Demo overview

The purpose of this demo is to showcase NSO's ability to orchestrate multi-vendor cross-domain services for multiple tenants. NSO provisions both physical and virtual devices, leveraging ESC (Cisco's VNFM) to create service chains and manage the life-cycle of the VNFs. This demo uses a custom UI to visualise the network topology to help illustrate use cases such as device migration and service repair.

The end-to-end service

The demo uses a top-level hybrid service called tenant. Each tenant can have L3 VPN endpoints and NFVO service chains. These are configured using the l3vpn package (from the mpls-vpn standard example) and NFVO Core Function Pack respectively.

Endpoints are added to the VPN by choosing a CE device. NSO will automatically configure both the CE and PE devices. The configuration includes:

• The customer facing interface on CE.
• The VRF on the PE.
• VLAN, IP address and traffic shaping on the CE/PE interfaces.
• BGP as the CE/PE routing protocol.
• QoS configuration based on the policies and classes defined in NSO.

The following device types are supported:

• Cisco IOS
• Cisco IOS-XR
• Juniper Junos
• Nokia ALU-SR

For more information refer to the README file in the mpls-vpn example, located in <nso-install-dir>/examples.ncs/service-provider/mpls-vpn.

Service chains are instantiated according to their Network Service Descriptors. For more information refer to the NFVO documentation.

Network services will automatically be added to the topology according to their connection points. Where service chains contain routers which have been added to the topology, these can then be used in the VPN.

Demo UI

The demo UI displays the devices in NSO's device-list in a graphical topology, using the topology data from the mpls-vpn example that comes with NSO. On the left, a sidebar uses an accordion view to display the tenants. The tenants can be expanded to show their endpoints and network services.

Displaying the UI

From the NSO Web UI, the demo UI can be displayed by clicking the TME Demo tile in the Application hub, or using the TME Demo button on the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window.

Making changes

All changes made in the demo UI have to be explicitly committed. This can be done using the standard NSO Commit Manager. The shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window can be used to navigate between the Commit Manager and TME Demo UI.

There are also Commit and Revert buttons in the top right of header bar in the TME Demo UI. These buttons will instantly commit or revert changes with no confirmation. The Commit button is useful when wanting to quickly commit changes without showing the dry-run output.

Topology

The topology is split into different domains and each device and service chain belong to a domain. The default domains are:

• Data Center: This is where centralized VNFs can be placed (the hosted corporate service network service for example).
• Transport: This has the core and PE devices (the core devices are not configured as part of the demo). Service chains can also be placed here, in the case where they are distributed towards the edge of the network (vPE for example).
• Access: This is where access and aggregation devices would appear, there are no icons here by default.
• Customer: This has the CE / branch devices.

Devices

Devices are shown on the topology with blue router icons. Unreachable devices have a grey router icon. Device reachability and platform info is displayed in the device tooltip. The device types are as follows:

• Cisco IOS: All CEs
• Cisco IOS-XR: All DCIs, pe0 and pe1
• Juniper Junos: pe2
• Nokia ALU-SR: pe3

Service chains

By default, service chains are displayed on the topology collapsed into a single icon. Clicking the icon will expand the network service to show the VNFs and their connections. The state of each VNF is indicated by a colour overlay:

• Grey: Instantiating / deploying
• Yellow: Booting / starting
• Red: Error
• Full colour: Ready

Editing the topology

The topology can be edited directly from the UI by selecting the Edit Topology toggle in the bottom left corner of the topology window. In edit mode, all the icons can be moved by dragging them.

Connections can be created by first clicking a device icon, and then dragging the + button that appears to another device. Connections can be edited by first clicking the connection and then dragging an endpoint to another device. While dragging an endpoint for a new or existing connection, as the endpoint is hovered over a device icon, a green hue will appear to indicate the connection can be moved/created there.

Connections can be deleted by first clicking the connection and then pressing the red x button in the centre of the connection.

