Underlay Network Configuration for Containerized ContrailVM

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.

Figure 1: Standard Switch Setup

To set up the ContrailVM in this mode, the standard switch and port group must be configured in the server JSON configuration.

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 interface script is updated with the IP address as specified in the server JSON. Additional configuration such as static routes and bond interface can be configured in the server JSON in Server Manager.

The following is an example of server configuration in Server Manager with standard switch.

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. The DVS configuration for control_data and mgmt is provided in the cluster JSON configuration in Server Manager. When the DVS configuration is specified, the standard switch configuration is ignored.

Figure 2: Distributed Switch Setup

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 the cluster JSON configuration.

The following is an example distributed switch configuration in cluster JSON.

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.

Figure 3: PCI Pass-Through with 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:

Figure 4 shows a PCI pass-through setup with a bond_control data interface, which has multiple pass-through NICs.

Figure 4: PCI Pass-Through Setup with Bond Control Interface

Update the ContrailVM section in server JSON configuration with pci_devices as shown in the following example. Refer to the Server Manager documentation for bond interface-configuration in server JSON configuration.

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.

Figure 5: SR-IOV Setup

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. For more information, refer to VMware’s SR-IOV Component Architecture and Interaction.

The port-group is created as part of provisioning; however, before the provisioning, the distributed virtual switch (DVS) for the port-group should be created by the user.

To set up the ContrailVM with SR-IOV interfaces, all JSON file configurations used for the standard switch setup are also used for the pass-through setup, providing the 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 JSON file.

Configure the port group (dv_port_group_sr_iov) and the DVS (dv_switch_sr_iov) in the cluster JSON configuration in Server Manager.

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.

Figure 6: SR-IOV With Single Control Data Interface

The following is an example SR-IOV configuration for the cluster and server configuration.

The cluster configuration:

The server configuration:

Figure 7 shows an SR-IOV configuration with a bond control_data interface, which has multiple SR-IOV NICs.

Figure 7: SR-IOV With Bond Control Data Interface

For Bond interface-configuration specify multiple NICs in sr_iov_nics, and add required configuration for multi-interface and bond configuration in server JSON configuration as specified in Server Manager documentation.

The cluster configuration:

The server configuration: