Tag Archives: quantum

OpenStack Neutron using Linux Bridges (technical explanation)

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chris_net3Apparently this is “Showcase Dell OpenStack/Crowbar Team Member Week” because today I’m proxy positioning for Dell OpenStack engineer Chris Dearborn.  Chris has been leading our OpenStack Neutron deployment for Grizzly and Havana.

If you’re familiar with the OpenStack Networking, skip over my introductory preamble and jump right down to the meat under “SDN Client Connection: Linux Bridge.”  Hopefully we can convince Chris to put together more in this series and cover GRE and VLAN configurations too.

OpenStack and Software Defined Network

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging concept that describes a family of functionality.  Like cloud, the exact meaning of SDN appears to be in the eye (or brochure) of the company providing the technology.  Overall, the concept for SDN is to have programmable networks that can be automatically provisioned.

Early approaches to this used the OpenFlow™ API to programmatically modify switch routing tables (aka OSI Layer 2) on a flow by flow basis across multiple switches.  While highly controlled, OpenFlow has proven difficult to implement at scale in dynamic environments; consequently, many SDN implementations are now using overlay networks based on inventoried VLANs  and/or dynamic tunnels.

Inventoried VLAN overlay networks create a stable base layer 2 infrastructure that can be inventoried and handed out dynamically on-demand.  Generally, the management infrastructure dynamically connects the end-points (typically virtual machines) to a dedicated existing layer 2 network.  This provides all of the isolation desired without having to thrash the underlying network switch infrastructure.

Dynamic tunnel overlay network also uses client connection points to isolate traffic but do not rely on switch layer 2.  Instead, they encrypt traffic before sending it over a shared network.  This avoids having to match dynamic networks to static inventory; however, it also adds substantial encryption overhead to the network communication.  Consequently, tunnels provide more flexibility and less up front-confirmation but with lower performance.

OpenStack Networking, project Neutron (previously Quantum), is responsible for connecting virtual machines setup by OpenStack Compute (aka Nova) to the software defined networking infrastructure.  By design, Neutron accommodates different implementation plug-ins.  That allows operators to choose between different approaches including the addition of commercial offerings.   While it is possible to use open source capabilities for small deployments and trials, most large scale deployments choose proprietary SDN technologies.

The Crowbar OpenStack installation allows operators to choose between “Open vSwitch GRE Tunnels” and “Linux Bridge VLAN” configuration.  The GRE option is more flexible and requires less up front configuration; however, the encryption used by GRE will degrade performance.  The Linux Bridge VLAN option requires more upfront configuration and design.

Since GRE works with minimal configuration, let’s explore what’s required to for Crowbar to setup OpenStack Neutron Linux Bridge VLAN networking.

Note: This review assumes that you already have a working knowledge of Crowbar and OpenStack.

Background

Before we dig into how OpenStack configures SDN , we need to understand how we connect between virtual machines running in the system and the physical network.  This connection uses Linux Bridges.  For GRE tunnels, Crowbar configures an Open vSwitch (aka OVS) on the node to create and manage the tunnels.

One challenge with SDN traffic isolation is that we can no longer assume that virtual machines with network access can reach destinations on our same network.  This means that the infrastructure must provide paths (aka gateways and routers) between the tenant and infrastructure networks.  A major part of the OpenStack configuration includes setting up these connections when new tenant networks are created.

Note: In the OpenStack Grizzly and earlier releases, open source code for network routers were not configured in a highly available or redundant way.  This problem is addressed in the Havana release.

For the purposes of this explanation, the “network node” is the shared infrastructure server that bridges networks.  The “compute node” is any one of the servers hosting guest virtual machines.  Traffic in the cloud can be between virtual machines within the cloud instance (internal) or between a virtual machine and something outside the OpenStack cloud instance (external).

Let’s make sure we’re on the same page with terminology.

