SwOS 1

SwOS
Summary
SwOS is an operating system designed specifically for administration of MikroTik Switch products.
SwOS is configurable from your web browser. It gives you all the basic functionality for a managed switch, plus
more: Allows to manage port-to-port forwarding, broadcast storm control, apply MAC filter, configure VLANs,
mirror traffic, apply bandwidth limitation and even adjust some MAC and IP header fields.

Connecting to the Switch

Open your web browser and enter IP address of your Switch (192.168.88.1 by default) and login screen will appear.

SwOS default IP address: 192.168.88.1, user name: admin and there is no password.
Note: MikroTik neighbor discovery protocol tools can be used to discover IP address of Mikrotik Switch.
Manual:IP/Neighbor_discovery

Interface Overview
SwOS interface menu consists of 10 tabs: Link, Forwarding, Statistics, VLAN, VLANs, Static
Hosts, Hosts, SNMP, ACL and System.
Description of buttons in SwOS configuration tool:
• Append - add new item to the end of the list
• Apply All - applies current configuration changes
• Cut - removes item from the list
• Clear - resets properties of the item
• Discard Changes - removes unsaved configuration
• Insert - add new item to the list (places it before current item)
• Sort - sort VLAN table by VLAN-IDs; sort host table by MAC addresses
• Change Password - changes password of the switch
• Logout - logout from current Switch
• Reboot - reboot the switch
• Reset Configuration - reset configuration back to factory defaults
SwOS 2

• Choose File - browse for upgrade or backup file

• Upgrade - upgrade firmware of the Switch
• Restore Backup - restore Switch using selected backup file
• Save Backup - generate and download backup file from the Switch

System Tab
System Tab performs the following
functions:
• General information about Switch
• Switch management
• Configuration reset
• Backup and restore configuration
• Firmware upgrade

Property Description

IP Address IP address of the Switch

Identity Name of the Switch (for Mikrotik neighbor discovery protocol)

Allow From IP address from which the service is accessible. Default value is '0.0.0.0/0' - any address

Allow From Ports List of switch ports from which the service is accessible

Allow From VLAN VLAN ID with which the service is accessible (VLAN Mode on ingress port must be other than disabled in order
to connect)

Mikrotik Discovery Enable or disable Mikrotik neighbor discovery protocol

Protocol

Watchdog Enable or disable system watchdog. It will reset CPU of the switch in case of fault condition

MAC Address MAC address of the Switch (Read-only)

Version Firmware version of the Switch

Uptime Current Switch uptime

SwOS 3

Note: SwOS uses a simple algorithm to ensure TCP/IP communication - it just replies to the same IP and
MAC address packet came from. This way there is no need for Default Gateway on the device itself.

Firmware Upgrade
Firmware can be upgraded/downgraded by selecting firmware file and pressing upgrade button.
Switch will reboot automatically after successful upgrade.
Note: Manual power cycle is necessary 5 seconds after upgrade button is pressed if you are upgrading from
SwOS v1.0

Link Tab
Link Tab allows you to:
• Configure Ethernet ports
• Monitor status of Ethernet ports

Property Description

Enabled Enable or disable port

Link Status Current link status (Read-only)

Auto Negotiation Enable or disable auto negotiation

Speed Specify speed setting of the port (requires auto negotiation to be disabled to specify)

Full Duplex Specify duplex mode of the port (requires auto negotiation to be disabled to specify)

Flow control Enable or disable flow control

SwOS 4

Forwarding Tab
Forwarding Tab provides advanced
forwarding options among switch
ports, port locking, port mirroring,
bandwidth limit and broadcast storm
control features.

Property Description

Forwarding Forwarding table - allows or restricts traffic flow between specific ports

Port Lock • Port Lock - Enable or disable MAC address learning on this port
• Lock On First - Enable or disable MAC address learning on this port (MAC address from the first recieved
packet will still be learnt)

Port Mirroring • Mirror Ingress - Whether traffic entering this port must be copied and forwarded to mirroring target port
• Mirror Egress - Whether traffic leaving this port must be copied and forwarded to mirroring target port
• Mirror To - Mirroring target port

Bandwidth Limit • Ingress Rate - Limit traffic entering this port (bps) (only supported on RB250GS)
• Egress Rate - Limit traffic leaving this port (bps)

Broadcast Storm • Storm Rate - Limit the number of broadcast packets transmitted by an interface (only supported on RB250GS)
Control • Include Unicast - Include unicast packets without an entry in host table in Storm Rate limitation (only
supported on RB250GS)
SwOS 5

Statistics Tab
Provides detailed information about
received and transmitted packets.

