Using Nokia community SONiC

Learn about the management interface connectivity options, SONiC CLI, and how to verify the Nokia community SONiC image that is running on your hardware platform.

Connecting to the management interface and verifying the image

The factory-installed Nokia community SONiC image provides initial management connectivity and image verification for supported Nokia hardware platforms. Use these procedures to establish management connectivity to the device for the first time.

Connecting to the management interface using the CLI

If the Nokia community SONiC device is connected to a network with a DHCP server, the Nokia community SONiC device automatically obtains an IP address for its management interface from the DHCP server.

To log in to the factory-installed image:

  • For an image earlier than SONiC 202605, use the default username admin and password password.
  • For the SONiC 202605 image, use the default username admin and password YourPaSsWoRd.

When the user logs into the Nokia community SONiC device, the system automatically enters into the command line interface (CLI). See the SONiC CLI guide available from the SONiC GitHub repository for more information about the SONiC CLI.

Zero-Touch Provisioning

Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) is enabled by default in the factory-installed SONiC image. ZTP automatically provisions the device using tasks defined in a JSON file. The device uses DHCP on the out-of-band Ethernet management interface to obtain the URL of this file through DHCP option 67 for IPv4 or DHCPv6 option 59 for IPv6.

See the Nokia community SONiC Software Release Notes for the list of hardware platforms that have ZTP enabled in the factory-installed SONiC 202605 image.

Connect the out-of-band Ethernet management interface to the management network, and power on the device. A console connection is optional and can be used to monitor progress.

The following sequence occurs on first boot:

  1. SONiC boots with no startup configuration. ZTP starts automatically and sends DHCP requests from eth0.
  2. The DHCP request identifies the device as a SONiC ZTP client and includes the hardware product name and serial number.
  3. The device waits for the DHCP server to assign an IPv4 or IPv6 address and provide the URL of the ZTP JSON file using DHCP option 67 for IPv4 or DHCPv6 option 59 for IPv6.
  4. The device downloads the JSON file, then downloads and applies the configuration and, optionally, the software image specified in the file.
  5. When ZTP finishes, the status is SUCCESS or FAILED. ZTP does not run again until it is re-enabled.

Use the show ztp status command from the console to monitor progress.

admin@sonic:~$ show ztp status

Check for ZTP Status : SUCCESS and ZTP Source : dhcp-opt67 (eth0).

The device does not send DHCP option 60. Use DHCP option 77 to identify SONiC ZTP clients and DHCP option 61 to identify the platform and device.

Option 77 (User Class) = SONiC-ZTP
Option 61 (Client Identifier) = SONiC##<product-name>##<serial-number>

For DHCPv6, use option 15 to identify SONiC ZTP clients. SONiC does not send a DHCPv6 client identifier.

Option 15 (User Class) = SONiC-ZTP

DHCP client identifier for a 7215 IXS-C1 platform

The following ZTP examples use these values.

Product name: 7215 IXS-C1
Serial number: NS123456789
HTTP server: http://192.168.1.10/ztp/
Files: ztp-7215-c1.json and 7215-c1-config_db.json

The device sends the following DHCP option 61 value.

SONiC##7215 IXS-C1##NS123456789

ISC DHCP server configuration for ZTP

The following configuration matches devices by product name and returns the URL of the platform-specific ZTP JSON file.

option bootfile-name code 67 = text;
option user-class code 77 = text;
class "nokia-7215-c1-ztp" {
    match if substring(option dhcp-client-identifier, 0, 18) = "SONiC##7215 IXS-C1";
}
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
    pool {
        allow members of "nokia-7215-c1-ztp";
        range 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.150;
        option routers 192.168.1.1;
        option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;
        option bootfile-name "http://192.168.1.10/ztp/ztp-7215-c1.json";
    }
}
Note: To match a single device, use the complete DHCP option 61 value, including the serial number, instead of the substring.

ISC DHCPv6 server configuration for ZTP

The following configuration identifies SONiC ZTP clients with DHCPv6 option 15, assigns an IPv6 address, and uses DHCPv6 option 59 to provide the URL of the ZTP JSON file.

option dhcp6.bootfile-url code 59 = string;
option dhcp6.user-class code 15 = string;

class "sonic-ztp-v6" {
    match if substring(option dhcp6.user-class, 0, 9) = "SONiC-ZTP";
}

subnet6 fd10:168:10::/64 {
    pool6 {
        allow members of "sonic-ztp-v6";
        range6 fd10:168:10::1000 fd10:168:10::2000;
        option dhcp6.name-servers fd10:168:10::1;
        option dhcp6.bootfile-url "http://[fd10:168:10::1]/ztp_config_a1_v6.json";
    }
}

ZTP JSON file for configuration provisioning

The following examples show sample JSON configuration files. The first file is ztp-7215-c1.json.

{
  "ztp": {
    "configdb-json": {
      "dynamic-url": {
        "source": {
          "prefix": "http://192.168.1.10/ztp/",
          "identifier": "product-name",
          "suffix": "-config_db.json"
        },
        "destination": "/etc/sonic/config_db.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

The second file is ztp_config_a1_v6.json.

{
  "ztp": {
    "01-configdb-json": {
      "url": {
        "source": "http://[fd10:168:10::1]/config_db_a1_v6.json",
        "destination": "/etc/sonic/config_db.json",
        "secure": false
      },
      "clear-config": false
    }
  }
}

ZTP JSON file for SONiC image installation

To install a SONiC image using ZTP, add the firmware plugin to the ZTP JSON file and specify the URL of the image to install.

{
  "ztp": {
    "01-firmware": {
      "install": {
        "url": "http://192.168.1.10/ztp/sonic-image.bin"
      },
      "reboot-on-success": true
    }
  }
}

Management connectivity with no DHCP

If the Nokia community SONiC device does not have a management IP address automatically assigned, the user must first connect to the device through a console to assign a temporary management IP address. This allows the user to fetch or copy the customer-compiled SONiC deployment image.

SONiC provides the CLI for configuring a static IP address for the management interface. There are different ways to configure the IP address. The following example shows how to use the config interface ip add eth0 Linux command.

IP address configuration using config interface ip add eth0

admin@sonic:~$ sudo config interface ip add eth0 192.168.0.0/16 192.168.0.1

See the SONiC CLI guide available from the SONiC GitHub repository for more information about the SONiC CLI.

Verifying the Nokia community SONiC image

To verify the Nokia community SONiC image for the target platform, use the show version command. The following example shows the command output for a 7215 IXS-A1 platform.

Version information for a 7215 IXS-A1 platform

admin@router:~$ show version

SONiC Software Version: SONiC-OS-HEAD.1086978-202411-ce988a8c
SONiC OS Version: 13
Distribution: Debian 13.1
Kernel: 6.12.41+deb13-sonic-armmp
Build commit: 95bc89dec
Build date: Fri Nov  7 18:51:44 UTC 2025
Built by: gitlab-runner@sonic-armv01

Platform: arm64-nokia_ixs7215_52xb-r0
HwSKU: Nokia-7215-A1
ASIC: marvell
ASIC Count: 1
Serial Number: 123460XXXX
Model Number: 3HE18723AAXXXX
Hardware Revision: 0
Uptime: 23:16:39 up 4 min, 1 user, load average: 4.73, 3.26, 1.38
Date: Fri 15 Aug 2025 23:16:39

Using the SONiC CLI

Nokia community SONiC fully supports configuration using the SONiC CLI.

See the SONiC CLI Guide at the SONiC GitHub for more information about the SONiC CLI.