DX3257 | 650MHz | 1 | 4 | - | - | 2 | - | 170 | 32,000 | 10218 |
| CRS504-4XQ (IN/OUT) | Marvell-98DX4310 | 650MHz | 1 | - | - | - | - | 4 | 1024 | 128,000 | 10218 |
| CRS510-8XS-2XQ-IN | Marvell-98DX4310 | 650MHz | 1 | - | - | 8 | - | 2 | 1024 | 128,000 | 10218 |
| CRS518-16XS-2XQ | Marvell-98DX8525 | 650MHz | 1 | - | - | 16 | - | 2 | 1024 | 128,000 | 10218 |
| CRS520-4XS-16XQ-RM | Marvell-98CX8410 | 2000MHz | 4 | - | 2 | 4 | - | 16 | 682 | 256,000 | 9570 |
| CCR2116-12G-4S+ | Marvell-98DX3255 | 2000MHz | 16 | 4 | - | - | - | - | 512 | 32,000 | 9570 |
| CCR2216-1G-12XS-2XQ | Marvell-98DX8525 | 2000MHz | 16 | - | - | 12 | - | 2 | 1024 | 128,000 | 9570 |
For L3 hardware offloading feature support and hardware limits, please refer to Feature Support and Device Support user manuals.
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 set up a port switching, check the Bridge Hardware Offloading page.
Currently, it is possible to create only one bridge with hardware offloading. Use the hw=yes/no parameter to select which bridge will use hardware offloading.
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 version 6.41, a bridge 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 compatibility issues compared to the 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 it is mandatory to enable MSTP (802.1s) support in RouterOS.
VLAN Filtering
VLAN filtering is described on the Bridge VLAN Filtering section.
VLAN setup examples
Below are describes some of the most common ways how to utilize VLAN forwarding.
Port-Based VLAN
The configuration is described on the Bridge VLAN FIltering section.
MAC Based VLAN
- The Switch Rule table is used for MAC Based VLAN functionality, see this table on how many rules each device supports.
- MAC-based VLANs will only work properly between switch ports and not between switch ports and CPU. When a packet is being forwarded to the CPU, the
pvidproperty for the bridge port will be always used instead ofnew-vlan-idfrom ACL rules. - MAC-based VLANs will not work for DHCP packets when DHCP snooping is enabled.
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
- The Switch Rule table is used for Protocol Based VLAN functionality, see this table on how many rules each device supports.
- Protocol-based VLANs will only work properly between switch ports and not between switch ports and CPU. When a packet is being forwarded to the CPU, the
pvidproperty for the bridge port will be always used instead ofnew-vlan-idfrom ACL rules. - Protocol-based VLANs will not work for DHCP packets when DHCP snooping is enabled.
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) and Tag Stacking VLAN filtering, and hardware offloading at the same time. The configuration is described in the Bridge VLAN Tunneling (Q-in-Q) section.
Devices with switch chip Marvell-98DX3257 (e.g. CRS354 series) do not support VLAN filtering on 1Gbps Ethernet interfaces for other VLAN types (0x88a8 and 0x9100).
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 bidirectional communication. This can be done by doing the following.
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
Bidirectional communication is limited only between two switch ports. Translating VLAN ID between more ports can cause traffic flooding or incorrect forwarding between the same VLAN ports.
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, CRS5xx series switches, and CCR2116, CCR2216 routers 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
CRS3xx, CRS5xx series switches and CCR2116, CCR2216 routers 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 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
Do not add interfaces to a bridge that are already in a bond, RouterOS will not allow you to add an interface to bridge that is already a slave port for bonding.
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
With HW-offloaded bonding interfaces, the built-in switch chip will always use Layer2+Layer3+Layer4 for a transmit hash policy, changing the transmit hash policy manually will have no effect.
Multi-chassis Link Aggregation Group
MLAG (Multi-chassis Link Aggregation Group) implementation in RouterOS allows configuring LACP bonds on two separate devices, while the client device believes to be connected on the same machine. This provides a physical redundancy in case of switch failure. All CRS3xx, CRS5xx series and CCR2116, CCR2216 devices can be configured with MLAG. Read here for more information.