Packet Flow
Packet processing through RB250GS
is described here: Atheros8316 packet
flow diagram [1]

VLAN Tab
VLAN configuration for Switch ports.
SwOS 6

Property Description

VLAN Mode VLAN mode for ingress port:

• disabled - VLAN table is not used. Switch ignores VLAN tag part of tagged packets
• optional - Handle packets with VLAN tag ID that is not present in VLAN table just like packets without VLAN tag
• enabled - Drop packets with VLAN tag ID that is not present in VLAN table. Packets without VLAN tag are treat as tagged
packets with Default VLAN ID
• strict - Same as enable, but also checks VLAN support for inbound interface (drop packets with VLAN tag ID and
ingress port that are not present in VLAN table)

VLAN Defines the type of allowed packets on ingress port: any / only tagged / only untagged (only supported on
Receive RB260GS)

Default VLAN Switch will treat untagged ingress packets as they are tagged with this VLAN ID. VLAN tag itself will be added only if there is
ID VLAN Header = add if missing specified on egress port

Force VLAN Whether to apply Default VLAN ID to incoming packets with VLAN tag
ID

VLAN Header • leave as is - if VLAN header is present it remains unchanged

• always strip - if VLAN header is present it is removed from the packet
• add if missing - if VLAN header is not present it is added to the packet (VLAN ID will be Default VLAN ID of
ingress port)

Note: VLAN modes enabled and strict require VLAN ID 1 in VLANs table to allow access of
untagged traffic to switch itself.

Example
• 802.1Q Trunk [2]
• 802.1Q Trunk with two switches [3]

VLANs Tab
VLAN tables specifies certain forwarding rules for packets that have specific 802.1q tag. Basically the table contains
entries that map specific VLAN tag IDs to a group of one or more ports. Packets with VLAN tags leave switch
through one or more ports that are set in corresponding table entry. VLAN table works together with destination
MAC lookup to determine egress ports. VLAN table supports up to 4096 entries.

RB250GS VLANs tab

SwOS 7

Property Description

VLAN ID VLAN ID of the packet

Ports Ports the packet should be mapped to

RB260GS VLANs tab

Property Description

VLAN VLAN ID of the packet

ID

Ports Each port has individual VLAN header options for each VLAN ID. Depending on VLAN mode if lookup is done in this table, egress
action of packets is processed by this option. Egress option from VLAN tab is ignored.

Hosts Tab
This table represents dynamically
learnt MAC address to port mapping
entries. When Switch receives a packet
from certain port, it adds the packets
source MAC address X and port it
received the packet from to host table,
so when a packet comes in with
destination MAC address X it knows
to which port it should forward the
packet. If the destination MAC address is not present in host table then it forwards the packet to all ports in the
group. Dynamic entries take about 5 minutes to time out.
Note: RB250GS and RB260GS support 2048 host table entries.
SwOS 8

Property Description

MAC MAC address (Read-only)

Ports Ports the packet should be forwarded to (Read-only)

Static Hosts Tab

Static host table entries. Static entries
will take over dynamic if dynamic
entry with same mac-address already
exists. Also by adding a static entry
you get access to some more
functionality.

Property Description

MAC MAC address

Ports Ports the packet should be forwarded to

Mirror Packet can be cloned and sent to mirror-target port

Drop Packet with certain MAC address coming from certain ports can be dropped

ACL Tab
An access control list (ACL) rule table
is very powerful tool allowing wire
speed packet filtering, forwarding and
VLAN tagging based on L2,L3
protocol header field conditions. SwOS
allow you to implement limited
number of access control list rules (32
simple rules (only L2 conditions are
used); 16 rules where both L2 and L3
conditions are used; or 8 advanced
rules where all L2,L3 and L4
conditions are used).
Each rule contains a conditions part
and an action part.
SwOS 9

Property Description

From Port that packet came in from

MAC Src Source MAC address and mask

MAC Dst Destination MAC address and mask

Ethertype Protocol encapsulated in the payload of an Ethernet Frame

VLAN VLAN header presence:

• any
• present
• not present

VLAN ID VLAN tag ID

Priority Priority in VLAN tag

IP Src (IP/netmask:port) Source IP address, netmask and L4 port number

IP Dst (IP/netmask:port) Destination IP address, netmask and L4 port number

Protocol IP protocol

DSCP IP DSCP field

Property Description

Redirect To Whether to force new destination ports (If Redirect To is enabled and no ports specified in Redirect To Ports,
packet will be dropped )

Redirect To Destination ports for

Ports

Mirror Clones packet and sends it to mirror-target port

Rate Limits bandwidth (bps) (only supported on RB260GS)

Set VLAN ID Changes the VLAN tag ID, if VLAN tag is present

Priority Changes the VLAN tag priority bits, if VLAN tag is present

SNMP Tab
SNMP Tab consists of settings to
monitor the Switch remotely.
Available SNMP data:
• System information
• System uptime
• Port status
• Interface statistics
SwOS 10

Property Description

Enabled Enable or disable SNMP service

Community SNMP community name

Contact Info Contact information for the NMS

Location Location information for the NMS

Reinstall SwOS firmware

It is possible to upload and install SwOS firmware using BOOTP. This example shows how to reinstall SwOS using
RouterOS.
Note: Each RouterBoard switch model has its own firmware which cannot be installed on other models.

