An administrator wants to manually install Enterprise SONiC on a switch without NOS installed. Where should the administrator initialize the installation process?

Question

Options

• ASONiC MF-CLI
• BBIOS
• CSONiC linux shell
• DONIE

• A
  5% (3)
• B
  2% (1)
• C
  2% (1)
• D
  91% (53)

Explanation

ONIE (Open Network Install Environment) is the correct answer because it is a pre-installed bootloader environment on bare-metal network switches specifically designed to discover, download, and install a Network Operating System (NOS) when none is present. Without a NOS, there is no running operating system to launch any CLI or shell, making ONIE the only available entry point.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (SONiC MF-CLI): This is a management CLI that only exists after SONiC is already installed and running.
• B (BIOS): BIOS handles low-level hardware initialization but does not manage NOS installation; that handoff goes to ONIE.
• C (SONiC Linux shell): The Linux shell requires SONiC to already be installed - you can't access it on a blank switch.

Memory tip: Think of ONIE as the "network switch equivalent of a PXE boot environment" - just as a bare PC with no OS can PXE boot to install an OS, a bare switch uses ONIE to install its NOS. If there's nothing on the switch, ONIE is always your starting point.

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