L3 Hardware Offloading
Layer3 hardware offloading (otherwise known as IP switching or HW routing) will allow to offload some of the router features onto the switch chip. This allows reaching wire speeds when routing packets, which simply would not be possible with the CPU.
Offloaded feature set depends on the used chipset. Read here for more info.
Port isolation
Since RouterOS v6.43 is it possible to create a Private VLAN setup, an example can be found in the Switch chip port isolation manual page. Hardware offloaded bonding interfaces are not included in the switch port-isolation menu, but it is still possible to configure port-isolation individually on each secondary interface of the bonding.
Port isolation can be used with vlan-filtering bridge and it is possible to isolate ports that are members of the same VLAN. The isolation works per-port, it is not possible to isolate ports per-VLAN.
IGMP/MLD Snooping
CRS3xx, CRS5xx series switches and CCR2116, CCR2216 routers are capable of using IGMP/MLD Snooping on a hardware level. To see more detailed information, you should check out the IGMP/MLD snooping manual page.
DHCP Snooping and DHCP Option 82
CRS3xx, CRS5xx series switches and CCR2116, CCR2216 routers are capable of using DHCP Snooping with Option 82 on a hardware level. The switch will create a dynamic ACL rule to capture the DHCP packets and redirect them to the main CPU for further processing. To see more detailed information, please visit the DHCP Snooping and DHCP Option 82 manual page.
Starting from RouterOS v7.17, DHCP snooping is supported with hardware offloading bonding interfaces.
Controller Bridge and Port Extender
Controller Bridge (CB) and Port Extender (PE) is an IEEE 802.1BR standard implementation in RouterOS. It allows virtually extending the CB ports with a PE device and managing these extended interfaces from a single controlling device. Such configuration provides a simplified network topology, flexibility, increased port density, and ease of manageability. See more details on Controller Bridge and Port Extender manual.
Mirroring
Mirroring is a function that allows a network switch to duplicate all the data passing through it and send a copy to another specified port, known as the mirror-target. This feature is useful for setting up a tap device, which allows for analyzing network traffic using a separate device. You can set up mirroring in a simple way by designating source ports (see mirror-egress and mirror-ingress in /interface/ethernet/switch/port), or you can configure more advanced mirroring based on different criteria (see mirror in /interface/ethernet/switch/rule).
It is important to note that the mirror-target port must be on the same switch. You can check the device block diagram or navigate to the /interface/ethernet menu to identify which interfaces are connected where. When setting up the configration, it is not mandatory to add the mirror-target interface to the same hardware offloaded bridge where the source ports are set up. The mirror-target port can be a standalone interface (not configured as a bridge port), or it can be within a bridge setup. When using the mirror-target with a bridge, note that data and mirrored traffic may both travel on the same LAN. In such cases, consider employing RSPAN (Remote Switch Port Analyzer), where mirrored traffic is encapsulated into a separate VLAN before being transmitted over the network.
Additionally, you can set the mirror-target port to a special value "cpu", which means that the copied packets will be sent to the switch chip's CPU port.
Configuration examples
Port Based Mirroring
Starting from RouterOS version 7.15, it is possible to configure multiple source ports and selectively choose whether to mirror incoming traffic, outgoing traffic, or both. In this example, both incoming and outgoing traffic from the ether2 interface will be copied and sent to the ether3 interface for monitoring or analysis.
# Since RouterOS v7.15 /interface ethernet switch port set ether2 mirror-egress=yes mirror-ingress=yes /interface ethernet switch set switch1 mirror-target=ether3 # Older RouterOS: /interface ethernet switch set switch1 mirror-source=ether2 mirror-target=ether3
VLAN Based Mirroring
Using ACL rules, it is possible to mirror packets from multiple interfaces using the ports setting. Additionally, you can specify more detailed criteria such as VLAN ID, MAC/IP address or TCP/UDP port. Only ingress packets are mirrored to mirror-target interface. This example will mirror incoming VLAN 11 traffic from the ether2 interface, and send copies to the ether3 interface. To use an ACL rule with a vlan-id matcher, you need to have bridge vlan-filtering enabled.