Note: Only connections between devices can be edited. Connections to or from network services can not be changed (and will appear grey when selected).

Changes to the topology need to be explicitly committed. To do this, the Commit button on the top header bar can be used to commit instantly without confirmation. And the Revert button can be used to undo any changes.

Sidebar

The sidebar displays the list of tenants. Each tenant has VPN endpoints and network services. These can be seen by clicking a tenant name. Each VPN endpoint and network service can also be expanded by clicking on it. From the sidebar, tenants, endpoints and network services can be created and deleted using the + and x buttons respectively. The values displayed in the sidebar cannot be edited directly, instead the ... buttons provide shortcuts to the NSO Configuration Editor to make changes.

Endpoints

VPN endpoints are created by dragging a CE device from the topology window to a tenant in the sidebar. The endpoint will be created under that tenant.

Note: When entering the endpoint details in the Configuration Editor, the ip-network must be unique. So if more than one endpoint is created, ensure the default value for the ip-network is changed.

Selecting a tenant in the sidebar will highlight the devices in the VPN on the topology with a blue hue.

Network Services

Network services are created by dragging the + button next to the tenant's Network Services header in the sidebar on to the topology window. The service chain icon will be created where the button is dropped.

The service chain will be created according to the Network Service Descriptor (NSD) chosen. Example NSDs included with the demo are virtual PE (vPE) and hosted corporate service. When choosing the vPE, it will be automatically connected to a CE device (ce7 by default). That CE can then be added to the VPN as usual, and the PE VNF will be configured. When choosing the hosted corporate service, this will be connected to the DCI devices. The default connections can be changed by setting alternative connections in the connection-points list.

Network services can be deleted by pressing the x button next to the network service in the sidebar.

Getting started

By default, the demo uses an entirely simulated environment, suitable for running on a laptop. The demo also supports using a real ESC device when the VIM is OpenStack.

Pre-requites

• NSO 5.1
• Java 8
• Python 2.7
• Node.js NPM 6.9
• Apache Ant
• GNU Make

Important: If running the demo on macOS with OpenSSH version 7.8 or newer, ensure that the NSO and NETSIM RSA keys have been re-generated in PEM format. See this post for more information:

https://community.cisco.com/t5/nso-developer-hub-discussions/netsim-getting-quot-no-supported-host-key-algorithms-quot-when/td-p/3843412

Dependencies

The demo is dependent on several packages. For the NED dependencies, many of these are automatically copied from the examples provided with the NSO installation. However the remaining packages must be obtained manually and copied to the packages directory:

Automatic dependencies (copied from <nso-install-dir>/packages/ned):

• cisco-ios-cli-3.8
• cisco-iosxr-cli-3.5
• juniper-junos-nc-3.0
• alu-sr-cli-3.4
• l3vpn (copied from <nso-install-dir>/examples.ncs/service-provider/mpls-vpn/packages)

Manual dependencies:

• cisco-asa [version 6.5.5]
• esc [version 4.3.0.2]
• tailf-etsi-rel2-nfvo [version 3.6]
• resource-manager [version 3.x]

Important: The correct version of each manual dependency package above must be copied to the packages directory and named exactly as above. These must be copied before compiling the demo.

Compiling the demo

The demo directory is a complete NSO running directory.

NSO must be installed. If the installation type is local, ensure ncsrc has been sourced.

> source <nso-install-dir>/ncsrc

Using a simulated ESC device

By default the demo will create a NETSIM network for all devices including ESC.

Change to the demo directory and run the all make target.

> cd ~/tme-demo
> make all

Using a real ESC device

Ensure the details in initial-data/real-esc.xml are correct. Run the all-real-esc make target instead of the all target.

> cd ~/tme-demo
> make all-real-esc

This will prevent the ESC NETSIM device being created and will create the ESC device in NSO using the initial-data/real-esc.xml file instead.

