Nokia 5620 SAM VNF Manager

Transcription

1 An OpenStack integrated VNF manager for the Nokia Virtualized Service Router and Evolved Packet Core VNFs Application Note 1 Application Note

2 Abstract Operators seeking to accelerate the deployment of Nokia Virtualized Service Router (VSR) and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) virtual network functions (VNFs) will welcome the addition of a carrier-grade VNF manager to the widely adopted Nokia 5620 SAM. The 5620 SAM VNF Manager (VNFM) delivers out-of-the-box OpenStack integration, thus simplifying the fit of the Nokia IP Routing and EPC VNF solution into OpenStack-based network functions virtualization (NFV) management and orchestration (MANO) architectures. 2 Application Note

3 Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 4 VNF lifecycle management 5 VNF monitoring and assurance 6 Consistent management for both physical and virtual network functions 6 VNF interfaces and OpenStack integration 7 Summary 9 3 Application Note

4 Introduction Many of today s NFV solutions aim to deliver broad, vendor-agnostic support for MANO functions such as NFV orchestration (NFVO), VNF management (VNFM), and virtual infrastructure management (VIM). Unfortunately, their implementation of VNF managers, in particular, falls short of the mark. Developing a VNFM to support even one IP routing or EPC VNF can be a significant undertaking, making it very difficult to provide best-in-class support across a range of vendor-specific VNFs. Individual, vendor-specific VNFM functions can take many months of development because they require a solid understanding of how to adapt to the unique needs of a VNF s application-specific logic for configuration, healing, and scaling. In order to achieve full VNF monitoring, integration is required between element and network management systems (EMS and NMS), as well as specific expertise in northbound APIs. Extensive testing, validation and hardening is also required before a VNFM is robust enough to be deployed in live carrier networks, where a VNFM must perform at scale and in a high-availability environment. And this whole development process must be done for each new VNF software release. To accelerate time-to-market and avoid the risks associated with deploying the Nokia VSR and EPC VNFs in live carrier networks using generic VNFMs, Nokia has added its own ETSI NFV MANO standards-based VNFM into the Nokia 5620 SAM. The Nokia 5620 SAM VNFM was recently subjected to extensive VNF lifecycle management capability testing and was independently validated by the European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC) (see side bar). Embedding the carrier-grade VNFM within the 5620 SAM makes it easy for operators to perform VNF lifecycle management functions from the same NMS that they use on a day-to-day basis for other network operations (see figure 1). The 5620 SAM VNFM performs all VNF lifecycle management functions from VNF catalogue-based instantiation, to VNF configuration, scaling and healing. And by providing converged NMS-VNFM functions, the 5620 SAM delivers operational consistency and end-to-end network management and assurance across both physical and virtual network functions (PNFs and VNFs). For network and service assurance, continuous monitoring of service quality and network health is made across both PNFs and VNFs. Key performance indicators (KPIs) and key control indicators (KCIs) alert operators proactively when remedial actions need to be taken. Specifically for VNFs, the 5620 SAM VNFM can dynamically provide more capacity to match unforeseen demand using threshold-based automation to scale additional VNFs up (or down). The 5620 SAM VNFM has been independently proven through European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC) evaluation that reported on the Nokia Virtual Network Solutions. Key takeaway: Nokia successfully demonstrated extensive lifecycle management support by the 5620 SAM VNF Manager, including instantiation, scaleout, monitoring and alarms. Lifecycle Management (LCM) is crucial for VNF deployment. VNFs can be managed by OpenStack s in-house tools with Nova commands or Heat templates. However, this is a cumbersome method requiring knowledge of OpenStack and its command-line interfaces (CLIs). Nokia s 5620 SAM avoided this time-consuming process by supporting VNF lifecycle management in addition to its network and service management of Nokia s IP routing platforms. It was reassuring to see that all the standard lifecycle management tasks above could be conducted using 5620 SAM, without the need to revert to OpenStack CLI tools. EANTC Test Report: Validating Nokia s IP Routing & Mobile Gateway VNFs 4 Application Note

5 Figure 1. VNF Management with the 5620 SAM VNF lifecycle management By integrating EMS/NMS and VNFM functions, the 5620 SAM is able to manage VNFs across their entire lifecycle in coordination with OpenStack. Integration also simplifies overall coordination and adaptation for configuration and event reporting between the 5620 SAM VNFM and the VIM. Both VNF and NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) configurations are coordinated, easing the VNF on-boarding process. The VNFM uses pre-defined templates to automate VNF configuration, simplifying the creation of VNFs with catalogue-based instantiation. This triggers the provisioning of cloud resources and validates that resources are subsequently being consumed by the VNFs. Further maintenance tasks can then be performed, such as VNF instance updates and ensuring the integrity of VNFs and their components. Because it is handling all VNF-related events, the 5620 SAM VFNM is also able to automate VNF healing for fail-over scenarios. 5 Application Note

