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Installing and Provisioning VMware vCenter with Containerized Contrail

Overview: Integrating Contrail 4.0.1 and Greater with vCenter Server

This topic describes how to install and provision Contrail Release 4.0.1 and later (containerized Contrail) with vCenter server. Contrail Release 4.0.1 is the first release of containerized Contrail that can also be used with VMware vCenter. The Contrail VMware vCenter solution has the following main components:

Control and management that runs the following components as needed per Contrail system:
- A VMware vCenter Server independent installation that is not managed by Juniper Networks Contrail. The Contrail software provisions vCenter with Contrail components and creates entities required to run Contrail.
- The Contrail controller, including the configuration nodes, control nodes, analytics, database, and Web UI, which are installed, provisioned, and managed by Contrail software.
- A VMware vCenter plugin provided with Contrail. Starting with Contrail Release 4.0.1, the contrail-vcenter-plugin runs in a Docker container. During provisioning, additional server roles are added for contrail-vcenter-plugin and contrail-vcenter-compute.
VMware ESXi virtualization platforms forming the compute cluster, with Contrail data plane (vRouter) components running inside an Ubuntu-based virtual machine. The virtual machine, named ContrailVM, forms the compute personality while performing Contrail installs. The ContrailVM is set up and provisioned by Contrail. There is one ContrailVM running on each ESXi host.

Different Modes of vCenter Integration with Contrail

The vCenter integrated Contrail solution has the following modes:

vCenter-only
vCenter-as-compute

vCenter-Only Mode

In the vCenter-only mode, vCenter is the main orchestrator, and Contrail is integrated with vCenter for the virtual networking.

Figure 1 shows the Contrail vCenter-only solution.

Figure 1: Contrail vCenter-Only Solution

vCenter-as-Compute Mode

In the vCenter-as-compute mode, OpenStack is the main orchestrator, and the vCenter cluster, along with the managed ESXi hosts, act as a Nova compute node to the OpenStack orchestrator.

Figure 2 shows the Contrail vCenter-as-compute solution.

Figure 2: Contrail vCenter-as-Compute Solution

Preparing the Installation Environment

Use the standard containerized Contrail installation procedure using Server Manager to install Contrail components in cluster nodes.

Follow the steps in Installing Containerized Contrail Clusters Using Server Manager.

Note: Refer to the sample JSONs for Contrail vCenter in Sample JSON Configuration Files for vCenter with Containerized Contrail 4.0.1 and Greater.

Installation for vCenter-Only Mode

This section lists the basic installation procedure and the assumptions and prerequisites necessary before starting the installation of any VMware vCenter Contrail integration.

Note: To ensure you are using the correct versions of all software for your specific system, refer to the Supported Platforms section in the release notes for your release of Contrail .

Installation: Assumptions and Prerequisites

The following assumptions and prerequisites are required for a successful installation of a VMware vCenter Contrail integrated system:

VMware vCenter Server
A cluster of ESXi hosts with VMware
The following software installation packages:
- The contrail-vcenter-docker_x.x.x.x-x_trusty.tgz for Ubuntu 14.04
  The contrail-vcenter-docker_4.0.1.0-40_xenial.tgz for Ubuntu 16.04.
- Tar file of the OVF image of ContrailVM
Because a Contrail vRouter runs as a virtual machine on each ESXi host, it needs an IP address assigned from the same underlay network as the host, all of which must be specified appropriately in the server JSON configuration. Refer to the section Underlay Network Configuration for Containerized ContrailVM for ContrailVM IP fabric connectivity.

Installing the vCenter-Only Components

Follow the steps in this section to install the Contrail for vCenter-only components. See sample image, server, and cluster JSON configuration files for Contrail vCenter in Sample JSON Configuration Files for vCenter with Containerized Contrail 4.0.1 and Greater for specific examples.

ContrailVM IP fabric connectivity can be configured in various ways. See Underlay Network Configuration for Containerized ContrailVM for more information. The ContrailVM is created as part of Ansible-provisioning triggered from Server Manager. The IP address or MAC address for the ContrailVM is specified in the server JSON. Configure the DHCP server, allocating IP addresses to the cluster nodes, with static mapping of the MAC to IP address in DHCP server. The server_manager or smlite version of the Server Manager can be used for provisioning the Contrail cluster with a vcenter-as-orchestrator node. Ensure that the image is added to the Server Manager, and the servers and cluster configurations are added to the Server Manager. Point to the installation using Server Manager or SMLite.

