Prerequisites to Onboard Virtual Network Functions on NFX350 Devices

To onboard VNFs on NFX350, the device must be on either Hybrid mode or Compute mode. The number of VNFs that you can onboard on the device depends on the system resources such as CPUs and system memory that are available on the mode that the device is operating. For more information about the performance modes, see NFX350 Overview.

Before you onboard the VNF, check the following NFX350 device capabilities:

• Check the current performance mode of the device by using the show vmhost mode command. The NFX350 device must be in either Compute or Hybrid mode when you run the show vmhost mode command.

• Check the available system memory by using the show system visibility memory command.

  Table 1 lists the possible memory availability for VNF usage for the NFX350 models.

  Table 1: Memory Availability for VNF Usage (Junos OS 19.4R1 Release)

  Model	Total System Memory	Hugepages Availability for VNF Usage
  NFX350-S1	32 GB	7 1G hugepages
  NFX350-S2	64 GB	23 1G hugepages
  NFX350-S3	128 GB	62 1G hugepages

• Check the available CPUs and its status by using the show system visibility cpu command. Use the show vmhost mode command to check the available CPUs in the current performance mode of the device.

  Table 2 lists the CPUs available for VNF usage for the NFX350 models.

  Table 2: CPUs Available for VNF Usage (Junos OS 19.4R1 Release)

  Model	CPUs Available for VNF Usage
  	Throughput Mode	Hybrid Mode	Compute Mode
  NFX350-S1	0	8	10
  NFX350-S2	0	10	14
  NFX350-S3	0	14	20

  Note:

  When you change the performance mode of the device, it is recommended to check the availability of the CPUs for VNFs.

For more information, see Configuring VNFs on NFX350 Devices.

To onboard a VNF on an NFX350 device, the following VNF properties should be met:

• KVM based hypervisor deployment

• OVS or Virtio interface drivers

• raw or qcow2 VNF file types

• Support of up to a maximum of 8 user interfaces

Following are the optional prerequisites to onboard a VNF:

• (Optional) SR-IOV

• (Optional) CD-ROM and USB configuration drives

• (Optional) Hugepages for memory requirements if VNF wants to access OVS.

To validate and qualify the VNFs, you must ensure the following:

• The configuration commit succeeds for the VNF.

• The show virtual-network-functions command output displays the VNF entry.

• The show system visibility vnf command output displays the VNF properties and interfaces that are configured.

• The show vmhost network nfv-back-plane command displays all interfaces that are connected to the OVS bridges with the state up/up. The show system visibility network command displays all the VNF interfaces.

• Connection to the console of the VNF succeeds and VNF boot up or login prompt is displayed.

• When you are logged into the VNF, use the request virtual-network-function console command for the VNF to display all the interfaces that are configured.

• The show virtual-network-functions command lists the VNF that are alive when the internal management interface is configured with DHCP client inside the VNF.

• VNF interfaces on the OVS bridge show tx/rx statistics when the traffic is ingressed or egressed from the VNF.

• VNF should restart successfully when a restart is initiated from within the VNF or by using the request virtual-network-functions restart vnf-name command.

For sample configuration of third-party VNFs, see Example: Configuring Service Chaining for LAN to WAN Routing through Third-party VNFs on NFX350 Devices.