OpenFlow Switch Management using NETCONF and YANG

Carl Moberg, VP Technical Marketingcalle@tail-f.com, @cmoberg

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What You Should Come Away With

• Understanding of IETF NETCONF protocol and YANG language and it’s major features and benefits

• Understanding of ONF OF-CONFIG specification and it’s moving parts

• Advantages to the combination of these technologies for Network Managers and Equipment Providers

• New thoughts on the future of automated network management!

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Complexity of service provisioning exploding

Customers expect fast and faultless turn-up of services

Faster time-to-market expectations

Introducing Tail-f Systems

VoiceServices

VideoServices

MobileBackhaul

Business Ethernet

Network Equipment Providers

• Reduce development time and project risk

• Provide more complete operations management solutions

• Off-load core platform management development to allow focus on areas of product differentiation

Service Providers

• Innovate and differentiate on service offerings

• Reduce OPEX through automating configuration management systems and processes

• Drive customer retention through operational excellence

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A Brief History of NETCONF and YANG

• 2001: Network Management Roadshow• 2002: Internet Architecture Board (IAB) Workshop on

Network Management

“The workshop recommends, with strong consensus from both protocol developers and operators, that the IETF focus resources on the standardization of configuration management mechanisms.”

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What NETCONF and YANG is and isn’t

• The NETCONF protocol is a formal application programming interface (API) that allows configuration data information to be retrieved and manipulated

• The YANG data modeling language is used to model configuration and state data manipulated by NETCONF

• NETCONF is not replacing CORBA/SOAP/REST; it provides full set of semantics for configuration management

• YANG is not replacing XSD/RelaxNG/WSDL; it provides many features specific to configuration management

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NETCONF Key Features

• Distinct difference between configuration and operational data

• Rich configuration management semantics including validation, rollbacks and transactions

• Extensible protocol based on capabilities exchange

More information:• RFC 6241• netconfcentral.org • slideshare.net

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YANG Key Features

• A complete description of API between a NETCONF client and server

• A hierarchy of data including configuration, state, Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs), and notifications

• Syntax is compact and optimized for human readers

More information:• RFC 6020• yang-central.org • slideshare.net

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Who Is Using It

Equipment Vendors

• Brocade (MLX, NetIron)• Ericsson (SEA 20)• Cisco (IOS, IOS-XE)• H3C (S9500E)• Huawei (AR x200)• Juniper (JUNOS >7.5)• Sonus (NBS 5200)• Verivue (MDX 9020)

SDOs

• IETF– Drives standard

• CableLabs– CCAP (Next-gen CMTS)

• MEF– FM, PM, and services

• ONF(!)– OF-CONFIG

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OpenFlow Architecture Overview

Controller

Switch

Switch

Switch

Switch

OpenFlow Protocol

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Introducing OF-CONFIG

• “The motivation for the OpenFlow Configuration Protocol (OF-CONFIG) is to enable the remote configuration of OpenFlow datapaths”

• Provides basic abstractions of OpenFlow functions

• “OF-CONFIG1.1 requires that devices supporting OFCONFIG 1.1 MUST implement NETCONF protocol as the transport.”

Controller

Operation Context

Configuration Point

SwitchSwitchSwitch

OpenFlowProtocol

OF-CONFIG(NETCONF)

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The Building Blocks

• Configuration Point– Configures set of

Capable Switches

• Capable Switch– Managed entity

containing set of Logical Switches

• Logical Switch– A set of resources

managed by Controller

Configuration Point

Logical Switch

OF-CONFIG(NETCONF)

Resource(e.g. Port)

Resource(e.g. Port)

Logical Switch

Resource(e.g. Port)

Resource(e.g. Port)

...

Controller

OpenFlow Capable Switch

OpenFlowProtocol

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Bringing it Together

• OF-CONFIG includes full YANG model

• Implementations immediately benefit from:– Standard protocol and

language– Formal API definition– NETCONF feature set

Configuration Point

Switch Switch

Switch

•Validation•Rollback•Transactions

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Introducing Tail-f NCS

• Network abstraction engine• Data-model driven• Multi-vendor support• Device and service models

Netconf

SNMP

CLI

WS

ConfD NETCONF

SNMPOther

NET-CONF

CLI RESTJAVA /

JavaScriptWEB

UISNMP

NCS ServiceModels

Network EngineerOSS/BSS EMS/NMS

Device Manager

DeviceModels

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NCS as an OpenFlow Switch Manager

NET-CONF

CLI RESTJAVA /

JavaScriptWEB

UISNMP

NCS ServiceModels

Network EngineerOSS/BSS EMS/NMS

OF-CONFIG Manager

OF-CONFIGYANG

Module

• Import OF-CONFIG modules!• No code needed• All northbound interfaces• NETCONF feature set

– Validation– Rollback– Transactions

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Example Use Case #2Bringing up new logical switch

1. Import OF-CONFIG YANG

2. Regenerate Interfaces

3. Set up connectivity to switches

4. Use CLI to bring up logical switch

5. ...or REST

NETCONFCLI REST

NCS

Network Engineer EMS/NMS

Device Manager

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Example Use Case #2Bringing up new separated virtual network (set of logical switches)

1. Import OF-CONFIG YANG

2. Regenerate Interfaces

3. Set up connectivity to switches

4. Bring up candidate configuration for logical switches across switches

5. Validate configuration

6. Use NETCONF confirmed commit for transactions

NETCONFCLI REST

NCS

Network Engineer EMS/NMS

Device Manager

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Conclusion

• OF-CONFIG leverages open and standardized NETCONF and YANG for switch management

• Formal model and well-known protocol reduces time to market and risk for network equipment provides

• Open, well defined API reduces implementation cost and risk for network management teams at service providers

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Wrap-up and Questions

• Feel free to reach out at:– Carl Moberg <calle@tail-f.com>– follow or DM me on @cmoberg on twitter

• ...for any configuration management questions

• Follow us on:– www.tail-f.com– LinkedIn (company page, NETCONF and YANG Users Group)