Configuring Underlay Network for ContrailVM
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.
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. See Figure 5.
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'