Virtual Network Functions Life Cycle Management · Virtual Network Functions Life Cycle Management Deploying VNFs in the OpenStack Environment. Scenarios Description Datamodel Images

Virtual Network Functions Life CycleManagement

Cisco Elastic Services Controller (ESC) provides a single point of control to manage all aspects of VNFlifecycle for generic virtual network functions (VNFs) in a dynamic environment. It provides advanced VNFlife cycle management capabilities through an open, standards-based platform that conforms to the ETSIVNF management and orchestration (MANO) reference architecture.

In ESCRelease 2.0, you can orchestrate VNFs within a virtual infrastructure domain—either in an OpenStackor ESXi 5.5 environment. A VNF deployment is initiated as a service request. The service request comprisesof templates that consist of XML payloads.

ESC 2.0 you can deploy VNFs either on OpenStack or VMware environment. Hybrid VNF deploymentis not supported in ESC 2.0 or earlier.

Note

ESC manages the complete life cycle of a VNF. Triggered by a northbound request, it instantiates a virtualmachine to facilitate the requirements of a VNF. The requester can specify all the characteristics (for example,vCPU, memory, disk, monitoring KPIs, and more) typically associated with spinning up and managing a

Cisco Elastic Services Controller 2.0 User Guide 1

virtual machine in an XML template.

The figure explains the lifecycle management of ESC:

• Onboarding—In ESC, you can onboard any new VNF type as long as it meets the prerequisites forsupporting it in an OpenStack and VMware environment. For example in Openstack environment,Cisco ESC supports QCOW2 image format and config drive support for the VNF bootstrap mechanism.You can define the XML template for the new VNF type to onboard the VNF with ESC.

• Deploying—When a VNF is deployed, Cisco ESC applies "day-zero" configuration for a new service.A typical configuration includes credentials, licensing, connectivity information (IP address, gateway),and other static parameters to make the new virtual resource available to the system. It also activateslicenses for the new VNFs.

• Monitoring— ESC integrates with the host hypervisor, whether KVM/OpenStack or VMware, tomonitor the health of virtual machines. It tracks performance metrics such as CPU use, memoryconsumption, and other core parameters. The requester can specify all of the characteristics (for example,vCPU, memory, disk, monitoring KPIs, and more) typically associated with spinning up and managinga virtual machine in an XML template. It also provides an elaborate framework to monitor serviceperformance-related metrics and other key parameters that you define.

• Healing—ESC heals the VNFs when there is a failure. The failure scenarios are configured in the KPIsection of the datamodel. ESC uses KPI to monitor the VM and the events are triggered based on theKPI conditions. The actions to be taken for every event that is triggered is configured in the rules sectionduring the deployment.

• Updating— Starting from ESC Release 1.1 and onwards, ESC allows deployment updates duringdeployment. You can either perform all the updates (that is, add or delete a vm_group, add or delete aephemeral network in a vm_group, and add or delete an interface in a vm_group) in a single deploymentor individually.

• Undeploy— ESC allows you to undeploy an already deployed VNF. This operation is either done usingthe northbound APIs or through the ESC portal.

The following section explains how to deploy VNFs in OpenStack and VMware environments:

Cisco Elastic Services Controller 2.0 User Guide2

Virtual Network Functions Life Cycle Management

• Deploying VNFs in the OpenStack Environment, page 3

• Deploying VNFs in the VMware Environment, page 4

Deploying VNFs in the OpenStack EnvironmentIn ESC, VNF deployment is initiated as a service request either originating from the ESC portal or thenorthbound interfaces. The service request comprises of templates that consist of XML payloads. Theseresourcesmust either be available in OpenStack or can be created in ESC using the ESC portal or the northboundinterfaces. For more information on managing resources in ESC, see Managing VM Resources in ESC. Thedeployment datamodel refers to the resources to deploy VNFs in the OpenStack environment.

Based on how the resources are setup, you can deploy VNFs in one of the following ways:

AdvantagesImages and FlavorsDatamodelDescriptionScenarios

• The imagesand flavorscan be used inmultiple VNFdeployments.

• You can addor deleteimagedefinitionsthrough ESC.

• Upgrade andDowngradecan be doneeasily.

Images and Flavorsare created throughESC usingNETCONF/RESTAPIs.

• deploymentdatamodel

• imagedatamodel

• flavordatamodel

Starting from ESCRelease 1.1, you candeploy VNFswithout serviceregistration process.

1 VNFDeployment-The deploymentdatamodel refersto the imagesand flavorscreated and thendeploys VNFs.

Deploying VNFs(Creating Imagesand Flavors throughESC)


• You can addor deleteimagesthrough ESC.


Images and Flavorsare not createdthrough ESC


• Images andFlavors inOpenstack


1 VNFDeployment-The deploymentdatamodel refersto theout-of-bandimages andflavors inOpenStack andthen deploysVNFs.

Deploying VNFs(Using out-of-bandimages and flavors)


Virtual Network Functions Life Cycle ManagementDeploying VNFs in the OpenStack Environment

Cisco-Elastic-Services-Controller-User-Guide-2-0_chapter_0101.pdf#unique_19

AdvantagesImages and FlavorsDatamodelDescriptionScenarios

The images andflavors are limitedto the service.

Images and Flavorsare created throughESC by referring toregistrationdatamodel.

• registrationdatamodel


This is a two-stepprocedure:

1 ServiceRegistration-The registrationdatamodel isused to createthe images andflavors.

2 VNFDeployment-The deploymentdatamodel isused to deployVNFs.

Deploying VNFswith ServiceRegistration

For more information on Deploying VNFs in OpenStack environments, see Deploying Virtual NetworkFunctions in the OpenStack Environment.

Note

Deploying VNFs in the VMware EnvironmentIn ESC, VNF deployment is initiated as a service request either originating from the ESC portal or theNorthbound interface. The service request comprises of templates that consist of XML payloads such asTenants, Network, Image, Flavor, and so on. These resources must be available in VMware environment. Formore information on managing VM resources in ESC, see Managing VM Resources in ESC. The deploymentdatamodel refers to the resources to deploy VNFs in the VMware environment.

In ESC Release 2.0, when you deploy VNFs in VMware environment, you can either use the out-of-bandimages that are already available in VMware or create an image in the ESC portal or using REST APIs. Formore information on creating images in the ESC portal, see Managing Images. The deployment datamodelrefers to these images to deploy VNFs.


Virtual Network Functions Life Cycle ManagementDeploying VNFs in the VMware Environment





AdvantagesImagesdatamodeltemplates

DescriptionScenarios


• You can addor deleteimagedefinitionsthrough ESC.


Images are createdthrough ESC usingREST APIs.


• imagedatamodel


1 VNFDeployment-The deploymentdatamodel refersto the imagescreated and thendeploys VNFs.

Deploying VNFs(Creating Imagesthrough ESC)

• The imagescan be used inmultiple VNFdeployments.

• You can addimagesthrough ESCportal.


Images are notcreated throughESC.


• Image inVMware

1 VNFDeployment-The deploymentdatamodel refersto theout-of-bandimagesVMwareand then deploysVNFs.

Deploying VNFs(Using out-of-bandimages)

For more information onDeployingVNFs in VMware environments, see DeployingVirtual Network Functionsin the VMware Environment.







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Virtual Network Functions Life Cycle Management · Virtual Network Functions Life Cycle Management Deploying VNFs in the OpenStack Environment. Scenarios Description Datamodel Images