Junos OS Evolved Overview

Benefits

Junos OS Evolved provides several benefits to Juniper Networks customers:

• It runs natively on Linux, providing direct access to all the Linux utilities and operations. With Linux integration, you can use standard Linux and open-source tools to speed up onboarding, accelerate feature adoption with a smooth upgrade process, and enjoy enhanced debugging capabilities for streamlined qualification and deployment.
• Support for 3rd party applications and tools. You can run Linux applications directly on Junos OS Evolved using Docker containers, or create custom applications for advanced networking solutions. You can use existing Linux tools and procedures to create custom functions on a developer-friendly platform with a short learning curve. This versatility allows you to create the solution that best fits your needs through simple third-party application integration and the ability to implement the components required for specific use cases.
• You can install multiple different Junos OS Evolved software releases on a device, with support for rolling back to previous versions. This gives you the flexibility to try out different software releases and easily revert back to your preferred version if necessary.
• Enhanced security at all OS layers. Junos OS Evolved uses an integrity solution called Integrity Measurement Architecture (IMA), and a companion mechanism called the Extended Verification Module (EVM). These open source protections are part of a set of Linux Security Modules that are industry-standard and consistent with the trust mechanisms specified by the Trusted Computing Group. Junos OS Evolved also supports other security features such as TPM infrastructure, hardened secure BIOS, and secure boot. Security is a core design principle for Junos OS Evolved. Juniper Networks is committed to maintaining a strong security infrastructure to keep your network safe and protected.
• Nearly all of the CLI and user interfaces are identical to those provided in Junos OS, meaning you can pick up Junos OS Evolved with a minimal learning curve. These similarities provide simplicity and operational consistency, minimizing the effort required to implement, maintain, and customize your end-to-end solution.

Native Linux Base

Whereas Junos OS runs over an instance of the FreeBSD operating system on a specific hardware element (for example, the CPU on the Routing Engine), Junos OS Evolved runs over a native Linux system. Having Linux as a base leverages a much wider, dynamic, and active development community. The Linux system also contains multiple third-party applications and tools developed for Linux that Junos OS Evolved can integrate with minimal effort.

The Junos OS Evolved infrastructure is a horizontal software layer that decouples the application processes from the hardware on which the processes run. Effectively, this decoupling creates a general-purpose software infrastructure spanning all the different compute resources on the system (Routing Engine CPUs, line card CPUs, and possibly others). Application processes (protocols, services, and so on) run on top of this infrastructure and communicate with each other by publishing and consuming (that is, subscribing to) state.

Integrated Database for State

State is the retained information or status about physical or logical entities that the system preserves and shares across the system, and supplies during restarts. State includes both operational and configuration state, including committed configuration, interface state, routes, and hardware state. In Junos OS Evolved, state can be held in a database called the Distributed Data Store (DDS).

The DDS does not interpret state. Its only job is to hold state received from subscribers and propagate state to consumers. It implements the publish-subscribe messaging pattern for communicating state between applications that are originators of a state to applications that are consumers of that state (see Figure 1). Each application publishes state to and subscribes to state from the DDS directly, making applications independent of each other.

Decoupling applications in this manner isolates the failure of one application from others. The failing application can restart using the last known state of the system held in the state database.

Modular Design

Junos OS Evolved is composed of components with well-defined interfaces. Applications can be individually restarted without requiring a system reboot. Restarted applications reload the state that is preserved in the DDS.

Secure Boot

Secure Boot is a significant system security enhancement based on the UEFI standard (see www.uefi.org). It works by safeguarding the BIOS itself from tampering or modification and then maintaining that protection throughout the boot process.

The Secure Boot process begins with Secure Flash, which ensures that unauthorized changes cannot be made to the firmware. Authorized releases of Junos OS carry a digital signature produced by either Juniper Networks directly or one of its authorized partners. At each point of the boot-up process, each component verifies the next link is sound by checking the signature to ensure that the binaries have not been modified. The boot process cannot continue unless the signature is correct. This "chain of trust" continues until the operating system takes control. In this way, overall system security is enhanced, increasing resistance to some firmware-based persistent threats.

Figure 1 shows a simplified version of this “chain of trust.”

Secure Boot requires no actions on your part to implement. It is implemented on supported hardware by default.

For information on which Junos OS Evolved releases and hardware support Secure Boot, see Feature Explorer and enter Secure Boot.