snabbnfv

NFV config (program.snabbnfv.nfvconfig)

The program.snabbnfv.nfvconfig module implements a Network Functions Virtualization component based on Snabb. It introduces a simple configuration file format to describe NFV configurations which it then compiles to app networks. This NFV component is compatible with OpenStack Neutron.

DIAGRAM: NFV
+------+
|{d}   |
| NFV  |         /---------\
| conf |         | App     |
+------+    /--->| network |
   |        |    \-=-------/
   :        :
   v        |
 +----------+-+
 |{io}        |
 | nfvconfig  |
 |            |
 +------------+

— Function nfvconfig.load file, pci_address, socket_path

Loads the NFV configuration from file and compiles an app network using pci_address and socket_path for the underlying NIC driver and VhostUser apps. Returns the resulting engine configuration.

NFV Configuration Format

The configuration file format understood by program.snabbnfv.nfvconfig is based on Lua expressions. Initially, it contains a list of NFV ports:

return { <port-1>, ..., <port-n> }

Each port is defined by a range of properties which correspond to the configuration parameters of the underlying apps (NIC driver, VhostUser, PcapFilter, RateLimiter, nd_light and SimpleKeyedTunnel):

port := { port_id        = <id>,          -- A unique string
          mac_address    = <mac-address>, -- MAC address as a string
          vlan           = <vlan-id>,     -- ..
          ingress_filter = <filter>,       -- A pcap-filter(7) expression
          egress_filter  = <filter>,       -- ..
          tunnel         = <tunnel-conf>,
          crypto         = <crypto-conf>,
          rx_police      = <n>,           -- Allowed input rate in Gbps
          tx_police      = <n> }          -- Allowed output rate in Gbps

The tunnel section deviates a little from SimpleKeyedTunnel's terminology:

tunnel := { type          = "L2TPv3",     -- The only type (for now)
            local_cookie  = <cookie>,     -- As for SimpleKeyedTunnel
            remote_cookie = <cookie>,     -- ..
            next_hop      = <ip-address>, -- Gateway IP
            local_ip      = <ip-address>, -- ~ `local_address'
            remote_ip     = <ip-address>, -- ~ `remote_address'
            session       = <32bit-int> } -- ~ `session_id'

The crypto section allows configuration of traffic encryption based on apps.ipsec.esp:

crypto := { type          = "esp-aes-128-gcm", -- The only type (for now)
            spi           = <spi>,             -- As for apps.ipsec.esp
            transmit_key  = <key>,
            transmit_salt = <salt>,
            receive_key   = <key>,
            receive_salt  = <salt>,
            auditing      = <boolean> }

snabbnfv traffic

The snabbnfv traffic program loads and runs a NFV configuration using program.snabbnfv.nfvconfig. It can be invoked like so:

./snabb snabbnfv traffic <file> <pci-address> <socket-path>

snabbnfv traffic runs the loaded configuration indefinitely and automatically reloads the configuration file if it changes (at most once every second).

snabbnfv neutron2snabb

The snabbnfv neutron2snabb program converts Neutron database CSV dumps to the format used by program.snabbnfv.nfvconfig. For more info see Snabb NFV Architecture. It can be invoked like so:

./snabb snabbnfv neutron2snabb <csv-directory> <output-directory> [<hostname>]

snabbnfv neutron2snabb reads the Neutron configuration csv-directory and translates them to one lib.nfv.conig configuration file per physical network. If hostname is given, it overrides the hostname provided by hostname(1).