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Providing Intent Driven Automation Capabilities on Physical Network Elements

This topic describes the design and implementation of extending the existing Contrail configuration node to provide intent driven automation capabilities on physical network elements such as ToR and EoR switches, Spines, SDN gateway, and VPN gateways in the data center.

Image Management

You can upload a new device image to the Contrail fabric or upgrade an existing device image of any device in the Contrail fabric.

Upload a New Device Image

Upload a New Device Image

Follow these steps to upload a new device image:

  1. Click Infrastructure>Fabrics>Images.

    The Device Images page is displayed.

  2. Click Upload.

    The Upload Image pop-up is displayed.

  3. Enter the following information given in Table 1.
    Table 1: Upload Image Details

    Field

    Action

    Name

    Enter a name for the device image.

    Pick a file

    Click Upload and navigate to the local directory and select the device image file.

    Click Open to confirm selection.

    Vendor Name

    Displays the name of the vendor.

    Device Family

    Select the device family from the list.

    Supported platforms

    Select the supported platforms from the list.

    OS version

    Enter the OS version.

    Image MD5

    (Optional) Enter MD5 image details.

    Image SHA1

    (Optional) Enter SHA1 image details.
  4. Click Upload to begin uploading the device image file.

    You are redirected to the Device Images page. When the image upload is complete, the device image is listed in Device Images page.

Upgrade an Existing Device Image

Follow these steps to upgrade an existing device image:

  1. Click the Upgrade icon.

    The Image Upgrade pop-up is displayed.

  2. From the Compatible Devices pane, select the device you want to upgrade by clicking the device display name.
    Note:

    You can select more than one device.

    The device you select is then moved to the Selected devices to image upgrade pane.

    Note:

    Devices that are compatible, based on device name and device family, are displayed in the Compatible Devices pane.

  3. Click Upgrade to start device image upgrade.

Fabric Management

You can manage a set of devices, bare metal servers (BMS), and physical network functions (PNF) in Contrail as a fabric. A fabric is a set of devices, and BMS and PNFs that fall under the same data center admin responsibility area. The fabric is linked to different role-based access control (RBAC) profiles for ease of administration and management.

You can provision greenfield devices and brownfield devices by using the Contrail Command user interface (UI).

Greenfield devices

You can provision new devices to form an IP Clos network. These devices are connected to a management network that is provisioned before device onboarding. The greenfield fabric workflow then zero-touch-provisions all factory-default devices to form an operational IP Clos network with underlay connectivity.

This greenfield fabric workflow includes playbooks that automate the fabric data model creation in the database, DHCP server configuration, generating device bootstrap configuration, uploading device bootstrap configuration to TFTP server, device discovery, node profile auto-assignment, device role assignment, and role-based auto configuration.

Brownfield devices

You can provision legacy devices or existing devices to form an IP Clos network. Unlike greenfield devices, brownfield devices are manually provisioned before device onboarding. The brownfield fabric workflow includes playbooks that automate the fabric data model creation in the database. You can perform basic device management functions such as image upgrade, device discovery, device underlay configuration, assign roles to devices, and view node profile information.

You can use the Contrail Command UI to:

Create a Fabric

You can create a new fabric by using the Contrail Command UI. Follow these steps to create a new fabric:

  1. Click Infrastructure>Fabrics.

    The Fabrics page is displayed.

  2. Click Create.

    You are prompted to select a provisioning option.

    • Click New Fabric (Beta) to deploy new (greenfield) devices.

    • Click Existing Fabric to import existing (brownfield) devices by discovery.

    Click Provision.

    The Create Fabric page is displayed.

  3. If you select New Fabric (Beta) as the provisioning option, enter the information as given in Table 2.
    Table 2: Provisioning Option - New Fabric (Beta)

    Field

    Action

    Name

    Enter a name for the fabric.

    Device credentials

    Enter root user password.

    Overlay ASN (iBGP)

    Enter an autonomous system (AS) number.

    The AS number can be in the range from 1 through 65535.

    Minimum devices to be ZTP'ed

    Enter the minimum number of devices you want zero-touch-provisioned (ZTP’ed).

    Node profiles

    Add node profiles.

    You can add more than one node profile.

    All preloaded node profiles are added to the fabric by default. You can remove a node profile by clicking X on the node profile. For more information, see View Node Profile Information .

    Management subnets

    Enter the following information to auto-assign management IP addresses to devices:

    CIDR—Enter CIDR network address.

    Gateway—Enter gateway address.

    Underlay ASNs (eBGP)

    Enter autonomous system (AS) number in the range from 1 through 65535.

    • Enter minimum value in ASN From field.

    • Enter maximum value in ASN To field.

