1. Cloudstack networking (part 2)
Hiroaki KAWAI
<kawai@stratosphere.co.jp>
<kawai@apache.org>

2. Cloudstack “SDN” approach
• Pluggable Network modules
▫ There are many “SDN” related plugins
Open vSwitch
Nicira NVP, BigSwitch VNS, Midokura midonet
▫ The modules replace the “default” or “builtin” behavior
▫ The combination of the replacement depends on
configuration.
“NetworkOffering”
Cloudstack global configuration
Springframework configuration files

3. Cloudstack “SDN” approach
• Pluggable Network modules
▫ There are many “SDN” related plugins
Open vSwitch
Nicira NVP, BigSwitch VNS, Midokura midonet
▫ The modules replace the “default” or “builtin” behavior
▫ The combination of the replacement depends on
configuration.
“NetworkOffering”
Cloudstack global configuration
Springframework configuration files

4. Network plugins
• 10 plugins in master (4.2)
▫ Bigswitch-vns
▫ Cisco-vnmc
▫ Elastic-loadbalancer
▫ F5
▫ Internal-loadbalancer
▫ Juniper-srx
▫ Midonet
▫ Netscaler
▫ Nicira-nvp
▫ ovs

5. Open vSwitch and cloudstack

6. Open vSwitch is...
• Virtual Openflow-“hybrid” switch
▫ Multiple instances (datapath)
▫ Openflow capable
Can connect to openflow controllers
▫ “Normal” switch
Port vlan tagging
MAC-learning

7. Open vSwitch also runs as...
• Standalone switch
▫ With openflow flow rule
“Proactive” flow rule
▫ Without connection to controller
▫ ovs-vsctl : to setup a switch configuration
▫ ovs-ofctl : to manupilate openflow flow rules
• In Linux
▫ It looks like a “bridge” device

8. Open vSwitch in cloudstack 4.1
• Two use cases
▫ OVS as a built-in switch
▫ OVS as a L2 tunneling module

9. As a built-in switch
• Cloudstack use VLAN for VM network isolation
▫ Vlan tagging feature
Open vSwitch
VM
VLAN
tagging
Hypervisor
(XenServer, KVM)
Open vSwitch
VM
No need to create an extra netdev : eth0.23
This feature is enabled by computing node's local configuration

10. L2 tunneling module
• Cloudstack sets up a GRE mesh network
▫ GRE tunnel ports
VM
Open vSwitch
OVS
OVS
OVS
OVS
4 GRE ports
(TEP)
hypervisor
(XenServer)
This feature is enabled by cloudstack global configuration and xenserver setup.

11. Cloudstack & Open vSwitch
• Cloudstack focues on:
▫ Creation of virtual switch (bridge)
▫ Wiring (pluggin the nic)
▫ No direct “openflow”
So you can connect your controller while running
cloudstack

12. Ecosystem (networking)

13. Plugins provide “services”
elastic
loadbalancer
f5
internal
loadbalancer
netscaler
cisco
vnmc
juniper
srx
midonet
nicira
nvp
bigswitch
vns
ConnectivityFirewall
Loadbalancer
StaticNat
PortForwarding
SourceNat
Gateway
stratosphre
ssp

14. SDN products
• Examples are:
▫ Nicira NVP, Big switch VNS, etc
• Centralized network configuration
• “Connectivity” service to solve problems with VLAN
▫ Number of isolation : only 4K ids (max)
▫ Broadcast traffic spreads over all trunk ports
▫ Route tromboning – spanning tree

15. Connectivity
• Default behavior
VM VM
iptables, ebtables vlanor
Cloudstack
Cloudstack sets up “security groups” or “vlan isolation”

16. Connectivity plugin
VM VM
Cloudstack
Stratosphere ssp
Service api
Cloudstack plugin
calls service api
then, the service sets up
“connectivity” environment
• Replaced
Here we use
“Openflow”
for optimization

17. Loadbalancer
• Products
▫ F5, Netscalar
• Building blocks
▫ Easy to understand, configure, use
• Good performance
▫ There may be special hardware support

18. Loadbalancer
• default “VirtualRouter” system VM
Load Balancer
(Virtual Router)
VM
bridge bridge
VM
Cloudstack
VirtualRouter is a regular
system VM

19. Loadbalancer
• Dedicated hardware
NetScalar MPX
bridge
VM
bridge
VM
CloudstackThe plugin sends
setup commands

20. Any Questions?