Understanding How to Set Up OVSDB Connections on a Juniper Networks Device
The Juniper Networks Junos OS implementation of the Open vSwitch Database (OVSDB) management protocol provides a means through which Juniper Networks devices that support OVSDB can communicate with software-defined networking (SDN) controllers. A Juniper Networks device exchanges control and statistical data with each SDN controller to which it is connected.
You can connect a Juniper Networks device to more than one SDN controller for redundancy.
In a VMware NSX environment, one cluster of NSX controllers typically includes three or five controllers. To implement the OVSDB management protocol on a Juniper Networks device, you must explicitly configure a connection to one SDN controller, using the Junos OS CLI. If the SDN controller to which you explicitly configure a connection is in a cluster, the controller pushes information about other controllers in the same cluster to the device, and the device establishes connections with the other controllers. However, you can also explicitly configure connections with the other controllers in the cluster, using the Junos OS CLI.
To implement the OVSDB management protocol on a Juniper Networks device in a Contrail environment, you must configure a connection to a Contrail controller, using the Junos OS CLI.
Connections to all SDN controllers are made on the management interface of the Juniper Networks device. To set up a connection between a Juniper Networks device and an SDN controller, you need to configure the following parameters on the Juniper Networks device:
IP address of the SDN controller.
The protocol that secures the connection. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is the supported protocol.
Note:The SSL connection requires a private key and certificates, which must be stored in the /var/db/certs directory of the Juniper Networks device. See Creating and Installing an SSL Key and Certificate on a Juniper Networks Device for Connection with SDN Controllers.
Number of the port over which the connection is made. The port number of the default port is 6632.
Optionally, you can configure the following connection timers on the Juniper Networks device:
Inactivity probe duration—The maximum amount of time, in milliseconds, that the connection can be inactive before an inactivity probe is sent. The default value is 0 milliseconds, which means that an inactivity probe is never sent.
Maximum backoff duration—If an attempt to connect to an SDN controller fails, the maximum amount of time, in milliseconds, before the device can make the next attempt. The default value is 1000 milliseconds.