Ensure that openstack_sku is configured as “vcenter” in the image JSON. See Sample JSON Configuration Files for vCenter with Containerized Contrail 4.0.1 and Greater.
Ensure that orchestrator is set to “vcenter” in the cluster JSON. See Sample JSON Configuration Files for vCenter with Containerized Contrail 4.0.1 and Greater.
Add the image to Server Manager:
server-manager add image –f <path_to_image_json>
Add the cluster configuration to the Server Manager:
server-manager add cluster –f <path_to_cluster_json>
Add the server configuration to the Server Manager:
server-manager add server –f <path_to_server_json>
Use one of the following commands to provision Contrail clusters.
- To provision a Contrail cluster using server-manager:
  server-manager provision –cluster_id <cluster_id> <contrail_image>
- To provision a Contrail cluster using SMLite:
  Cd /opt/contrail/contrail_server_manager
  ./provision_containers.sh –j <json file path having image/cluster/server params>
  When using SMLite installation, the single JSON file must include image, cluster, and server configurations. See Installing Containerized Contrail Using Server Manager Lite (SM-Lite).

Installation for vCenter-as-Compute Mode

This section lists the basic installation procedure and the assumptions and prerequisites necessary before starting the installation of any VMware vCenter-as-compute Contrail integration.

Note: To ensure you are using the correct versions of all software for your specific system, see the Supported Platforms section in the Release Notes for your release of Contrail .

Installation: Assumptions and Prerequisites

The following assumptions and prerequisites are required for a successful installation of a VMware vCenter containerized Contrail integrated system:

VMware vCenter Server 6.0 or 6.5
A cluster of ESXi hosts with VMware
The following software installation packages:
- The contrail-cloud-docker_x.x.x.x-x-mitaka_trusty.tgz for Ubuntu14.04
- The contrail-cloud-docker_x.x.x.x-x-newton_xenial.tgz for Ubuntu 16.04
- Tar file of the OVF image of ContrailVM
Because a Contrail vRouter runs as a virtual machine on each ESXi host, it needs an IP address assigned from the same underlay network as the host, all of which must be specified appropriately in the testbed.py file. Refer to Underlay Network Configuration for Containerized ContrailVM for ContrailVM IP fabric connectivity.

For the vCenter-as-compute mode, an additional role of ‘contrail-vcenter-compute’ is required, specified as [‘contrail-vcenter_compute’] in the server JSON configuration in Server Manager. Nodes configured as contrail-vcenter_compute act as the nova-compute nodes in this mode.

Installing the vCenter-as-Compute Components

Ensure that the contrail-vcenter-compute role is defined in the server JSON. The installation or provisioning of the vcenter-as-compute cluster is the same as specified in the vcenter-as-orchestrator using Server Manager. Refer to the sample JSON files in Sample JSON Configuration Files for vCenter with Containerized Contrail 4.0.1 and Greater.

Verification

When the provisioning step completes, run the contrail-status command on all nodes to view a health check of the Contrail configuration and control components. All components display as active when provisioned successfully.

Adding Hosts or Nodes

You can add some vCenter features to existing installations, including:

Adding an ESXi host
Adding a vCenter cluster

Adding an ESXi Host to an Existing vCenter Cluster

You can provision and add an ESXi host to an existing vCenter cluster.

To add an ESXi host, add the server JSON configuration for the new contrail-compute server role in the Server Manager and run the following server-manager provision command for the cluster:

server-manager provision –cluster_id <cluster_id> <image_id>

Note: The server-manager provision command also works for server-manager smlite version.

Adding a vCenter Cluster to vCenter-as-Compute

Use this procedure to add a vCenter cluster to a vCenter-as-compute system to an existing cluster. Ensure that you have provisioned and added all of the ESXI hosts, as described in the previous procedure Adding an ESXI Host to an Existing vCenter Cluster.

To set up and add a vCenter compute node, add the server JSON configuration for the new server having the contrail-vcenter-compute role in Server Manager and run the following server-manager provision command for the cluster: