How to boot the MikroTik device from SwOS?

MikroTik has another Operating System that you have used on MikroTik CRS3xx series Switches. This OS is called SwitchOS (SwOS). It is totally different than RouterOS and you can access it via web user interface only.

That means that each CRS3xx series can have both options to use as OS:

RouterOS (which is enabled by default)
SwOS (which you need to enable it to run on the switch)

Note that in case you have made some configuration on the switch using the RouterOS, the same configuration will not be used in case you shift to the SwOS.

Let’s do a LAB to see how we can go from RouterOS to SwOS.

LAB: Booting SwOS on CRS3xx

As you can see, I have my PC connected directly to the CRS3xx switch on its port Ether1. My task is to load SwOS on SW1 and to be able to access to it.

[mepr-show rules=”319″ unauth=”message”]

Once we use SwOS then it will have an IP address of 192.168.88.1 which can be reached on any of the ports. There is also DHCP with fallback that means that the switch can receive an IP address from the DHCP server in case we have one connected to the switch (in our case we do not have a DHCP server).

The 2nd thing we need to do is to say for the CRS3xx switch to load SwOS and not RouterOS. Let me show you how you can do that.

From System you go to RouterBOARD and from there to Settings then you change the Boot OS to SwOS and you click on OK.

Now let’s reboot the Switch and we should have an IP on our PC of 192.168.88.x range so it can see the SW1 (which I have it already on my PC).

Now SW1 has been rebooted, let me do a ping from my PC to the IP of SW1 which is 192.168.88.1.

Excellent!!! I have a ping reply. That means I can access SW1 from the web interface. I will open the browser and write 192.168.88.1 on the URL and see.