so i learned a few things and thought I'd share in case it helps someone else...
1) I made the false assumption that some of the basic configuration for RouterOS would be shared with SwOS. I had configured RouterOS with an appropriate IP address for my network and setup account/password; I was expecting that when I booted into SwOS, it would remain on that same IP and I could login with the account I had setup. The configuration for RouterOS and SwOS are apparently completely separate.
2) When I switched to boot SwOS from within the WebFig interface of RouterOS and rebooted, since it was my first time booting SwOS, it was using factory default configuration. However, there's an error in Mikrotik's documentation. The factor default IP address for RouterOS is 192.168.88.1; this is NOT the factory default IP address for SwOS. So when I booted into SwOS for the 1st time, it was no longer configured for my network and it was using IP address 192.168.88.2 instead of the address RouterOS uses. Mikrotik wiki still claims it uses the .1 address as default but it is not.
3) I was able to figure out the default IP address of SwOS by connecting to the serial console. When it boots up it prints a message about it's IP address/MAC address/SwOS version/etc, and then gives you a menu to select from.
4) My CRS317-1G-16S+RM came with SwOS 2.3, which has the bug that runs the fans at full speed. So, when I rebooted into SwOS, the switch kept running fans with full speed and "appears" as if it is still booting forever. The combination of this behavior, with the wrong IP address information mentioned above, had given me the impression the unit wasn't working when I rebooted to SwOS and I did a factory reset to get back to RouterOS.
5) Once I got into SwOS, i configured the unit's IP address as I did for RouterOS. One thing to note is that there is not place to specify IP netmask or default gateway. Apparently SwOS uses some discovery algorithm to figure out how to talk to things on the network.
6) Because of #5 above, when I initially tried to update the SwOS firmware, it said it could not download the firmware. There is a manual upload option so I was just going to download the firmware and upload it. But after a few minutes, the switch figured out how to talk to the internet and was able to download SwOS 2.7. So, if you run into this, let it run for 10 minutes and come back and try again.
7) Once the unit booted up with SwOS 2.7, the fan noise was gone. It runs the fans during initial boot sequence, but once the OS is loaded, the fans should shut off. So, this is just confirmation that the fan noise problem with SwOS is fixed. (it was something I wasn't sure of myself) At this point, I almost feel like there's no point in replacing the fans unless you know for sure you're going to run into the 40C threshold.
8) SwOS is very, very different than RouterOS. It's not just a "layer 2 only version of RouterOS", it seems totally different. I would describe RouterOS as "unpolished, but workable". But I would describe SwOS as "unfinished". I haven't done much with it yet, but I did configure a LAG port with 2x 10Gbps SFP+ ports and that seems to work just fine. However, its configuration options are very limited ; it is basically "active" or "passive" or "static".
9) SwOS WebUI is http ONLY; there is no option to enable HTTPS like you can in RouterOS. If you plan to use this switch with SwOS in anything other than a lab environment, considerations must be made to isolate and protect management traffic as it will all be cleartext.
that's it ...
1) I made the false assumption that some of the basic configuration for RouterOS would be shared with SwOS. I had configured RouterOS with an appropriate IP address for my network and setup account/password; I was expecting that when I booted into SwOS, it would remain on that same IP and I could login with the account I had setup. The configuration for RouterOS and SwOS are apparently completely separate.
2) When I switched to boot SwOS from within the WebFig interface of RouterOS and rebooted, since it was my first time booting SwOS, it was using factory default configuration. However, there's an error in Mikrotik's documentation. The factor default IP address for RouterOS is 192.168.88.1; this is NOT the factory default IP address for SwOS. So when I booted into SwOS for the 1st time, it was no longer configured for my network and it was using IP address 192.168.88.2 instead of the address RouterOS uses. Mikrotik wiki still claims it uses the .1 address as default but it is not.
3) I was able to figure out the default IP address of SwOS by connecting to the serial console. When it boots up it prints a message about it's IP address/MAC address/SwOS version/etc, and then gives you a menu to select from.
4) My CRS317-1G-16S+RM came with SwOS 2.3, which has the bug that runs the fans at full speed. So, when I rebooted into SwOS, the switch kept running fans with full speed and "appears" as if it is still booting forever. The combination of this behavior, with the wrong IP address information mentioned above, had given me the impression the unit wasn't working when I rebooted to SwOS and I did a factory reset to get back to RouterOS.
5) Once I got into SwOS, i configured the unit's IP address as I did for RouterOS. One thing to note is that there is not place to specify IP netmask or default gateway. Apparently SwOS uses some discovery algorithm to figure out how to talk to things on the network.
6) Because of #5 above, when I initially tried to update the SwOS firmware, it said it could not download the firmware. There is a manual upload option so I was just going to download the firmware and upload it. But after a few minutes, the switch figured out how to talk to the internet and was able to download SwOS 2.7. So, if you run into this, let it run for 10 minutes and come back and try again.
7) Once the unit booted up with SwOS 2.7, the fan noise was gone. It runs the fans during initial boot sequence, but once the OS is loaded, the fans should shut off. So, this is just confirmation that the fan noise problem with SwOS is fixed. (it was something I wasn't sure of myself) At this point, I almost feel like there's no point in replacing the fans unless you know for sure you're going to run into the 40C threshold.
8) SwOS is very, very different than RouterOS. It's not just a "layer 2 only version of RouterOS", it seems totally different. I would describe RouterOS as "unpolished, but workable". But I would describe SwOS as "unfinished". I haven't done much with it yet, but I did configure a LAG port with 2x 10Gbps SFP+ ports and that seems to work just fine. However, its configuration options are very limited ; it is basically "active" or "passive" or "static".
9) SwOS WebUI is http ONLY; there is no option to enable HTTPS like you can in RouterOS. If you plan to use this switch with SwOS in anything other than a lab environment, considerations must be made to isolate and protect management traffic as it will all be cleartext.
that's it ...