Compilation errors

After fixing any compilation errors (for example, if forgetting to re-generate the RSA keys before compiling the demo), ensure that the demo is rebuilt cleanly. This is important to ensure that all automated installation steps have been executed.

Use the clean target to delete the CDB and NETSIM network and clean the demo packages.

> make clean all

Use the deep-clean target to also clean all the dependent packages (usually not required).

Starting the demo

Use the start make target to start both NSO and the NETSIM environment. The first time the demo is started, the devices in NSO are synchronised automatically.

> make start

Stopping the demo

Use the stop make target to stop NSO and the NETSIM environment.

> make stop

Recommended demo steps

Below are the suggested steps to walk through the demo UI and showcase various NSO features related to service life-cycle management. Other NSO features such as device management and rollback are not covered here.

To display the demo UI, log into the NSO Web UI and click on the TME Demo tile in the Application hub.

Add a tenant

1. Click the + button next to the Tenants header in the sidebar. Enter a tenant name and click the > button. The newly created tenant will now be displayed in the NSO Configuration Editor.

   Note: If this is the first time the Configuration Editor has been displayed, open the View options menu on the right of the header bar and select full model.

2. Click the l3vpn container. Choose a qos-policy. The default route-distinguisher can be changed. Navigate back to the TME Demo using the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window.

Add physical endpoints

3. Drag ce2 from the topology window onto the tenant just created in the sidebar. Enter a name for the endpoint and click the > button. The newly created VPN endpoint will now be displayed in the NSO Configuration Editor. The default values can be changed. Navigate back to the TME Demo using the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window.

4. Repeat the previous step for ce4. This time ensure the ip-network is changed from the default value (this must be unique for each endpoint).

5. Navigate to the NSO Commit Manager using the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window. Observe the changes to the service model shown on the changes tab.

6. Click the config tab. These are the pending device model changes, in the NSO CDB, shown in the NSO internal format. NSO has taken the service intent (shown on the changes tab) and used this to calculate the configuration changes that are needed to each device in order to create the service.

   NSO looks up the PE connected to each CE and configures both devices. Scroll through the changes and observe that as well as changes to ce2 and ce4, the corresponding PEs, pe0 and pe2 are also configured.

7. Click the native config tab and scroll through the native configuration generated for each device. Observe that pe0 is Cisco IOS-XR CLI and pe2 is Juniper NETCONF XML.

   Note: The Commit Dry Run lets an engineer eyeball the changes before they’re sent.

8. Click the Commit button on the right side on the header bar, and choose Yes, commit from the confirmation dialog. NSO is now sending the changes, in parallel, to all devices that are affected by the transaction. If NSO fails to make the changes to any device then it will attempt to roll back the other device(s).

9. Navigate back to the TME Demo using the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window. If not already selected, click the tenant in the sidebar. Observe that pe0, pe2, ce2 and ce4 are highlighted with a blue hue. This indicates these devices have configuration changes belonging to the tenant.

Modify the service

10. Click the ... button next to the ce2 endpoint to display the endpoint in the NSO Configuration Editor. To demonstrate a simple change, update the bandwidth value and navigate to the NSO Commit Manager using the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window. Look at the config and native config tabs to see that NSO has calculated the minimal changes required to update the bandwidth. Click the Commit button on the right of the header bar and choose Yes, commit from the confirmation dialog to push the changes to the devices.

11. Repeat the previous step, but this time change the ce-device to ce1. The changes in the NSO Commit Manager show NSO is able to handle this more complex change by cleanly removing all the configuration from ce2, and applying new configuration to ce1, as well as updating the configuration on pe0 where necessary.

12. Finally, from the TME Demo UI click the ... button next to the tenant name in the sidebar to display the tenant in the NSO Configuration Editor. Click the l3vpn container and change the qos-policy. Navigate to the NSO Commit Manager using the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window. Look at the config and native config tabs to see that NSO has calculated the changes required to all devices in the VPN to apply the new QoS policy. Click the Commit button on the right of the header bar and choose Yes, commit from the confirmation dialog to apply the changes to all the devices.