    Fabric subnets (CIDR)

    Enter fabric CIDR address.

    Note:

    Fabric subnets are used to assign IP addresses to interfaces that connect to leaf or spine devices.

    Loopback subnets (CIDR)

    Enter loopback subnet address.

    Note:

    Loopback subnets are used to auto-assign loopback IP addresses to the fabric devices.
  4. If you select Existing Fabric as the provisioning option, enter the information as given in Table 3.
    Table 3: Provisioning Option - Existing Fabric

    Field

    Action

    Name

    Enter a name for the fabric.

    Username

    Enter a username for the device.

    Password

    Enter a password for the device.

    Overlay ASN (iBGP)

    Enter an autonomous system (AS) number.

    The AS number can be in the range from 1 through 65535.

    Node profiles

    Add node profiles.

    You can add more than one node profile.

    All preloaded node profiles are added to the fabric by default. You can remove a node profile by clicking X on the node profile. For more information, see View Node Profile Information.

    Management subnets

    Enter the following information:

    CIDR—Enter CIDR network address.

    Gateway—Enter gateway address.

    Note:

    You enter the CIDR address range in the Management subnets field to search for devices. Any device that has a previously configured management IP on the subnet is discovered.

    Underlay ASNs (eBGP)

    Enter autonomous system (AS) number in the range from 1 through 65535.

    • Enter minimum value in ASN From field.

    • Enter maximum value in ASN To field.

    Fabric subnets (CIDR)

    Enter fabric CIDR address.

    Note:

    Fabric subnets are used to assign IP addresses to interfaces that connect to leaf or spine devices.

    Loopback subnets (CIDR)

    Enter loopback address.

    Note:

    Loopback subnets are used to auto-assign loopback IP addresses to the fabric devices.
  5. Click Next.

    The Discovered devices page is displayed.

Delete a Fabric

You can delete a fabric by using the Contrail Command UI. Follow these steps to delete a fabric:

  1. Click Fabrics.

    The Fabrics page is displayed.

  2. Select the fabric you want removed by selecting the check box next to the name of fabric.
    Note:

    Contrail Release 5.0.1 does not support bulk deletion of fabric.

  3. Click the Delete icon at the end of the row to delete a fabric.

    The Delete confirmation pop-up is displayed.

  4. Click Delete to confirm.

Discover a Device

Device discovery is initiated as soon as you click Next on the Fabrics page. The Device discovery progress bar on the Discovered devices page displays the progress of the device discovery job. The list of devices discovered is listed in the Discovered devices page.

You can add a discovered device to the fabric by following these steps:

  1. Select the device you want to add by selecting the check box next to the device name.
    Note:

    You can select more than one device.

  2. Click Add.

    The device is added to the fabric.

Click Next to assign roles.

The Assign to devices page is displayed.

Assign Role to a Device

You can assign roles to the devices from the Assign to devices page.

Follow these steps to assign roles to devices:

  1. Select the device you want to assign a role to by selecting the check box next to the device name.
  2. Click the Assign icon at the end of the row to assign roles.
    Note:

    To assign roles to more than one device at a time, select the devices by selecting the check box next to the device name and then click Assign Role.

    The Assign role to devices pop-up is displayed.

  3. Select a physical role type from the Physical Role list.
    Note:

    Contrail Release 5.0.1 supports only leaf and spine physical underlay roles.

  4. Select a routing bridging role from the Routing Bridging Role list.
    Note:

    Contrail Release 5.0.1 supports CRB-Access, CRB-Gateway, and DC-Gateway overlay roles. Contrail Release 5.1 supports the ERB-UCAST-Gateway and CRB-MCAST-Gateway roles. For more information, see Centrally-Routed Bridging Overlay Design and Implementation.

  5. Click Assign to confirm.
  6. Click Autoconfigure to initiate the auto-configuration job.

    The Autoconfigure page is displayed.

Manage Device Configuration

After you assign device roles, you initiate the auto-configuration job by clicking Autoconfigure on the Assign to devices page. The Autoconfigure progress bar on the Discovered devices page displays the progress of the auto-configuration job.

Once the auto-configuration job is completed, click Finish.

View Node Profile Information

You can view basic device information, vendor information, vendor hardware information, supported routing bridging roles, supported physical roles, assigned devices, and node permission information of a node on the Node Profiles page of the Contrail Command UI.

Follow these steps to view node profiles:

  1. Click Infrastructure>Fabrics>Node Profiles.

    The Node Profiles page is displayed.

  2. Select the node profile you want to view by clicking the arrow next to the node profile name.

    The details and permissions of the node profile are displayed.

By default, all preloaded node profiles are available for devices in a fabric.

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