  • OSI Layer 2 – just above physical connections (layer 1), Layer two manages traffic between servers including providing logical separation of traffic.
  • VLAN – Virtual Local Area Network are switch enforced isolation zones created by adding 1 of 4096 tags in the network traffic (aka tagged traffic).
  • Tenant – a group of users in a cloud that are logically isolated (cannot see other traffic or information) but still using shared resources.
  • Switch – a physical device used to provide layer 1 networking connections between end points.  May provide additional services on other OSI layers such as VLANs.
  • Network Node – an OpenStack infrastructure server that connects tenant networks to infrastructure networks.
  • Compute Node – an OpenStack server that runs user workloads in virtual machines or containers.

SDN Client Connection: Linux Bridge 

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The VLAN range for Linux Bridge is configurable in /etc/quantum/quantum.conf by changing the network_vlan_ranges parameter.  Note that this parameter is set by the Crowbar Neutron chef recipe.  The VLAN range is configured to start at whatever the “vlan” attribute in the nova_fixed network in the bc-template-network.json is set to.  The VLAN range end is hard coded to end at the VLAN start plus 2000.

Reminder: The maximum VLAN tag is 4096 so the VLAN tag for nova_fixed should never be set to anything greater than 2095 to be safe.

Networks are assigned the next available VLAN tag as they are created.  For instance, the first manually created network will be assigned VLAN 501, the next VLAN 502, etc.  Note that this is independent of what tenant the new network resides in.

The convention in Linux Bridge is to name the various network constructs including the first 11 characters of the UUID of the associated Neutron object.  This allows you to run the quantum CLI command listing out the objects you are interested in, and grepping on the 11 uuid characters from the network construct name.  This shows what Neutron object a given network construct maps to.

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Network Creation

When a network is created, a corresponding bridge is created and is given the name br<network_uuid>.  A subinterface of the NIC is also created and is named <interface_name>.<vlan_tag>.  This subinterface is slaved to the bridge.  Note that this only happens when the network is needed (when a VM is created on the network).

This occurs on both the network node and the compute nodes.

Additional Steps Taken On The Network Node During Network Creation

On the network node, a bridge and subinterface is created per network and the subinterface is slaved to the bridge as described above.  If the network is attached to the router, then a TAP interface that the router listens on is created and slaved to the bridge.  If DHCP is selected, then another TAP interface is created that the dnsmasq process talks to, and that interface is also slaved to the bridge.

VM Creation On A Compute Node

When a VM is created, a TAP interface is created and named tap<port_uuid>.  The port is the Neutron port that the VM is plugged in to.  This TAP interface is slaved to the bridge associated with the network that the user selected when creating the VM.  Note that this occurs on compute nodes only.

Determining the dnsmasq port/tap interface for a network

The TAP port associated with dnsmasq for a network can be determined by first getting the uuid of the network, then looking on the network node in /var/lib/quantum/dhcp/<network_uuid>/interface.  The interface will be named ns-.  Note that this is only the first 11 characters of the uuid.  The tap interface will be named tap.

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Summary

Understanding OpenStack Networking is critical to operating a successful cloud deployment.  The Crowbar Team at Dell has invested significant effort to automate the configuration of Neutron.  This helps you eliminate the risk of manual configuration and leverage our extensive testing and field experience.

If you are interested in seeing the exact sequences used by Crowbar, please visit the Crowbar Github repository for the “Quantum Barclamp.”

OpenStack Summit: Let’s talk DevOps, Fog, Upgrades, Crowbar & Dell

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If you are coming to the OpenStack summit in San Diego next week then please find me at the show! I want to hear from you about the Foundation, community, OpenStack deployments, Crowbar and anything else.  Oh, and I just ordered a handful of Crowbar stickers if you wanted some CB bling.

Matt Ray (Opscode), Jason Cannavale (Rackspace) and I were Ops track co-chairs. If you have suggestions, we want to hear. We managed to get great speakers and also some interesting sessions like DevOps panel and up streaming deploy working sessions. It’s only on Monday and Tuesday, so don’t snooze or you’ll miss it.

