Revision as of 13:30, 26 November 2014

Overview

Mellanox Neutron ML2 Driver

Mellanox ML2 Mechanism Driver implements the ML2 Plugin Mechanism Driver API.

This driver supports Mellanox embedded switch functionality as part of the VPI (Ethernet/InfiniBand) HCA. Mellanox ML2 Mechanism Driver provides functional parity with Mellanox Neutron plugin.

Mellanox ML2 Mechanism Driver supports DIRECT (pci passthrough) and MACVTAP (virtual interface with a tap-like software interface) vnic types. For vnic type configuration API details, please refer to configuration reference guide (click here). Hardware vNICs mapped to the guest VMs allow higher performance and advanced features such as RDMA (remote direct memory access).

The driver supports VLAN network type to facilitate virtual networks either on Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics.

• Mellanox OpenStack Neutron Agent (L2 Agent) runs on each compute node.

• Agent should apply VIF connectivity based on mapping between a VIF (VM vNIC) and Embedded Switch port.

Mellanox Neutron Plugin

Please note, Mellanox Plug-in is deprecated in the Icehouse release and won't be supported in the Juno release. The features in the plug-in are now part of the ML2 plug-in in the form of Mellanox mechanism driver.

For details regarding Mellanox Neutron plugin, please refer to https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Mellanox-Neutron-Havana-Redhat.

Mellanox Nova VIF Driver

The Mellanox Nova VIF driver should be used when running Mellanox Mechnism Driver. The VIF driver supports the VIF plugin by binding vNIC of type DIRECT to the embedded switch port. VIF Driver for MACVTAP type is included in Nova libvirt generic vif driver. For SR-IOV pass-through (vnic type DIRECT) one needs to use VIF driver from Mellanox git repository or RPM.

Prerequisites

• A running OpenStack environment installed with the ML2 plugin on top of OVS.
• All nodes equipped with Mellanox ConnectX®-3 Network Adapter (http://www.mellanox.com/page/products_dyn?product_family=119)
• Mellanox OFED 2.2 or greater installed on all nodes. Please refer to Mellanox website for the latest OFED: http://www.mellanox.com/page/products_dyn?product_family=26&mtag=linux_sw_drivers
• SR-IOV enabled on all compute nodes. For more information, please refer to Mellanox Community click here.
• The software package iproute2 - (http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/iproute2 ) installed on all Compute nodes
• VLANs configured on the ports in the switch.

Ethernet Network

Neutron Server Node

Installation

1. Make sure ML2 plugin is the current Neutron plugin by checking core_plugin option in /etc/neutron/neutron.conf:

  core_plugin = neutron.plugins.ml2.plugin.Ml2Plugin

2. Make sure /etc/neutron/plugin.ini is pointing at (symbolic link) /etc/neutron/plugins/ml2/ml2_conf.ini

3. Modify /etc/neutron/plugins/ml2/ml2_conf.ini and include the following:

[ml2]
type_drivers = vlan,flat
tenant_network_types = vlan
mechanism_drivers = openvswitch,mlnx
[ml2_type_vlan]
network_vlan_ranges = default:2:100
[eswitch]
vnic_type = hostdev
apply_profile_patch = True

Click here for ML2 configuration options.

Start Services

Start (or restart) the Neutron server

  #service neutron-server restart

Compute Nodes

Installation

1. Download Mellanox OpenStack repo file download it :

#wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/mlnx-icehouse.repo  http://www.mellanox.com/downloads/solutions/openstack/icehouse/repo/mlnx-icehouse/mlnx-icehouse.repo

2. Install the eswitchd RPM:

#yum install eswitchd

3. In case you would like to use Ethernet in para-virtualized mode the VIF driver is already included in Nova package. Otherwise, Install Mellanox VIF driver (Make sure nova is installed on your server)

#yum install mlnxvif

4. Install the required RPM for the Neutron agent:

#yum install openstack-neutron-mellanox

Configuration

1. Configure /etc/eswitchd/eswitchd.conf if needed

Please Refer to Mellanox Community for the eSwitchd installation notes ( click here)

