Understanding SDN Properties in the Cloud CPE Selfcare Application for MX Series Routers

This topic describes the SDN properties in the cCPE Selfcare Portal.

cCPE Selfcare Application enables you to configure Contrail-based virtual CPE services, which are hosted in your cloud computing environment, by defining SDN properties in the Selfcare Portal. cCPE Selfcare Application supports two types of SDN properties—specifically defined properties and global properties. Specifically defined properties apply only to a specific virtual service, customer, access link, or site. Global SDN properties apply to all virtual services, customers, access links, sites, and services. Unless you specifically define an SDN property value, cCPE Selfcare Application always uses the global SDN property value. Specifically defined SDN property values overwrite the value of the global SDN property only for the specified virtual service, customer, access link, or site.

When you enable a virtual service in the Selfcare Portal, cCPE Selfcare Application and Contrail exchange SDN property values. During this exchange, any SDN property values defined in braces { } in the Selfcare Portal, are replaced with the value defined in Contrail. Contrail then communicates with OpenStack, which instantiates the virtual service. cCPE Selfcare Application does not directly manipulate the VM instances through OpenStack; everything is mediated through the Contrail system.

SDN property values that include a –name entry are a special case. By default, if Contrail contains a value for the -name entry, cCPE Selfcare Application uses the Contrail value and does not change it. For example, if you set the property left-network-name to a value of {customer-name}-left and the customer name in Contrail is set to ExampleABC, the resulting property value is a unique name of ExampleABC-left.

Best Practice: We recommend that you always set –name property values to {customer-name}-property. Because cCPE customers can change the names of their sites and access links, there are no equivalent SDN properties for these fields in the Selfcare Portal. Instead, cCPE Selfcare Application uses the properties site-id and access-link-id because the values for these properties do not change unless you specifically change them. SDN property values are not configurable by cCPE customers.

SDN Properties

Table 1 describes the SDN properties supported in the Selfcare Portal.

Note: You must define values for all management- properties in the Selfcare Portal or you must define these parameter values in Contrail.

Caution: Do not delete any SDN properties. If you do, your virtual service may not launch properly.

Specifying Unique SDN Property Values for Virtual Services, Customers, Access Links, or Sites

You can specify unique values for SDN properties associated with a particular virtual service, customer, access link, or site. Any specifically defined property values override the global property value and apply only to the specific service, customer, access link, or site.

To define specific values to a SDN property, navigate to the respective customer, access link, or site page in the Selfcare Portal and modify the SDN property values from the Properties dialog box on that page.

For example, to specify unique properties to be used for a certain access link, navigate to Administration > Customer Management > Add Access Link. The Add Access Link page is displayed, an example of which is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Example - Access Link SDN Properties

From the Add Access Link page, you can select an SDN property and specify the value for it by selecting the Value field.

To add a new property for this access link, select the Add (+) icon. The Add Property dialog box is displayed, an example of which is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Example - Add Property Dialog Box

From the list of properties, select the name of the property you want to add, then select Add to add the property to the list properties shown on the Add Access Link page. Select the property from the list of properties and specify the value for the property in the Value field. Then, select Create to apply the property values.

Note: Remember, if you do not specify specific values for SDN properties, cCPE Selfcare Application always uses the global SDN property value and your virtual services may not instantiate properly.

SDN Property Evaluation

When you enable a virtual service in the Selfcare Portal, cCPE Selfcare Application and Contrail exchange SDN property values, during this exchange, several things occur:

• cCPE Selfcare Application evaluates all SDN property values in a specific order.
• Any SDN property values defined in braces { } in the Selfcare Portal are replaced with the value predefined in Contrail.
• Contrail then communicates with OpenStack, which instantiates the virtual service.

cCPE Selfcare Application evaluates SDN properties in the following order:

1. Target properties—Includes the username and password credentials for Contrail/OpenStack.
2. Tenant properties—Includes properties associated with Contrail tenants, such as the fully qualified name of the Contrail Project.
3. Customer properties—Includes customer-specific properties. For example, customer left, right, and management network names.
4. Site properties—Includes site-specific properties. For example, site-id.
5. Access link properties—Includes access link-specific properties. For example, the routing instance associated with the access link and subnet information.
6. Service definition properties—Includes service-specific properties. For example, the virtual service name the Selfcare Portal displays and the policies associated with the service.
7. Service instance properties—Includes properties that uniquely identify the service instance.

Note: During the SDN property exchange, cCPE Selfcare Application first evaluates the value of the global property. It then checks whether the property has a specifically defined value. Specifically defined property values always override global property values. In addition, during the property exchange process, any SDN property values defined in braces { } in the Selfcare Portal are replaced with the property value defined in Contrail.

The following two examples show how the property evaluation process works.

In Example 1, the final value of property1 is XXX123 because the value of property1 is overwritten with the value of {property2} based on the last line.

Example 1:

In Example 2, the final value of property1 is value4. Property1 is overwritten until Specific Site property1 is evaluated and, because value4 is not in braces, the value is not replaced.

Example 2:

Evaluating SDN Property Values for Sites with Multiple Access Links

When you enable a virtual service in the Selfcare Portal, cCPE Selfcare Application and Contrail exchange their SDN property values. cCPE Selfcare Application contains the customer information and the SDN service definition properties for the enabled virtual service. cCPE Selfcare Application generates a list of access links for that customer, including site and access link names.

By default, cCPE Selfcare Application attempts to enable the desired service per-routing instance, not per-access link. Therefore, if two access links share the same routing instance on the router, cCPE Selfcare Application only collects properties from one access link.