    Navigate back to the TME Demo using the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window.

Redeploy the service

13. Imagine that there’s a problem with the link between ce4 and pe2, and ce4 is re-homed to pe3. The topology information in NSO needs updating to reflect that ce4 is now connected to pe3.

    Click the Edit Topology toggle button in the bottom left corner of the topology window. Click the connection between pe2 and ce4. Drag the pe2 endpoint to pe3. Click the Commit button on the right of the header bar. The topology information in the CDB has now been updated. Click the Edit Topology toggle button again to leave edit mode.

14. At this point the service is no longer operational because pe2 contains configuration that should be in pe3. The service can be repaired automatically using NSO's re-deploy feature. Click the redeploy button next to the tenant name in the sidebar (the tooltip for this button is Touch L3 VPN and go to Commit Manager). NSO uses the original service intent, and re-calculates what configuration is required in the network to satisfy the service intent.

15. Click on the config tab to show the differences between what’s actually configured and what would be needed for the service to be correctly configured. Scroll through the changes, showing the small change to ce4 (description) and the bigger changes to pe2 and pe3.

16. Click on the native config tab. This is showing the actual commands that will be sent to the devices to repair the service. Observe that pe3 is Nokia ALU-SR CLI and pe2 is Juniper NETCONF XML, so NSO is performing an automatic cross vendor migration to do this repair.

17. Click the Commit button on the right of the header bar and choose Yes, commit from the confirmation dialog to send the changes to the devices. Navigate back to the TME Demo using the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window.

Add a virtual PE

18. If not already selected, click the tenant in the sidebar. Drag the + button next to the Network Services header under the tenant in the sidebar onto the topology window. Drop the service chain icon in the Transport domain below pe2. Enter a name for the network service (for example vPE), and press the > button. The newly created network service will now be displayed in the Configuration Editor.

19. Choose one of the vPE NSDs from the nsd list and then select the flavour. Tick the use-default-connections checkbox in the connections-choice box. This will cause the service chain to be connected to p3 and ce7. Alternative connections can be used by entering the connection-points list manually.

20. Navigate back to the TME Demo using the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window. Click the Commit button on the right of the header bar.

    NSO is now spinning up the VNF(s), using ESC and OpenStack. This takes a few minutes while the VM(s) are deployed and booted. On a simulated ESC device, this only takes a few seconds.

21. Click the service chain to expand it and see the VNFs. The service chain will contain the CSR and additional VNFs depending on which NSD was chosen. Each VNF will change colour as it is instantiated.

    If using a real ESC instance, switch to the ESC UI to show the VNFs being deployed. Optionally, show the corresponding VM instances in the OpenStack Horizon dashboard.

    After a few minutes the topology links will appear. This indicates that the VNFs have all been instantiated successfully. Any managed devices (such as the CSR) have been added to NSO's device-list and synchronised, and the topology has been updated.

22. Finally, add ce7 to the VPN by dragging it from the topology window on to the tenant in the sidebar. Enter a name for the endpoint and click the > button. The newly created VPN endpoint will now be displayed in the NSO Configuration Editor. Change ip-network from the default value (this must be unique for each endpoint).

23. Navigate to the NSO Commit Manager using the shortcut bar at the bottom of the browser window. Click on the config and native config tabs. Observe that NSO is generating configuration for both ce7 and the CSR VNF (the name of the device will depend on tenant and endpoint names).

24. Click the Commit button on the right of the header bar and choose Yes, commit from the confirmation dialog to send the changes to the devices.

    NSO is now managing a hybrid, multi-vendor service, with both physical and virtual devices. NSO first instantiated the VNF and, in this last step, has pushed the day 1/service configuration.