• RB250GS supports SwOS v1.0 and newer.

• RB260GS supports SwOS v1.7 and newer.
• Configure IP address and DHCP server with BOOTP enabled on the installation router.

/ip address
add address=192.168.88.254/24 interface=ether1

/ip pool
add name=dhcp_pool1 ranges=192.168.88.1
/ip dhcp-server
add address-pool=dhcp_pool1 bootp-support=dynamic interface=ether1 disabled=no
/ip dhcp-server network
add address=192.168.88.0/24 gateway=192.168.88.254

• Upload new SwOS firmware file to the router filesystem.

[admin@MikroTik] /file> print

# NAME TYPE SIZE CREATION-TIME
0 swos-1.2.lzb .lzb file 38142 sep/02/2010 08:40:17

• Configure TFTP server.

/ip tftp
add allow=yes disabled=no ip-addresses=192.168.88.1 read-only=yes \
real-filename=swos-1.2.lzb

• Hold the RESET button of the switch when starting it.

• After few seconds ACT LED will start blinking. Wait till ACT LED blinks twice as fast and release RESET
button.
• Make ethernet connection between the switch and ethernet port you configured DHCP server on. After few
seconds new firmware should be successfully uploaded and installed.
SwOS 11

References
[1] http:/ / wiki. mikrotik. com/ wiki/ Manual:Packet_flow_through_Atheros8316
[2] http:/ / wiki. mikrotik. com/ wiki/ SwOS/ Router-On-A-Stick
[3] http:/ / wiki. mikrotik. com/ wiki/ SwOS/ SWOS-802. 1Q-TrunkTwoSwitches
Article Sources and Contributors 12

Article Sources and Contributors

SwOS  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?oldid=25593  Contributors: Becs, Kirshteins, Marisb, Normis

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:swos_login.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Swos_login.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Kirshteins
Image:Icon-note.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Icon-note.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Marisb, Route
File:swos_system.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Swos_system.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Kirshteins
File:swos_link.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Swos_link.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Kirshteins
File:swos_forwarding.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Swos_forwarding.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Kirshteins
File:swos_statistics.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Swos_statistics.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Kirshteins
File:swos_vlan.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Swos_vlan.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Kirshteins
File:rb250gsvlans.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Rb250gsvlans.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Becs
File:rb260gsvlans.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Rb260gsvlans.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Becs
File:swos_hosts.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Swos_hosts.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Kirshteins
File:swos_static_hosts.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Swos_static_hosts.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Kirshteins
File:swos_acl.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Swos_acl.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Kirshteins
File:swos_snmp.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Swos_snmp.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Kirshteins
SwOS/SWOS-802.1Q-TrunkTwoSwitches 1

SwOS/SWOS-802.1Q-TrunkTwoSwitches
By: Steve Discher, LearnMikroTik.com, 11-27-12
Scenario: You have one RB250GS switch running 802.1Q vlans and you want to extend all or some of those vlans to
a second switch. The following diagram borrowed from a post by Ozelo explains:

The configuration of the first switch (192.168.88.1) is explained in a previous example 802.1Q Router on a Stick
Example [1]. The main change to that example is the configuration of port ether5 since we want it to pass all the
vlans to the second switch. The two pales you need to make changes are the VLAN tab and the VLANs tab.
Confusing, yes but note the "s" on VLAN on one tab.
Configure the first switch as follows:
Switch 1 - VLAN Tab
SwOS/SWOS-802.1Q-TrunkTwoSwitches 2

Switch 1 - VLANs Tab

Then configure the second switch as follows. Please note we have set the IP address of the second switch to
192.168.88.10 so as not to duplicate the witch 1 IP address. This is done on the System tab. In case you ever wonder
why there is no setting for netmask or default gateway, that is because the switch does a little magic in determining
the source of the packet and returning it to the host without the need for those two pieces of information.
Switch 2 - VLAN Tab
SwOS/SWOS-802.1Q-TrunkTwoSwitches 3

Switch 2 - VLANs Tab

All that remains is to create the vlan interfaces on the router and assign IP addresses, DHCP server, etc. to them.
Here is a screen shot of the router used for this example, interfaces and IP addresses. The IP here is the one being
used to manage the switches:
SwOS/SWOS-802.1Q-TrunkTwoSwitches 4

That is it, you should now have two switches trunked together passing vlans to the second switch.

