The Dell Force10 S4810 is a 48 sfp port, 10Gbe Switch. Let’s walk through a factory reset and some basic configuration tasks as well as an OS upgrade from OS8 to OS9.
Factory Reset
Follow the steps below for factory reset. After running the reload you will be prompted to save the config, ignore this.
Force10>en
Force10>#delete flash://startup-config
Proceed to delete startup-config.bak [confirm yes/no]:yes
Force10>reload
Configure Management IP Address
In order to be able to connect via ssh/telnet to the S4810 we will need to config a management IP. Below we are configuring an IP address on ManagementEthernet 1/0 , which is the ethernet port next to the console port at the front of the switch.
interface ManagementEthernet 1/0
ip address 10.1.10.46/24
no shutdown
We also need to configure the default route.
Force10(conf)#management route 0.0.0.0/0 10.1.10.1You should now be able to ping the management interface on the switch from your workstation. You should also verify that the switch can ping an ip outside your network, such as 8.8.8.8.
Enable SSH/Telnet
First we create an user and grant privileges. Replace <MYUSER> and <MYPASS> with the username and password that you wish to use.
Force10(conf)#username <MYUSER> admin password <MYPASS> privilege 15 access-class permitall
Now we enable ssh as shown below.
Force10#configure
Force10(conf)#ip ssh server enable
Force10(conf)#crypto key generate rsa
Enter key size <1024-2048>. Default<1024> :2048
Host key already exists .Overwrite (y/n)?y
Generating SSHv2 RSA key.
Force10(conf)#exit
Now we should confirm the running config for ssh.
Force10#show ip ssh
SSH server : enabled.
SSH server version : v1 and v2.
Password Authentication : enabled.
Hostbased Authentication : disabled.
RSA Authentication : disabled.
Now we configure telnet.
Force10#conf t
Force10(conf)#ip telnet server enable
Force10(conf)#exitNow save your running configuration and attempt a remote connection. Note that you might run into the following error when attempting to ssh to the switch.
$ ssh cpaquin@10.1.10.49
Unable to negotiate with 10.1.10.49 port 22: no matching key exchange method found. Their offer: diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
1Note that the message above indicates that the SSH client doesn’t support the algorithms used by the switch as they are legacy and potentially weak. We can work around this as shown below. I expect once we upgrade the switch OS with a more modern ssh implementation, we will no longer need the work around.
$ ssh -o KexAlgorithms=diffie-hellman-group14-sha1 -c 3des-cbc chris@10.1.10.46
The authenticity of host '10.1.10.46 (10.1.10.46)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is SHA256:rXqVL/9Ie74e2ZV3m/BiO2KV7adTBXZYwK73UNPEhCo.
This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '10.1.10.46' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
chris@10.1.10.46's password:
Force10>
Note that once you have upgraded to OS9 you will not need to ssh with the -o or -c options. If you are unable to connect via ssh prior to upgrade you can use telnet for the time being.
Configure NTP
First let’s set the timezone and show current time.
Force10(conf)#clock timezone eastern -5
Force10#show clock
20:46:25.954 eastern Sun Apr 6 2025
Now we will configure the switch to sync time with an upstream ntp server, 10.1.10.10
#ntp server 10.1.10.10Then confirm association
show ntp associations
remote vrf-Id ref clock st when poll reach delay offset disp
====================================================================================
10.1.10.10 0 0.0.0.0 16 - 16 0 +0.000 +0.000 +0.000
It may take a few minutes for the output below to show “sycronized”
Force10#show ntp status
Clock is synchronized, stratum 2, reference is 216.239.35.0, vrf-id is 0
frequency is 6.813 ppm, stability is 0.002 ppm, precision is -18
reference time eb9dadd7.8477f9b6 Mon, Apr 7 2025 1:50:15.517 UTC
clock offset is 0.456662 msec, root delay is 13.220 msec
root dispersion is 1.261 msec, peer dispersion is 0.608 sec
peer mode is client
OS/Firmware Upgrade
Dell Open Networking switches use ONIE (Open Network Install Environment) as the bootloader and OS installer, and it relies on U-Boot (Universal Bootloader) for fundamental features like reading/writing boot flash and environment variables.
Per Dell, in order to upgrade the switch you need to complete the following steps.
● Upgrade the S4810 Dell Networking OS Image and Boot Code
● Upgrade the CPLD (not needed in this case)
So let’s first determine what OS version is running on our switch.