6 VNF monitoring and assurance Performance and capacity monitoring capabilities are extended to enable comprehensive VNF assurance using VNF-related NFVI measurement data. The 5620 SAM uses existing southbound interfaces for a consistent KPI collection framework across PNFs and VNFs. Other KPIs and KCIs are also derived from VNF and NFVI measurement data provided by the 5620 SAM VNFM analytics capability, which acquires raw data through its OpenStack integration (see table 1 for OpenStack integration details.) Elastic scaling is enabled by pre-defined KPI and KCI threshold events, which trigger scale out/in of VNFs. In addition, faults and other events (including threshold events) may also trigger pre-defined healing actions such as VNF scaling. Operators also gain troubleshooting simplicity across PNFs and VNFs with 5620 SAM advanced fault management and event correlation. This includes correlation across VNFs and NFVI layers to root out events that may impact NFV service quality. With coordinated fault management and VNFM automated healing, operators will have both enhanced agility for more efficient day-today operations, as well as the visibility to determine if NFVI alarms are part of normal maintenance activities or are emerging issues that require immediate investigation. Advanced visualization also speeds up problem assessment for both VNFs and PNFs. Specifically, visualization of fault management and event correlation enables superior troubleshooting and isolation of issues that span multiple technology layers. A purpose-built VNF-specific management and supervision application for centralized NFV assurance provides specialized views and tools for monitoring VNF performance as well as the health of related network services. Consistent management for both physical and virtual network functions In addition to common 5620 SAM NMS applications for managing both PNFs and VNFs, the 5620 SAM VNFM is purpose-built to enable operators the flexibility of a VNFM-focused toolset. Traditional fault, configuration, accounting, performance and security (FCAPS) management functions are now provided for both VNFs and PNFs. This enables a common and consistent approach for element and network management. For more comprehensive management and monitoring and to simplify integration into OSS/BSS systems, it also provides end-to-end network services visibility using a combined topology and logical connectivity model for both VNFs and PNFs. We used the Nokia 5620 SAM integrated element manager and VNF manager functions. It proved to be an efficient and insightful graphical user interface for day-to-day operator functions. EANTC Test Report: Validating Nokia s IP Routing & Mobile Gateway VNFs 6 Application Note

7 The 5620 SAM VNFM also provides other common PNF and VNF network management functions including network deployment capabilities such as Golden Config and bulk configuration, routing policy management, provisioning templates and scripting. It also has network and service assurance capabilities such as fault management, infrastructure health views, event timelines, root-cause and impact visualization, OAM testing, performance monitoring, service supervision and multilayer topologies. For more information, please refer to the Nokia 5620 SAM datasheet. VNF interfaces and OpenStack integration The 5620 SAM VNFM consists of four external interfaces between external ETSI MANO components (see figure 2): NFVO-VNFM: for NFV orchestration (NFVO) executed VNFM functions VI-VNFM: for VNFM collection of virtual infrastructure (VI) data Southbound interface: for mediation between PNFs and VNFs Northbound interface: for NFVO and BSS/OSS integration Figure 2. ETSI MANO EMS/NMS and VNFM functions provided by the 5620 SAM NFV Orchestrator (NFVO) Northbound interface NFVO- VNFM *Common for PNFs/VNFs EMS/NMS* Southbound interface VNFs Nokia 5620 SAM Assurance/monitoring/analytics* VNF manager VNF monitoring VI-VNFM OR-VI Virtualized Infrastructure (VI) Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM) 7 Application Note

8 Table 1. Nokia 5620 SAM VNF Management feature summary CATEGORY VNF Lifecycle Management VNF Monitoring and Assurance Converged ETSI MANO EMS and VNFM External interfaces and OpenStack integration (See figure 2) FEATURES Purpose-built app for centralized VNF lifecycle management VNF lifecycle management ensures integrity of VNFs and all their components VNF catalogue-based instantiation Mediated provisioning for cloud resources through OpenStack integration Validation of VNF resource consumption through NFVO integration VNF instance updates VNF-related event handling Automated healing for VNFs Purpose-built app for centralized NFV monitoring and assurance Consistent KPI collection framework across PNFs and VNFs KPIs and KCIs derived from both VNF and NFVI measurements Event-triggered VNF scaling Event correlation across NFV layers impacting service quality: NFVO, VNFs and NFVI Network infrastructure assurance for both VNFs and PNFs Consistent EMS/NMS management functions for both PNFs and VNFs across FCAPS Infrastructure provisioning, network assurance and OSS/BSS integration (see 5620 SAM datasheet for more information) VNF management and monitoring (as described above) External interfaces and OpenStack integration (as described below) NFVO-VNFM integration supports execution of VNF lifecycle management actions through OpenStack Heat and Nova APIs VI-VNFM integration supports: Monitoring VM status using Nova API Collection of performance metrics using Ceilometer API Raising hardware alarms on NFVO notification using 5620 SAM northbound API Integration with network services orchestration applications using open northbound interface for VNFM 8 Application Note

9 Summary With the Nokia 5620 SAM VNFM, operators are able to accelerate deployment of the Nokia Virtualized Service Router (VSR) and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) VNFs in live carrier environments. Pre-integration with OpenStack reduces interoperability risks associated with deployment within broader NFV management and orchestration solutions, including ETSI MANO. With the Nokia 5620 SAM, both EMS/NMS and VNFM functions are now converged in a single platform so that operators can more seamlessly manage and orchestrate VNFs. This makes it easy for operators to perform VNF lifecycle management functions from the same NMS that is used on a day-to-day basis for other network operations. Virtualized network functions are ready for commercial deployment today, as demonstrated by EANTC s testing and independent validation of the 5620 SAM VNFM. The 5620 SAM is a proven solution that is widely deployed worldwide in over 600 service provider networks for mobile, enterprise, residential and converged services delivery. Looking for more information? Please call us at: Europe and Asia Pacific: (Mon-Fri 08:00-16:00 GMT) United States and Canada: (Mon-Fri 8:00 am 5:00 pm EST) Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of their respective owners. Nokia Oyj Karaportti 3 FI Espoo Finland Tel (0) Product code: PR EN (March) Nokia 2016 nokia.com