Introducing NFV to OpenStack via Tacker

At this time of 14, we also debated whether NFV was OpenStack in the OpenStack community. Now the controversy has been resolved. OpenStack has become an important part of the NFV discussion, as reflected in the ETSI Mano Conceptual architecture diagram below, OpenStack is the primary performer of the Virtualization Infrastructure Management (VIM) layer. OPNFV is leveraging OpenStack and Opendaylight SDN controllers in its reference architecture as an open source project focused on driving the pace of NFV evolution through an integrated open platform.

Now introduce it to people who are unfamiliar with tacker. Tacker is a project that hatches within OpenStack, and it functions as a VNF manager for managing the VNF lifecycle. The focus of Tacker is to configure VNF and monitor them. You can also restart and/or extend (auto-fix) VNF, if required. The entire process runs through the entire life cycle described by ETSI Mano.

Tacker consists of four components: the VNFD directory, VNF settings, VNF Configuration management, and VNF monitoring and automatic remediation.

The following are the main achievements of each of Tacker's sub-areas to date.

VNFD directory: The standardization effort around how to render VNF (VNF descriptors) is now focused on Tosca. TOSCA (topology and orchestration specification for cloud applications) is a technical committee under the Oasis Association, which focuses on the development, integration and application of open standards for the global information society. The draft NFV profile for Tosca has been completed. This specification describes the properties of VNF (VNFD) and the Tacker maintenance of the VNFD directory.

Once VNF is mandated to use the Tosca NFV template, they will be able to enter the Tacker VNF directory. Once in, Tacker can implement VNF instantiation by compiling Tosca templates and translating part of the OpenStack heat through the translator. Tacker also focuses on VNF configuration and continuous monitoring, and if required, automatic repair can be used throughout the entire life cycle described by ETSI Mano.

VNF settings: with the heat template above, Tacker can set up a computing infrastructure using OpenStack Nova. Many of the features of OpenStack Nova can be used during the calculation setup process. Computing resources can be optimized for VNF by leveraging some of the features created by specific properties such as SR-Iov Passthrough, NUMA, CPU pinning, and large page allocation.

VNF Configuration management: Tacker will drive the special configuration required for VNF by configuring the driver. Configuration management is designed as a pluggable framework, and different VNF vendors can write their own configuration drivers for their VNF.

VNF monitoring and automatic repair: One of the key responsibilities of tacker is to monitor the health of VNF. By introducing a series of specifications designed to guide the design of other OpenStack projects, Tacker can readily use the loadable monitoring drivers such as icmp-ping and http-ping. They are also planned to be integrated with Ceilometer, and today VNF vendors have been able to write their own monitoring drivers with special monitoring properties.

Today, the OpenStack community has mastered many things in a very short period of time. We should pay tribute to all who are committed to this project!

Description: This article was first published on the Brocade community web site. Tacker is a project dedicated to the development of generic network function virtualization orchestration. Brocade Senior Product Manager Madhu Kashyap provides this update for Tacker.

Editor's note: This article is compiled from superuser.openstack.org, the author is Madhu Kashyap, compiler Frank Chan.

Introducing NFV to OpenStack via Tacker