#show ver
Dell Force10 Real Time Operating System Software
Dell Force10 Operating System Version: 1.0
Dell Force10 Application Software Version: 8.3.10.3
Copyright (c) 1999-2011 by Dell Inc.
Build Time: Tue May 15 22:31:24 PDT 2012
Build Path: /sites/sjc/work/build/buildSpaces/build06/E8-3-10/SW/SRC/Cp_src/Tacacs
Force10 uptime is 3 hour(s), 48 minute(s)
System image file is "system://A"
System Type: S4810
Control Processor: Freescale QorIQ P2020 with 2147483648 bytes of memory.
128M bytes of boot flash memory.
1 52-port GE/TE/FG (SE)
48 Ten GigabitEthernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)
4 Forty GigabitEthernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)
You can see in the output above that the switch is currently running 8.3.10.3.
Before upgrading Dell Networking OS on S4810 from a version prior to 8.3.12.0 to version 9.14(1.14), ensure to increase the partition size by upgrading to version 8.3.12.0.
According to Dell’s documentation I need to upgrade to 8.3.12.0 before I can upgrade to 9.14.
Upgrading to 8.3.12.0
I have configured vsftp on my workstation as I will use ftp as my upgrade method. Note that the step below may take a few minutes to complete.
Force10#upgrade system ftp: a:
Address or name of remote host []: 10.1.10.10
Source file name []: FTOS-SE-8.3.12.2.bin
User name to login remote host: ftpuser
Password to login remote host:
Verify the Dell Networking OS has been upgraded correctly in the upgraded flash partition via the command below.
Force10>show boot system stack-unit all
Current system image information in the system:
=============================================
Type Boot Type A B
----------------------------------------------------------------
Stack-unit 0 is not present.
Stack-unit 1 FLASH BOOT 8.3.12.2[boot] 8.3.7.0
Stack-unit 2 is not present.
Stack-unit 3 is not present.
Stack-unit 4 is not present.
Stack-unit 5 is not present.
Stack-unit 6 is not present.
Stack-unit 7 is not present.
Stack-unit 8 is not present.
Stack-unit 9 is not present.
Stack-unit 10 is not present.
Stack-unit 11 is not present.
Now save and reload.
Force10#write mem
Force10#reload
Proceed with reload [confirm yes/no]: yes
Upgrade the S4810 Boot Code
Dell Networking OS version 9.14(1.10) requires S4810 Boot Code version 1.2.0.5. Below we can see that we are currently running 1.2.0.2, so we will need to upgrade the boot code as well prior to upgrading to 9.14(1.10).
Force10>show system stack-unit 1 | grep "Boot Flash"
Boot Flash : 1.2.0.2Again we will use ftp as our file transfer/upgrade.
Force10#upgrade boot ftp:
Address or name of remote host []: 10.1.10.10
Source file name []: U-boot.1.2.0.5.bin
User name to login remote host: ftpuser
Password to login remote host:
!
Erasing SSeries BootImageUpgrade Table of Contents, please wait
.!........................................!
524528 bytes successfully copied
Now save and reload
Force10#write mem
!
Force10#reload
Upgrade to 9.14
Once the switch as reloaded we are ready to upgrade to 9.14. We will use ftp once again.
Force10#upgrade system ftp: a:
Address or name of remote host []: 10.1.10.10
Source file name []: FTOS-SE-9.14.1.14.bin
User name to login remote host: ftpuser
Password to login remote host:
Now write to memory and reload the OS.
Force10#write mem
!
Force10#reload
Proceed with reload [confirm yes/no]: yes
Wait for the OS to reload and then use “show ver” to check the running OS image.
Force10>show ver
Dell Real Time Operating System Software
Dell Operating System Version: 2.0
Dell Application Software Version: 9.14(1.14)
References
- https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/networking-general/s4810-firmware/647f9ce3f4ccf8a8de1135a6
- https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000182885/ftos-for-s-series-s4810-platform?dgc=SM&cid=304571&lid=spr7038757706&refid=sm_LITHIUM_spr7038757706&linkId=167138678
- https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/c9wdnq/dell_force_10_s60_44t_help_round_2/
- https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_networking_int/esuprt_networking_operating_systems/dell-emc-os-9_release-notes30_en-us.pdf
- https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000122301/how-to-enable-ssh-and-disable-telnet-on-force10-s-series-switches