2. In /etc/nova/nova.conf

Check that the compute driver is libvirt:

   [DEFAULT]
   compute_driver=libvirt.LibvirtDriver

Change the VIF driver:

   [libvirt]
   vif_driver=mlnxvif.vif.MlxEthVIFDriver

In case you didn't install the Mellanox VIF driver, and you plan to use Ethernet only in paravirtualized mode make sure vif driver is as follows:

   vif_driver=nova.virt.libvirt.vif.LibvirtGenericVIFDriver

3. Modify the /etc/neutron/plugins/mlnx/mlnx_conf.ini file to reflect your environment.

  [AGENT]
  polling_interval - Polling interval (in seconds) for existing vNICs. The default is 2 seconds.
  rpc_support_old_agents  - must be set to 'True'

  [ESWITCH]
  physical_interface_mapping -  the network_interface_mappings maps each physical network name to the physical interface (on top of Mellanox Adapter) connecting the node to that physical network. The format of this paramter is:     <fabric name>:< PF name> (Only relevant on Compute node). PF Name can either be the PF (Physical Function) Name or 'autoeth' for automatic Ethernet configuration,'autoib' for automatic Infiniband configuration.The default is  "default:autoeth".  
  daemon_endpoint - eswitch daemon end point connection (URL) (default value='tcp://127.0.0.1:60001')
  request_timeout - the number of milliseconds the agent will wait for response on request to daemon. (default=3000 msec)

For a plugin configuration file example (Icehouse), please refer to Mellanox config ini file.

Start Services

1. Restart Nova.

  #service openstack-nova-compute restart

2. Start eswitch Daemon

   #service eswitchd start

3. Start the Neutron agent

  #service neutron-mlnx-agent start

Note: eswitch Daemon should be running before the Neutron Agent is started.

Network Node

1. Install Neutron Open vSwitch Agent, Neutron dhcp Agent and l3 Agent:

  #yum install openstack-neutron-openvswitch

2. Change the following configuration of the ini file (/etc/neutron/plugins/openvswitch/ovs_neutron_plugin.ini). The "default" in the example is the name of the physical network as configured in /etc/neutron/plugins/ml2/ml2_conf.ini .

  bridge_mappings = default:br-eth3,public:br-ex 

(Here public is the physical external network)

3. Configure the DHCP server according to the following guidelines

Update the following file: /etc/neutron/dhcp_agent.ini with:

  interface_driver = neutron.agent.linux.interface.BridgeInterfaceDriver 

For additional information refer to: http://docs.openstack.org/trunk/openstack-network/admin/content/adv_cfg_dhcp_agent.html

4. Start the DHCP server

  #service neutron-openvswitch-agent start
  #service neutron-dhcp-agent start

5. Configure the l3 agent configuration file /etc/neutron/l3_agent.ini

   gateway_external_network_id = d4fdfebb-e027-4acd-bed4-1d96e896f336
   router_id = 41bf1aa0-3daf-4f51-9d23-0a4b15020c36
   interface_driver = neutron.agent.linux.interface.OVSInterfaceDriver
   external_network_bridge = br-ex

The above is an example for configuring one router for tenants. Your values for gateway_external_network_id,router_id and external_network_bridge may differ.

6. Start the l3 Agent:

#service neutron-l3-agent restart

Usage Examples

• In order to create SR-IOV interface refer to Mellanox OpenStack solution document "Creating an SR-IOV Instance" chapter
• In order to create Para-Virtualized interface refer to Mellanox OpenStack solution document "Creating a Para-Virtualized vNIC Instance" chapter

Known issues and Troubleshooting

For known issues and troubleshooting options refer to Mellanox OpenStack Troubleshooting.

References

1. http://www.mellanox.com/openstack/

2. Source repository

3. Mellanox OFED

4. Mellanox OpenStack Solution Reference Architecture

5. Mellanox OpenStack Troubleshooting

For more details, please refer your question to openstack@mellanox.com

Return to Mellanox-OpenStack wiki page.