My team from Dell has a lot going on, so there are lots of chances to connect with us:

At the Dell booth, Randy Perryman will be sharing field experience about hardware choices. We’ve got a lot of OpenStack battle experience and we want to compare notes with you.

I’m on the board meeting on Monday so likely occupied until the Mirantis party.

See you in San Diego!

PS: My team is hiring for Dev, QA and Marketing. Let me know if you want details.

OpenStack Boston Meetup 2/1 covers Quantum & Foundation

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My team at Dell was in Beantown (several of us are Nashua based) for an annual team meeting so the timing for this Boston meetup.  Special thanks to Andi Abes for organizing and Suse for Sponsoring!!

We covered two primary topics: Quantum and the OpenStack Foundation.

In typing up my notes from the sessions, I ended up with so much information that it made more sense to break them into independent blog posts. Wow – that’s a lot of value from a free meetup!eetup was ideal for us. While we showed up in force, so did many other Stackers including people from HP, Nicira, Suse, Havard, Voxel, RedHat, ESPN and many more! The turnout for the event was great and I’m taking notes that Austin may need to upgrade our pizza and Boston may need to upgrade their cookies (just sayin’).

The Quantum session by David Lapsley from Nicira talked about the architecture and applications of Quantum. I think that Quantum is an exciting incubated project for OpenStack; however, it is important to remember that Essex stands alone without it. I believe this fact gets forgotten in enthusiasm over Quantum’s shiny potential.

The OpenStack session by Rob Hirschfeld from Dell (me!) talked about the importance of governance for OpenStack and how the Foundation will play a key role in transitioning it from Rackspace to a neutral party. There are many feel-good community benefits that the Foundation brings; however, the collaborators’ ROI is driver for creating a strong foundation. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that fact and using it to create a more sustainable OpenStack.

Crowbar+OpenStack Insights for the week: Food Fight Podcast & Boston Meetup 2/1

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Please don’t confuse a lack of posts with a lack of activity!  I’ve been in the center of a whirlwind of Crowbar, OpenStack and Hadoop for my team at Dell.  I’ve also working on an interesting side project with Liquid Leadership author (and would-be star ship captain) Brad Szollose.

I just don’t have time to post all of the awesomeness.  I can tell you that my team is very focused on Hadoop (RHEL 6.2/CentOS 6.2 + open Cloudera Distro) barclamps as we get some Diablo deployments done.  Also the Crowbar list has been very active about Diablo.  If you’re looking for advanced information, there is  some inside scoop on the Crowbar FoodFight podcast I did with Bryan Berry & Matt Ray.

I’ll be in BOSTON THIS WEDNESDAY 2/1 for the OpenStack Meetup there.  We’re going to be talking about Quantum and the OpenStack Foundation.  I suspect that Keystone will come up too (but that’s the subject of another post).  Of course, it’s not just your humble blogger: the whole Dell CloudEdge OpenStack/Crowbar team will be on hand!  So put on your cloud geek hat and take a trip to Harvard for the meetup!

2012: A year of Cloud Coalescence (whatever that means)

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This post is a collaboration between three Dell Cloud activists: Rob Hirschfeld (@zehicle), Joseph B George (@jbgeorge) and Stephen Spector (@SpectoratDell).

We’re not making predictions for the “whole” Cloud market, this is a relatively narrow perspective based on technologies that on our daily radar. These views are strictly our own and based on publicly available data. They do not reflect plans, commitments, or internal data from our employer (Dell).

The major 2012 theme is cloud coalescence.  However, Rob worries that we’ll see slower adoption due to lack of engineers and confusing names/concepts.

