Configuring Underlay Network for ContrailVM¶
- date
2019-07-30
The ContrailVM can be configured in several different ways for the
underlay (ip-fabric
) connectivity:
Standard Switch Setup¶
In the standard switch setup, the ContrailVM is provided an interface through the standard switch port group that is used for management and control data, see Figure 1.
To set up the ContrailVM in this mode, the standard switch and port
group must be configured in vcenter_vars.yml
.
If switch name is not configured, the default values of vSwitch0
are
used for the standard switch.
The ContrailVM supports multiple NICs for management and
control_data
interfaces. The management interface must have the DHCP
flag as true
and the control_data
interface can have DHCP set as
false
. When DHCP is set to false, the IP address of the
control_data
interface must be configured by the user and ensure
connectivity. Additional configuration such as static routes and bond
interface must be configured by the user.
The following is an example of configuration with standard switch.
- name: <esxi_host>
username: <username>
password: <password>
datastore: <datastore>
vcenter_server: <server>
datacenter: <datacenter>
cluster: <cluster>
std_switch_list:
- pg_name: mgmt-pg
switch_name: vSwitch0
contrail_vm:
networks:
- mac: 00:77:56:aa:bb:03
sw_type: standard
switch_name: vSwitch0
pg: mgmt-pg
Distributed Switch Setup¶
A distributed switch functions as a single virtual switch across associated hosts.
In the distributed switch setup, the ContrailVM is provided an interface through the distributed switch port group that is used for management and control data, see Figure 2.
The ContrailVM can be configured to use the management and control_data NICs from DVS. When the DVS configuration is specified, the standard switch configuration is ignored.
To set up the ContrailVM in this mode, configure the distributed switch,
port group, number of ports in the port group, and the uplink in the
vcenter_servers
section in vcenter_servers.yml
.
Note
The uplink can be a link aggregation group (LAG). If you use LAG, then DVS and LAG should be preconfigured.
The following is an example distributed switch configuration in vcenter_vars.yml
.
vcenter_servers:
- SRV1:
hostname: <server>
username: <username>
password: <password>
datacentername: <datacenter>
clusternames:
- <cluster>
dv_switch:
dv_switch_name: <dvs_name>
dv_port_group:
dv_portgroup_name: <pg_name>
number_of_ports: <num_of_ports>
dv_switch_control_data:
dv_switch_name: <ctrl_dvs_name>
dv_port_group_control_data:
dv_portgroup_name: <ctrl_pg_name>
number_of_ports: <num_of_ports>
uplink:
- 'vmnic3'
PCI Pass-Through Setup¶
PCI pass-through is a virtualization technique in which a physical Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) device is directly connected to a virtual machine, bypassing the hypervisor. Drivers in the VM can directly access the PCI device, resulting in a high rate of data transfer.
In the pass-through setup, the ContrailVM is provided management and
control data interfaces. Pass-through interfaces are used for control
data.
Figure 3 shows a PCI pass-through setup with a single control_data
interface.
When setting up the ContrailVM with pass-through interfaces, upon
provisioning ESXi hosts in the installation process, the PCI
pass-through interfaces are exposed as Ethernet interfaces in the
ContrailVM, and are identified in the control_data
device field.
The following is an example PCI pass-through configuration with a single
control_data
interface:
esxihosts:
- name: <esxi_host>
username: <username>
password: <password>
datastore: <datastore>
vcenter_server: <server>
datacenter: <datacenter>
cluster: <cluster>
contrail_vm:
networks:
- mac: <mac_addr>
pci_devices:
- '0000:04:00.0'
Figure 4 shows a PCI pass-through setup with a bond_control data interface, which has multiple pass-through NICs.
Update the ContrailVM section in vcenter_vars.yml
with
pci_devices
as shown in the following example:
esxihosts:
- name: <esxi_host>
username: <username>
password: <password>
datastore: <datastore>
vcenter_server: <server>
datacenter: <datacenter>
cluster: <cluster>
contrail_vm:
networks:
- mac: <mac_addr>
pci_devices:
- '0000:04:00.0'
- '0000:04:00.1'
SR-IOV Setup¶
A single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) interface allows a network adapter device to separate access to its resources among various hardware functions.
In the SR-IOV setup, the ContrailVM is provided management and control data interfaces. SR-IOV interfaces are used for control data.
In VMware, the port-group
is mandatory for SR-IOV interfaces because
the ability to configure the networks is based on the active policies
for the port holding the virtual machines.
To set up the ContrailVM with SR-IOV interfaces, all configurations used for the standard switch setup are also used for the pass-through setup, providing management connectivity to the ContrailVM.
To provide the control_data
interfaces, configure the SR-IOV-enabled
physical interfaces in the contrail_vm
section, and configure the
control_data
in the global section of vcenter_vars.yml
.
Upon provisioning ESXi hosts in the installation process, the SR-IOV interfaces are exposed as Ethernet interfaces in the ContrailVM.
Figure 6 shows a SR-IOV setup with a single control_data
interface.
The following is an example SR-IOV configuration for the cluster and
server configuration.
The cluster configuration:
vcenter_servers:
- SRV1:
hostname: <server>
username: <username>
password: <password>
datacentername: <datacenter>
clusternames:
- <cluster>
dv_switch:
dv_switch_name: <dvs_name>
dv_port_group:
dv_portgroup_name: <pg_name>
number_of_ports: <num_of_ports>
dv_switch_sr_iov:
dv_switch_name: <sriov_dvs_name>
dv_port_group_sriov:
dv_portgroup_name: <sriov_pg_name>
number_of_ports:
The server configuration:
esxihosts:
- name: <esxi_host>
username: <username>
password: <password>
datastore: <datastore>
vcenter_server: <server>
datacenter: <datacenter>
cluster: <cluster>
contrail_vm:
networks:
- mac: <mac_addr>
sr_iov_nics:
- 'vmnic0'
Figure 7 shows an SR-IOV configuration with a bond control_data
interface,
which has multiple SR-IOV NICs.
For Bond interface-configuration specify multiple NICs in sr_iov_nics,
and add required configuration for multi-interface and bond
configuration in vcenter_vars.yml
.
The cluster configuration:
vcenter_servers:
- SRV1:
hostname: <server>
username: <username>
password: <password>
datacentername: <datacenter>
clusternames:
- <cluster>
dv_switch:
dv_switch_name: <dvs_name>
dv_port_group:
dv_portgroup_name: <pg_name>
number_of_ports: <num_of_ports>
dv_switch_sr_iov:
dv_switch_name: <sriov_dvs_name>
dv_port_group_sriov:
dv_portgroup_name: <sriov_pg_name>
number_of_ports:
The server configuration:
esxihosts:
- name: <esxi_host>
username: <username>
password: <password>
datastore: <datastore>
vcenter_server: <server>
datacenter: <datacenter>
cluster: <cluster>
contrail_vm:
networks:
- mac: <mac_addr>
sr_iov_nics:
- 'vmnic0'
- 'vmnic1'