Overview

This plugin is to support Quantum on z/VM and designed to be compatible with the OpenVSwitch plugin. For the initial release, only Quantum z/VM agent is provided to work with Quantum Openvswitch Plugin.

Code Links

( You can find latest code review link there)

Nova z/VM plugin

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/nova/+spec/zvm-plugin

Quantum z/VM plugin

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/quantum/+spec/quantum-zvm-plugin

z/VM and z/VM networking

z/VM is a VM hypervisor based on 64-bit z/Architecture, and now with multi-system virtualization and virtual server mobilit. z/VM provides a wide range of networking and connectivity options and adheres to many of the industry. For z/VM network concepts and references, please refer to http://www.vm.ibm.com/networking/

The initial release of the Quantum z/VM plugin offers the networking options listed below. z/VM virtual switch(vswitch) are used to provide network support in OpenStack environment.

Flat networking

In this case, the network consists of a single non-partitioned space.

VLAN

Based on z/VM VSwitch support, support user based VLAN. Each user(guest OS) can be assigned one or more VLAN ID.

Components

Quantum z/VM Agent

Quantum z/VM agent takes care of configuring z/VM networking and connect the VM virtual network adapters (NICs) in the required vswitches. Each VM can have more than one NICs connected to different networks managed by Quantum.

Quantum Plugin

Quantum z/VM agent is designed to be compatible with the OpenVSwitch plugin for VLAN / Flat networking.

Nova Compute Quantum Vif plugin

The Quantum Vif plugin is part of the Nova project itself and can be selected in the configuration files.

Architecture

Quantum z/VM plugin/agent will communicate with xCAT REST api to control/configure z/VM. This picture show the architure of xCAT and zVM

xCAT can be used to manage virtual servers spanning across multiple z/VM partitions. The xCAT management node (MN) runs on any Linux virtual server. It manages each z/VM partition using a System z hardware control point (zHCP) running on a privileged Linux virtual server. The zHCP interfaces with z/VM systems management API (SMAPI), directory manager (DirMaint), and control program layer (CP) to manage the z/VM partition. It utilizes a C socket interface to communicate with the SMAPI layer and VMCP Linux module to communicate with the CP layer.

To support z/VM virtual network, Quantum z/VM plugin/agent should be able to support following features:

User xCAT rest api to get z/VM configure information or update z/VM configure
Get z/VM VSWITCH information which are defined on z/VM.
MAC address allocation and bundle it with userid in user directory.
Configure z/VM VSWITCH. Configure the VSWITCH to grant user authority, or configure user based VLAN tag, or configure port based VLAN tag.
Support VLAN, able to set user based VLAN tag or port based VLAN
Support DHCP.
Able to update user directory entry to add more NICs for a user id.
Quantum z/VM agent should be able to working with Quantum OpenVswitch plugin.

Prerequisites

One OpenStack nova-compute service node will manage one and only one xCAT MN node.
Each of the zVM systems (reside in different LPARs or CECs ) has one nova-compute service node
Each of the zVM systems (reside in different LPARs or CECs ) has one quantum-zvm-agent service node
If user needs DHCP support, the zVM system must has one quantum-dhcp-agent service node coupled to a Layer 2 vswitch
If user needs VLAN support, xCAT MN must be able to reach each of the zLinux systems. zHCP and DHCP agent can reach each of the zLinux systems in the same zVM.
Instance can bind MAC address, z/VM user prefix must be defined.
zHCP must be managed by xCAT MN.

Code Structure

1. Quantum Plugin package structure:

  bin/quantum-zvm-agent - excutable zvm agent.
  quantum/quantum/plugins/zvm -  plugin code
  /agent - Agent code
  /common - common code, includeing xCAT REST api interface.
  rpc_callbacks.py - RPC handler for received messages
  agent_notify_api.py - Agent RPC notify methods

2. Nova package structure is:

  nova/nova/virt/zvm/networkop.py - nova side network support code

Configure Examples

By default /etc/nova/nova.conf , should contain following items

  quantum_url = your_quantum_address_and_port
  quantum_admin_tenant_name = your_tenant_name
  quantum_auth_strategy = keystone or your_auth_strategy
  quantum_admin_auth_url = your_auth_url
  quantum_admin_password = your_password
  quantum_admin_username = your_username
  network_api_class = nova.network.quantumv2.api.API
  zvm_default_nic_vdev = default_nic_address

This is an example with data:

  quantum_url = http://192.168.0.13:9696
  quantum_admin_tenant_name = service
  quantum_auth_strategy = keystone
  quantum_admin_auth_url = http://192.168.0.13:35357/v2.0
  quantum_admin_password = mypass
  quantum_admin_username = quantum
  network_api_class = nova.network.quantumv2.api.API
  zvm_default_nic_vdev = 2000

Quantum z/VM configure file By default, /etc/quantum/plugins/zvm/zvm_quantum_plugin.ini, should contain following items:

  [DATABASE]
  sql_connection = mysql://root:yourpass@localhost/ovs_quantum?charset=utf8
  reconnect_interval = 2
  [AGENT]
  polling_interval = interval_seconds
  zvm_xcat_username=your_username
  zvm_xcat_password=your_passworkd
  zvm_xcat_server=your_server_address
  root_helper = sudo /usr/local/bin/quantum-rootwrap /etc/quantum/rootwrap.conf
  vswitch_mappings=vswitch_vlan_mapping
  xcat_zhcp_nodename=xcat_zhcp_nodename