References
[1] http:/ / wiki. mikrotik. com/ wiki/ SwOS/ Router-On-A-Stick
Article Sources and Contributors 5

Article Sources and Contributors

SwOS/SWOS-802.1Q-TrunkTwoSwitches  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?oldid=24716  Contributors: Sdischer

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:OverallDiagram.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:OverallDiagram.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
File:Switch1-1.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Switch1-1.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
File:Switch1-2.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Switch1-2.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
File:Switch2-1.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Switch2-1.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
File:Switch2-2.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Switch2-2.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
File:Interfaces.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:Interfaces.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
File:IPAddresses.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:IPAddresses.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
SwOS/Router-On-A-Stick 1

SwOS/Router-On-A-Stick
Router-On-A-Stick - 802.1Q Trunking With MikroTik
By: Steve Discher, LearnMikroTik.com, Updated 3-24-13
Router-On-A-Stick is a phrase referring to the connection of a 802.1Q capable switch to a single router interface. By
trunking across the Ethernet interface and assigning separate Vlans to each of the switch's ports or groups of ports, it
is possible to create a configuration that simulates a router with many separate physical Ethernet interfaces. Consider
the following example:

In this example, a router with a single Ethernet interface is trunked to a MikroTik switch. In practice, this same
configuration can be used between two switches or two routers. The purpose of this article is to show the steps
required to setup the MikroTik RB250GS switch as a trunked switch in the router-on-a-stick configuration.
To log into the RB250GS switch, simply web browse to 192.168.88.1 from a computer on the same physical
network segment with an IP on the same subnet, 192.168.88.0/24. The default user name is admin with no password.
All settings may be left at the defaults with the exception of a few.
In this example we are using Vlan Id's 1, 200, 300 and 400. Note that the switch will respond to http requests to its IP
address on all ports. This behavior is a bit different than Cisco IOS that responds to untagged traffic via an IP bound
to Vlan 1. The way the OS is built, there is no need for a default gateway or a subnet mask.
NOTE: Once you set port 1 to "trunk" mode, you will not longer be able to communicate with the switch unless you
create a Vlan1 on your router.
Selection of the Vlan ID and the assignment to the ports is your choice, decide what Vlan ID's you will use and
where you will assign them.
SwOS/Router-On-A-Stick 2

In this example we need two ports for devices on Vlan 300 on Ports 3 & 5 and one port for device on Vlan 400 on
Port 4 and one port for a device on Vlan 200 on port 2.
NOTE: Before starting configuration, it is assumed you have 192.168.88.2 bound to your laptop and the switch is at
the default Ip of 192.168.88.1. You must be accessing thes switch via ehter2 through ether5 since you are about to
turn ether1 into a trunk port and you will lose communication with the switch at that point on ether1.
1. Begin by clicking on the VLAN tab and make the following changes, assuming the trunk port will be Port1 (the
port that is connected to the router).
2. The VLAN page determines how the switch strips the Vlan tags with specific Vlan ID's from the packets as they
exit these ports. Setting Port 1 to Vlan Mode "enabled" and VLAN Header to "add if missing" makes Port 1 a trunk
port.
3. When done, your VLAN page should look similar to this:

4. Next, click on the VLANs tab. This is where you create the Vlan Id's to be used on the switch and on which ports
these tags will be applied. So, for example, in this scenario, if I create a Vlan interface on the router with a Vlan ID
of 10, that traffic will appear on the switch on port 2. Likewise Vlan 30 will be on port 3 and Vlan 40 on port 4. The
trunk port is port 1.
NOTE: You must also create Vlan1 but it is not necessary to assign it to any ports, just create it.
5. Here is the example:
SwOS/Router-On-A-Stick 3

6. The last step is to change the IP address, system identity and the password on the System tab and configure the
router.
The router configuration is a standard one for Vlans, create Vlan interfaces attached to the Ethernet interface that is
connected to the switch (in this example Ether1) and match the Vlan ID numbers you assigned to the switch. Then
bind your IP addresses to the Vlan interfaces.
Here is the router interface configuration:
SwOS/Router-On-A-Stick 4

NOTE: The management IP for the switch is handled a bit differently. You must create a Vlan1 with ID=1 on the
physical interface that will trunk to the switch. Then bind your management IP to that Vlan1 interface. In the
example above, you would bind 192.168.88.2/24 to Vlan1 and then you can access the switch through the trunk port.
Article Sources and Contributors 5

Article Sources and Contributors

SwOS/Router-On-A-Stick  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?oldid=25093  Contributors: Sdischer

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:RouterOnAStick.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:RouterOnAStick.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
File:VLAN.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:VLAN.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
File:VLANs.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:VLANs.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
File:2012-11-27 15-58-28.jpg  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:2012-11-27_15-58-28.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer
File:IPAddresses.png  Source: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?title=File:IPAddresses.png  License: unknown  Contributors: Sdischer