/interface bridge set bridge1 vlan-filtering=yes /interface ethernet switch set switch1 mirror-target=ether3 /interface ethernet switch rule add mirror=yes ports=ether1 switch=switch1 vlan-id=11
MAC Based Mirroring
This example will mirror incoming traffic with 64:D1:54:D9:27:E6 MAC destination or source address from the ether1 interface, and send copies to the ether3 interface.
/interface ethernet switch set switch1 mirror-target=ether3 /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
IP Based Mirroring
This example will mirror incoming traffic with 192.168.88.0/24 IP destination or source address from the ether1 interface, and send copies to the ether3 interface.
/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.
Remote Switch Port Analyzer
This example will mirror incomming and outgoing traffic from the ether2 interface, copies will be encapsulated in 802.1Q VLAN using the 999 as VLAN ID, and packets will be sent to the ether3 interface. If the original traffic is already VLAN tagged, RSPAN will add another layer of VLAN tagging as an outer tag. This results in the mirrored traffic being tagged twice. If the mirror-target port is included in vlan-filtering bridge, it is not required to make the interface as tagged VLAN member under the /interface/bridge/vlan menu for the RSPAN.
/interface ethernet switch port set ether2 mirror-egress=yes mirror-ingress=yes /interface ethernet switch set switch1 mirror-target=ether3 rspan=yes rspan-egress-vlan-id=999 rspan-ingress-vlan-id=999
Property Reference
Sub-menu: /interface/ethernet/switch
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| mirror-target (cpu | name | none; Default: none) | Selects a single mirroring target port. Packets from |
| rspan (no | yes; Default: no) | Enables Remote Switch Port Analyzer (RSPAN) feature on mirror-target. Traffic marked for ingress or egress mirroring is carried over a specified remote analyzer VLAN - rspan-egress-vlan-id and rspan-ingress-vlan-id. |
| rspan-egress-vlan-id (integer: 1..4095; Default: 1) | Selects the VLAN ID for marked egress traffic. Only applies when rspan is enabled. |
| rspan-ingress-vlan-id (integer: 1..4095; Default: 1) | Selects the VLAN ID for marked ingress traffic. Only applies when rspan is enabled. |
Sub-menu: /interface/ethernet/switch/port
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| mirror-egress (no | yes; Default: no) | Whether to send egress packet copy to the |
| mirror-ingress (no | yes; Default: no) | Whether to send ingress packet copy to the |
Sub-menu: /interface/ethernet/switch/rule
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| mirror (no | yes; Default: no) | Whether to send a packet copy to mirror-target port. |
Traffic Shaping
It is possible to limit ingress traffic that matches certain parameters with ACL rules and it is possible to limit ingress/egress traffic per port basis. The policer is used for ingress traffic, the shaper is used for egress traffic. The ingress policer controls the received traffic with packet drops. Everything that exceeds the defined limit will get dropped. This can affect the TCP congestion control mechanism on end hosts and achieved bandwidth can be actually less than defined. The egress shaper tries to queue packets that exceed the limit instead of dropping them. Eventually, it will also drop packets when the output queue gets full, however, it should allow utilizing the defined throughput better.
Port-based traffic police and shaper:
/interface ethernet switch port set ether1 ingress-rate=10M egress-rate=5M
MAC-based traffic policer:
/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 policer:
/interface bridge set bridge1 vlan-filtering=yes /interface ethernet switch rule add ports=ether1 switch=switch1 vlan-id=11 rate=10M
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 policer:
/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.
The 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. 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, CRS5xx series switches and CCR2116, CCR2216 routers 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.
