SwOS and logging

SwOS
1

Hello,

We use a couple of Mikorik switches in our network. We use them only as L2 devices and therefor are running SwOS.

However I have no a situation where I need to know if a interfaces is sometimes going down and up. However I can only see this realtime as there is no log available I believe.

Would it be possible to have a tab in SwOS with “Log”? This will show the log of the devices. Would like to know if interfaces are going down and up. Preferred with also a option to send to a Syslog server.

2

Just enable SNMP and dump the switch logs. I use Observium which is free and runs on Linux.

3

Would adding a capability to log remotely via UDP to a syslog daemon be too much to ask in SwOS?
I.e. I’d settle for entering the IP address of the loghost, and possibly requiring it is accessible through an ARP request.

4

What is the SNMP OID for the log? I can’t find that…

5

i think this is Definitely needed, especially since there are some mikrotik switches now that can only run switchOS (ie not possible/option to run routerOS as some of the earlier CRS sws could run either OS).

mikrotik really has a killer product with their 8 port POE + 2x 10gb sfp+ ports (swOS only / CSS switch) - and swOS really is a great, quick OS, we just must have logging, in any managed switch.
tks

6

I can‘t agree more! SNMP is o.k. but receiving logs with syslog has some advantages as well.

Unfortunately, as it looks, this enhancement requested by users/admins wasn‘t considered by Mikrotik so far and hasn‘t made it onto a roadmap :frowning:

7

i dont think necessarily this requests were not considered

i think the difficulty around most request related with SwOS is that request more management/control plane features, by their nature SwOS devices do not have the capacity to support too much improvements of this type. Because they have a basic and primitive management/control plane, All this in search of making them cheaper and affordable

In addition, most SWOS devices are small (they don’t have many interfaces), that make them part of a rather limited market, with little room to be more scalable.

I think It’s a chimera, a small and cheap switch with the management features of a big switch, not a trivial thing to achieve, but MikroTik has gone as far as the market allow it.

I hope all requested features become a reality but Let us not ignore how difficult it can be to offer them under such limited conditions.

8

I assume you have already filed this as a feature request over at https://help.mikrotik.com?

Also before they do this they would also probably need to add netmask and gateway capabilities for the mgmt-interface config in SWOS.

Currently SWOS is very minimalistic including IP-settings where you only configure the MGMT-IP and thats it, no netmask, no gateway because:


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.

Source: https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/spaces/SWOS/pages/76415036/CRS3xx+and+CSS326-24G-2S+series+Manual#CRS3xxandCSS32624G2S+seriesManual-Forwarding

The above gives that the MGMT-IP can be used for management (no matter if the admin sits next to the box on the same network or remote through some gateway) but it wont be able to send packets on its own (such as syslog, snmp traps etc) - specially not if the syslog or snmp-server is located elsewhere.

9

Logfile and/or syslog is a pretty common reason to have a managed switch.
I don’t buy that it doesn’t have the CPU or megabytes to let it happen; old switches from y2k like the hp2424 and 2512 did it perfectly.

Things like ports going up and down, loop detects, config changes, etc…