Article ID:5843
Objective
The purpose of this article is to highlight and give an overview of the newest features in this firmware update.
Applicable Devices
- SG350X
- SG550X
Software Version
- 2.4.0
Active Image
After you have downloaded the 2.4.0 update onto your SG350 or SG550 switch, ensure your Active Image is running the latest version. To check this on the navigation pane of the graphical user interface (GUI), click Status and Statistics > System Summary.
If 2.4.0 is listed as the Non-active Image as shown here:
Note: If your screen shows the Active Image is already running the latest version, this next step can be skipped.
Click Administration > Firmware Operations. Select the radio button Swap Image and click Apply.
You will now be able to access the features in this latest version.
Hostname on UI Header
In order to make it easier for users to manage several devices using different tabs in the same browser, the GUI of the switch will display the hostname of the managed device in the header.
In the earlier software version, there was no hostname shown.
Multiple Language Support
This update will now support two or more languages on the device. Using the same dropdown as in earlier versions, you have the ability to select which language file to use out of the multiple files stored on the device.
Auto selection uses the browser language setting of the PC connected to the switch. This is supported by most browsers and is sent in the HTTP request header.
As for the dropdown option, a dropdown box can be found on the login screen.
The dropdown option is also available on all other switch GUI screens.
All other language file behavior and settings, like loading language files and default language selection, will remain the same as in firmware version 2.3.5 and earlier.
The desired language or languages can be downloaded from cisco.com and saved to your files. To upload click Administration > File Operations > Select File and select the desired language file.
Note: Depending on your device, Browse may show instead of Choose File.
When loading a new language file, it will be analyzed. The switch will detect the language type and perform the necessary verifications:
- If the language file type or language is not supported by device, then the file will not be loaded and an error message will appear.
- If the file type of the language loaded does not exist on device and is supported, the file will be loaded to the device and added to other language files stored in flash.
- If the language file type and language are supported by device, the switch will find the relevant version of that language and replace it. If they exist, the other language file or files will not be removed.
For example, if the user loads a Chinese language file, only the Chinese language file stored on device will be replaced, and other language file or files will remain unchanged.
Description of Ports and LAGs
The user defined interface description for ports and LAGs are shown more prominently in the GUI with this update. This allows you to use these descriptions when making decisions and configuring features.
Whenever an interface name is displayed in the GUI, in a table or as a value for a field, if it has a description it will be shown.
These include the following:
- Description column removal
- Adding a description in dropdown
- Description added to zoom-page tooltips
On the navigation pane, click Port Management > Port Settings > Link Aggregation > LAG Settings.
On various pages in the GUI, you can chose Edit to add a label.
In this example, LAG 1 has been edited. The label will be in parentheses.
In all places where the GUI presents interfaces in a zoom-page type display, as shown in the zoom page, dashboard, and stack management screen, the description will be added to the tooltips that are already used in these displays.
In this example, found under Multicast > Multicast Router Port, we do not see a description. This is the case for any output where the ports are displayed in a row.
Syslog GUI notification
A syslog is a message that alerts a user relevant information as it happens. When a new syslog is written to the log file, a notification is displayed in the web GUI showing its contents.
The web GUI will poll the RAM log every 10 seconds. Notification pop-ups for every Syslog created in the last 10 seconds will appear at the bottom right of the screen.
A syslog message includes the following:
- Notification headline - Indicates that this notification is a syslog notification and an indication of the severity level of the syslog.
- Description - The actual text content of the notification.
- A link to the log - Status and Statistics > View Log > RAM Memory screen.
- An icon - shows a graphic representation of the syslog severity level.
Informational and Notice severity level will be shown with the blue informational severity icon.
Warning severity level will be shown with the yellow warning icon.
Syslogs of higher than warning severity level will be shown with the red error icon. - A close button which will close the specific notification popup.
- Fades after 15 seconds.
Note: If there are more than 7 notifications, a popup will show that more syslogs were recorded. There will also be a show log and close all options.
Generic Show Inventory
The 'show inventory' command displays the transceiver information available for transceiver inserted to the specified port.
Prior to version 2.4.0, information was based on a predefined list of vendors. Starting from version 2.4.0, the information displayed by the 'show inventory' command will be based on information read from transceiver Multi-Source Agreement (MSA). The MSA is an agreement between manufacturers about the characteristics of a part like a small form-factor pluggable (SFP).
As the name suggests, the MSA is an agreement and not a standard so you may see some variance depending on the manufacturer.
This is the format of the 'show inventory' command output.
You will see the interface name, product ID, version, and serial number.
Keep in mind that 'show inventory' is not applicable on stack ports and that show inventory (no specific interface) and will display information only for ports which have SFP inserted in them
'Show inventory' examples:
An example of GUI output:
Router Resources
This firmware has been tuned further for better optimization and performance and is dynamic for IPv4 and IPv6 unicast and multicast entries.
The values include the following:
You are now familiar with the latest features of the SG350 and SG550 switches.
For more information on some other features, click on the links below.
How To: MAC Based Authentication GUI