Layer 3 service plugin to support hardware based routing (SVI) on Brocade VDX

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/neutron/+spec/brocade-l3-svi-service-plugin

This blueprint exploits the L3 SVI functionality in the Brocade VDX switch via an L3 router service plugin.

Problem description

Brocade Hardaware supports SVI (Switch Virtual Interface) which provides ASIC level routing/gateway functionality in the switch for configured VLANs. This Service plugin provides support for this feature which enables line rate routing/gateway functionality.

Please see definition of SVI in the references section of this document.

Proposed change

This proposal will introduce a Layer 3 service plugin which will interface with the Brocade VDX switch using NETCONF. NETCONF interface on the switch will be used to program the SVI on the switch.

This plugin works in conjuction with Brocade ML2 Driver which will continue to manage networks, subnets, and ports.

We plan to support the full API.

Alternatives

The alternative approach is to use the open source agent based layer 3 router plugin and update the L3 agent to interact with Brocade Hardware.

Data model impact

In the Brocade specific DB a table will be added to track the SVI created on a tenant basis. Mapping of the SVI to the VLAN will also be provided.

new table: brocade_db.svi (id, vlan, tenant_id) id - standard uuid vlan - svi’s associated vlan tenant_id: tenant this svi belongs to

REST API impact

none

Security impact

none

Notifications impact

none

Other end user impact

none

Performance Impact

There are no changes to any existing code patterns, hence there is no significant change in performance profile. Instead of software L3 service this blueprrint provides the same service using the VDX hardware. NETCONF requests to the switch may add a very slight change to the execution time of the API but we expect this change to be minor and will affect only setups depolying this hardware based functionality.

Other deployer impact

none

Developer impact

none

Implementation

Assignee(s)

Shiv Haris sharis@brocade.com IRC - shivharis

Work Items

  • L3-SVI Service Plugin

  • DevStack related enhancements to support this plugin

Dependencies

none

Testing

Complete unit test coverage of the code will be provided with mocked hardware.

Brocade will provide Third-Party tempest code coverage of this functionality. This will be implemented as a CI (continuous integration) Testing. L3 routing tests will be enabled.

Documentation Impact

Documentation to configure and deploy this service plugin will be provided in the Openstack wiki.

References

SVI General definition: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switvh_virtual_interface