Here are our twelve items for 2012:

  1. Open source continues to be a disruptive technology delivery model. It’s not “free” software – there’s an emerging IT culture that is doing business differently, including a number of large enterprises. The stable of sleeping giant vendors are waking up to this in 2012 but full engagement will take time.
  2. Linux. It is the cloud operating system and had a great 2012. It seems silly pointing this out since it seems obvious, but it’s the foundation for open source acceleration.
  3. Tight market for engineering and product development talent will get tighter. The catch-22 of this is that potential mentors are busy breaking new ground and writing code, making it hard for new experts to be developed.
  4. On track, OpenStack moves into its awkward adolescence. It is still gangly and rebelling against authority, but coming into its own. Expect to see a groundswell of installations and an expected wave of issues and challenges that will drive the community. By the “F” release, expect to see OpenStack cement itself as a serious, stable contender with notable public deployments and a significant international private deployment foot print.
  5. We’ll start seeing OpenStack Quantum (networking) in near-production pilots by year end. OpenStack Quantum is the glue that holds the big players in OpenStack Nova together. The potential for next generation cloud networking based on open standards is huge, but it will emerge without a killer app (OpenStack Nova in this case) pushing it forward. The OpenStack community will pull together to keep Quantum on track.
  6. Hadoop will cross into mainstream awareness as the need for big data analysis grows exponentially along with the data. Hadoop is on fire in select circles and completely obscure in others. The challenge for Hadoop is there are not enough engineers who know how to operate it. We suspect that lack of expertise will throttle demand until we get more proprietary tools to simplify analysis. We also predict a lot of very rich entrepreneurs and VCs emerging from this market segment.
  7. DevOps will enter mainstream IT discussions. Marketers from major IT brands will struggle and fail to find a better name for the movement. Our prediction is that by 2015, it will just be the way that “IT” is done and the name won’t matter.
  8. KVM continues to gain believers as the open source hypervisor. In 2011, I would not have believed this prediction but KVM making great strides and getting a lot of love from the OpenStack community, though Xen is also a key open source technology as well. I believe that Libvirt compatibility between LXE & KVM will further accelerate both virtualization approaches. 
      
  9. Big Data and NoSQL will continue to converge. While NoSQL enthusiasm as a universal replacement for structured databases appears to be deflating, real applications will win.
  10. Java will continue to encounter turbulence as a software platform under Oracle’s overly heady handed management.
  11. PaaS continues to be a confusing term. Cloud players will struggle with a definition but I don’t think a common definition will surface in 2012. I think the big news will be convergence between DevOps and PaaS; however, that will be under the radar since most of the market is still getting educated on both of those concepts.
  12. Hybrid cloud will continue to make strides but will not truly emerge in 2012 – we’ll try to develop this technology, and expose gaps that will get us there ultimately (see PaaS and Quantum above)

Thoughts?  We’d love to hear your comments.

Rob, JBG, and Stephen

You can follow Rob at www.RobHirschfeld.com or @zehicle on Twitter.
You can follow Joseph at www.JBGeorge.net or @jbgeorge on Twitter.
You can follow Stephen at http://en.community.dell.com/members/dell_2d00_stephen-sp/blogs/default.aspx or @SpectoratDell on Twitter.

OpenStack Quantum Update – what I got wrong and where it’s headed

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I’m glad to acknowledge that I incorrectly reported the OpenStack Quantum project would require licensed components for implementation!   I fully stand behind Quantum as being OpenStack’s “killer app” and am happy to post more information about it here.

Side note: My team at Dell is starting to get Crowbar community pings about collaboration on a Quantum barclamp.  Yes, we are interested!

This updates comes via Dan Wendlandt from Nicira who pointed out my error in the Seattle Meetup notes (you can read his comment on that post).  Rather than summarize his information, I’ll let Dan talk for himself…

Dan’s comments about open source Quantum implementation:

There’s a full documentation on how to use Open vSwitch to implement Quantum (see http://docs.openstack.org/incubation/openstack-network/admin/content/ and http://openvswitch.org/openstack/documentation/), and [Dan] even sent a demo link out to the openstack list a while back (http://wiki.openstack.org/QuantumOVSDemo). Open vSwitch is completely open source and free. Some other plugins may require proprietary hardware and/or software, but there is definitely a (very) viable and completely open source option for Quantum networking.