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 a switch port. |
| limit-unknown-multicasts (yes | no; Default: no) | Limit unknown multicast traffic on a switch port. |
| limit-unknown-unicasts (yes | no; Default: no) | Limit unknown unicast traffic on a 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. |
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. A setup example can be found in the Basic MPLS setup example manual page. The hardware offloading will only take place when LDP interfaces are configured as physical switch interfaces (e.g. Ethernet, SFP, SFP+).
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.
The MPLS hardware offloading has been removed since RouterOS v7.
Switch Rules (ACL)
Access Control List contains ingress policy and egress policy engines. See this table on how many rules each device supports. It is an advanced tool for wire-speed packet filtering, forwarding and modifying based on Layer2, Layer3 and Layer4 protocol header field conditions.
ACL rules are checked for each received 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.
It is not required to set mac-protocol to certain IP version when using L3 or L4 matchers, however, it is recommended to set the mac-protocol=ip or mac-protocol=ipv6 when filtering any IP packets.
When switch ACL rules are modified (e.g. added, removed, disabled, enabled, or moved), the existing switch rules will be inactive for a short time. This can cause some packet leakage during the ACL rule modifications.
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 the DSCP field of the packet (only applies to IPv4 packets). |
| dst-address (IP address/Mask) | Matching destination IPv4 address and mask, also matches the destination IP in ARP packets. |
| 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 (applies to IPv4 and IPv6 packets if mac-protocol is not specified). |
| flow-label (0..1048575) | Matching IPv6 flow label. |
| mac-protocol (802.2 | arp | capsman | dot1x | homeplug-av | ip | ipv6 | ipx | lacp | lldp | loop-protect | macsec | mpls-multicast | mpls-unicast | packing-compr | packing-simple | pppoe | pppoe-discovery | rarp | romon | 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 | bond | all) | Changes the destination port to the specified value:
|
| 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 (priority code point). Requires vlan-filtering=yes. |
| ports (ports | bond) | Matching switch interfaces where the rule will apply to incoming traffic. Multiple ports and hardware-offloaded bonding interfaces can be selected. Note that the switch1-cpu port cannot be selected. If ports property is left empty, the rule will apply to all switch interfaces. |
| 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. Only applies to IPv4 packets if mac-protocol is not specified. To match certain IPv6 protocols, use the mac-protocol=ipv6 setting. |
| 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 IPv4 address and mask, also matches the source IP in ARP packets. |
| 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 (applies to IPv4 and IPv6 packets if mac-protocol is not specified). |
| 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 (priority code point). |
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
Layer2 condition parameters:
- dst-mac-address
- mac-protocol
- src-mac-address
- vlan-id
- vlan-header
- vlan-priority
Layer3 condition parameters:
- dscp
- protocol
- IPv4 conditions:
- dst-address
- src-address
- IPv6 conditions:
- dst-address6
- flow-label
- src-address6
- traffic-class
Layer4 condition parameters:
- dst-port
- src-port
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.
When bridge interface ether-type is set to 0x8100, then VLAN related ACL rules are relevant to frames tagged using regular/customer VLAN (TPID 0x8100), this includes vlan-id and new-vlan-id. When bridge interface ether-type is set to 0x88a8, then ACL rules are relevant to frames tagged with 802.1ad service tag (TPID 0x88a8).
Port Security
It is possible to limit allowed MAC addresses on a single switch port. For example, to allow 64:D1:54:81:EF:8E MAC address on a switch port, 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
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
The “dual boot” feature allows you to choose which operating system you prefer to use on CRS3xx series switches, RouterOS or SwOS. Device operating system could be changed using:
- Command-line (
/system routerboard settings set boot-os=swos) - Winbox
- Webfig
- 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 CRS3xx series switches by using RouterOS.
- Save configuration with
/system swos save-config
The configuration will be saved on the same device with swos.config as a filename, make sure you download the file from 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
The upgrade command will automatically install the latest available SwOS primary backup version, make sure that your device has access to the Internet in order for the upgrade process to work properly. When the device is booted into SwOS, the version number will include the letter "p", indicating a primary backup version. You can then install the latest available SwOS secondary main version from the SwOS "Upgrade" menu.
| 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 default, 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 |