Juniper QFX10000 Series

Chapter 2. QFX10000 Software Architecture

The software architecture on the Juniper QFX10000 Series has significantly changed from what has been previously available from Juniper. The first big change is that Juniper has taken advantage of the power of the Linux operating system and has integrated it into the foundation of the Juniper QFX10000. Applications are now running directly on top of Linux as daemons or have been placed into either Linux containers or virtual machines (VMs) to provide additional abstraction and protection. The second big change is that the entire software architecture has been opened up. You can install your software, access any component of the switch, and even use common REST APIs to do so.

Software Architecture

The Juniper QFX10000 marks the journey of software disaggregation. Decoupling the network operating system from the underlying hardware has both technical and business benefits. Each layer in the networking stack has traditionally been vertically integrated and restricted access for customers. The new Juniper QFX10000 software architecture removes these previous restrictions and makes it possible for users to freely modify many aspects of the software and hardware, as illustrated in Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-1. Juniper QFX10000 software architecture

The software side of the Juniper QFX10000 really looks more like a data center server than it does ...