Switch Configuration Guides

The set of switch configuration documents will focus on how to manage the switch using the CORECONF/YANG interface. These guides are intended for users to get started with a given feature. Typically, the individual guide will provide some background and/or introduction to a given feature, and then follow up with hands-on examples on how to configure and/or inspect status.

All the examples in this material will be showing requests and responses in RFC7951 inspired format. See this section for details on the request/response format. This format has been chosen as it allows us to explain the features and provide examples in a client-agnostic way. This means that readers who want to try out the examples will need to adapt the shown request into a format accepted by the desired client.

The intention with these guides is to introduce the topic and offer some ready to use requests and responses which the reader can try out while reading.

1. Audience

This material is intended for all users of a Microchip evaluation board running VelocityDRIVE-SP who have an interest in managing the switch using the CORECONF interface, regardless of what client will be used.

2. Clients and Connectivity

To actually try the requests shown in the configuration guides, the following is needed:

  • A supported board with VelocityDRIVE-SP firmware

  • A CORECONF client and a PC to run the client code

  • Connectivity between the client and the board.

2.1. Clients

Following is a list of suitable clients:

  • mup1cc: This client uses RFC7951 natively, meaning that requests are given in this format, and responses are printed in this format. The getting started guide contains all the details on how to get, install, and use the tool. This is the most straightforward client to use along with the configuration guides.

  • VelocityDRIVE-CT: This is a GUI PC-based client intended for interactive use. Users of this client will typically be using the mouse to navigate the YANG tree, and then enter the values in the relevant leaves. But it is worth noting that the naming of all containers, lists, leaves, etc. are the same in the RFC7951 format as the names used in this client. Both RFC7951 and VelocityDRIVE-CT are generated from the same YANG models.

  • Customer developed client: If integrating VelocityDRIVE-SP in systems where the switch needs to be controlled or monitored by other devices, it is typically best to do a custom client. Here the configuration guides can still be used to help understand the feature, and get some pointers to what YANG modules, containers, lists, and/or leaves shall be used.

2.2. Connectivity

The client needs to have connectivity to the management interface of the switch in order to function. If using mup1cc, then the connectivity is a point-to-point UART connection and requires no configuration of the switch.

The UART configuration is: 115200 1N8.

VelocityDRIVE-CT supports both MUP1 (UART connection) and IP-based connection. If using MUP1/UART then no configuration is needed, but if using IP connection is desired, then an IP management address needs to be configured on the switch. This initial configuration needs to be configured using the P2P MUP/UART connection. The IP address configuration for simple instructions, or read Management IP page for more details.

3. YANG Catalog

The configuration guides are intended to help users get started with a given feature, but are not intended to be a complete reference of all the supported YANG elements.

The full reference of what is supported shall be found in the YANG catalog. Client tools typically download the YANG catalog in the background and use this to construct the UI and/or to format the messages (see this for more details).

But when working with the configuration guides alone, and/or if using the mup1cc tool, it is useful to inspect the YANG catalog to see the full interface specification. An HTML version of the YANG catalog is compiled in its own page, and can be seen here.