Dan’s comments about Quantum OpenStack project status in the D-E-F release train:

At the end of the Diablo cycle, Quantum applied to become an incubated project, which means it will be incubated for Essex. At the end of the Essex cycle, we plan to apply to be a core project, meaning that if we are accepted, we would be a core project for the F-series release.

Its worth noting, however, that [Dan] knows of many people planning on putting Quantum in production before then, which is the real indicator of a project’s maturity (regardless of whether it is technically “core” or not).

OpenStack Seattle Meetup 11/30 Notes

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We had an informal OpenStack meetup after the Opscode Summit in Seattle.

This turned out to be a major open cloud gab fest! In addition to Dell OpenStack leads (Greg and I), we had the Nova Project Technical Lead (PTL, Vish Ishaya, @vish), HP’s Cloud Architect (Alex Howells, @nixgeek), Opscode OpenStack cookbook master (Matt Ray, @mattray). We were joined by several other Chef Summit attendees with OpenStack interest including a pair of engineers from Spain.

We’d planned to demo using Knife-OpenStack against the Crowbar Diablo build.  Unfortunately, the knife-openstack is out of date (August 15th?!).  We need Keystone support.  Anyone up for that?

Highlights

There’s no way I can recapture everything that was said, but here are some highlights I jotted down the on the way home.

  • After the miss with Keystone and the Diablo release, solving the project dependency problem is an important problem. Vish talked at length about the ambiguity challenge of Keystone being required and also incubated. He said we were not formal enough around new projects even though we had dependencies on them. Future releases, new projects (specifically, Quantum) will not be allowed to be dependencies.
  • The focus for Essex is on quality and stability. The plan is for Essex to be a long-term supported (LTS) release tied to the Ubuntu LTS. That’s putting pressure on all the projects to ensure quality, lock features early, and avoid unproven dependencies.
  • There is a lot of activity around storage and companies are creating volume plug-ins for Nova. Vish said he knew of at least four.
  • Networking has a lot of activity. Quantum has a lot of activity, but may not emerge as a core project in time for Essex. There was general agreement that Quantum is “the killer app” for OpenStack and will take cloud to the next level.  The Quantum Open vSwitch implementaiton is completely open source and free. Some other plugins may require proprietary hardware and/or software, but there is definitely a (very) viable and completely open source option for Quantum networking.
  • HP has some serious cloud mojo going on. Alex talked about defects they have found and submitted fixes back to core. He also hinted about some interesting storage and networking IP that’s going into their OpenStack deployment. Based on his comments, I don’t expect those to become public so I’m going to limit my observations about them here.
  • We talked about hypervisors for a while. KVM and XenServer (via XAPI) were the primary topics. We did talk about LXE & OpenVZ as popular approaches too. Vish said that some of the XenServer work is using Xen Storage Manager to manage SAN images.
  • Vish is seeing a constant rise in committers. It’s hard to judge because some committers appear to be individuals acting on behalf of teams (10 to 20 people).

Note: cross posted on the OpenStack Blog.

Reminder: 12/8 Meetup @ Austin!

Missed this us in Seattle? Join us at the 12/8 OpenStack meetup in Austin co-hosted by Dell and Rackspace.

Based on our last meetup, it appears deployment is a hot topic, so we’ll kick off with that – bring your experiences, opinions, and thoughts! We’ll also open the floor to other OpenStack topics that would be discussed – open technical and business discussions – no commercials please!

We’ll also talk about organizing future OpenStack meet ups! If your company is interested in sponsoring a future meetup, find Joseph George at the meetup and he can work with you on details.