4 Connecting HA Manager to the Network

This chapter describes how to configure network connectivity for the Oracle Communications Service Broker Netra 6000 High Availability Manager (HA Manager).

About Networking Configuration

You connect your HA Manager to networks by using the Network Configuration tab in the System Administration Console. This tab contains the network settings specific to the hardware platform of the HA Manager deployment. The network configuration parameters include global properties for the system, such as the address of the DNS servers and NTP servers.

The parameters also include Worker Blade-specific settings that enable the blades to connect to the remote SIGTRAN, SIP, and other communications networks for which the system performs traffic brokering.

To implement the HA Manager deployment, you must configure the network parameters in the Network Configuration tab. Oracle recommends that you first read "About Predefined VLANs" to become familiar with the networking features that are built into the system.

About Predefined VLANs

Within the HA Manager system, traffic is separated into categories as Virtual LANs (VLANs). This allows the HA Manager to separate for example, internal administrative traffic from SIP or SIGTRAN communications network traffic. Each traffic category is a VLAN, and each blade participates in the VLAN appropriate to its role, whether a Bootstrap Blade or a Worker Blade.

The Bootstrap Blades connect to the Operational Support Systems and Operational Administration and Maintenance (OSS OAM) network. This VLAN is used for administrative activities, such as Administration Console and SSH console access, and access for other clients that OSS OAM functions.

The Worker Blade VLANs carry the communications traffic for which the system performs brokering. These VLANs are:

SIP/Diameter: Intended for all IP-based communications traffic, including SIP, Diameter, HTTP and SMPP.
SIGTRAN: Intended for SS7 SIGTRAN traffic.

Note:

Additional VLANs exist for internal use. However, they are not exposed to external traffic and therefore not configurable.

When configuring network connectivity for the HA Manager deployment, you assign IP addresses for the blades on the VLANs on which they participate. These are the addresses that an external element, such as a load balancer, would use to send traffic to the system. Not every HA Manager deployment needs connectivity for each type of network. If the interface is not required, its value can remain at the default 0.0.0.0.

For each VLAN, you also configure static routes and IP rules appropriate for the network. You specify the routes and IP rules using the standard Linux format.

In terms of the physical interface, assigning an IP address to the blade associates the address to one of several logical adapters on the blade's dual bonded port, bond0. In some cases, you might need to know the exact correspondence between the virtual adapters and VLAN. This could be useful, for example, when troubleshooting a connectivity issue with packet capture software. The correspondence between the interfaces and VLAN is as follows:

bond0.11: SIP/Diameter
bond0.22: SIGTRAN
bond0.33 OSS OAM

Signaling Server Configuration Considerations

As described in "About Predefined VLANs", you use the Network Configuration tab to assign each blade an IP address on a particular network. However, this task is only one of the steps required to enable connectivity to communications networks. You also need to configure Signaling Server settings.

Signaling Server configuration is common to any Service Broker deployment, whether it uses the HA Manager software or a software-only Service Broker installation. However, configuring the Signaling Servers in an HA Manager deployment imposes certain specific configuration settings.

The following sections list the Signaling Server parameters that have specific values or considerations in the context of an HA Manager implementation. The settings are listed by network type. For complete information on configuring the Signaling Servers, see the Oracle Communications Service Broker Signaling Domain Configuration Guide.

SIP Considerations

SIP-related Signaling Server configuration parameters that require a specific value in an HA Manager deployment are:

Globally routable user agent URI

You can access this parameter in the SIP Server tab under the SSU SIP node of the Signaling Servers tree. The parameter must be set to the default value, sip:127.0.0.1:5060.
Network access point listening address for each SSU instance.

The listening address for each instance must be set to the corresponding blade's SIP/Diameter IP address as specified in the Network Configuration page.

In the Network Access Points tab, Signaling Server instances built-into the HA Manager system are named in the form of ssun, where n is the instance number of the SSU.

To view the listening address for each, select the SSU identifier from the Network Access point list and then click the Listen Address tab.

Table 4-1 shows the mapping of SSU instance IDs to chassis slot in a deployment with four Worker Blades.

Table 4-1 SSU Instance to Blade Correspondence in a Single Chassis System

SSU Instance ID	Chassis Slot
ssu0	Slot 2
ssu1	Slot 3
ssu2	Slot 4
ssu3	Slot 5

Note that in a single chassis system, slots 0 and 1 are reserved for Bootstrap Blades.

SS7 SIGTRAN Considerations

SIGTRAN Signaling Server configuration parameters that require a specific value in an HA Manager deployment are:

Local system connectivity parameter for the M3UA module.

For each SSU instance, you must set the primary IP address to the value of the corresponding blade's SIGTRAN IP address, found in the Network Configuration tab. Note that the configuration parameters include a secondary IP address (IP Address 2). The secondary address can remain empty because connection redundancy is achieved on the HA Manager using a dual bonded port.
SS7 Stack configuration

In the HA Manager deployment, each Worker Blade runs an instance of SS7 stack software. Therefore, the SS7 Stack IP and SS7 Stack Port parameters on the General SSU SS7 SIGTRAN tab can remain at their default value, 127.0.0.1 and 20004.

Diameter Considerations

The Address field in the Diameter node configuration is the Diameter-related Signaling Server configuration parameter that requires a specific value in an HA Manager deployment.

This value should match the SIP/Diameter network address for the corresponding Worker Blade. You need to create a Diameter node for each Worker Blade on the SIP/Diameter VLAN.

Configuring Global Network Parameters

Global parameters define the common network parameters for the system. They include, for example, the address of the NTP and DNS servers on the local network.

Certain parameter values, such as those related to the OSS OAM network, are populated with values specified at system installation time. You need to specify other parameters manually.

In addition to general system parameters, global network settings include common settings used by Worker Blades to connect to the SIP/Diameter and SIGTRAN traffic networks.

Note:

If the existing configuration parameters render the Administration Console inaccessible on the local network, you can connect a laptop directly to the NEM switch in the chassis using an Ethernet cable, and access the Administration Console from a Web browser on the laptop.

To configure global network parameters:

From a Web browser, click the Network Configuration tab in the System Administration Console.
If it is not already selected, click the Global node in the domain navigation pane.

The Global Parameters pane appears.

In the Global Parameters configuration pane, configure the parameters that are appropriate for your network environment.

Table 4-2 describes the parameters in the Network Configuration tab. Unless otherwise noted, changes to a setting take effect on system restart.

Table 4-2 Global Network Parameters

Parameter	Description
NTP	The IP address of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) server on the local network to be used for clock synchronization. You enter from one to three NTP server addresses in the text fields labeled 1, 2 and 3. When it needs to perform clock synchronization, the Bootstrap Blade contacts all NTP servers on the list and determines the clock time based on an evaluation of all responses.
DNS	The IP address of the DNS (Domain Name System) server on the local network to which the system should send DNS queries. You enter from one to three DNS server addresses in order of contact priority in the text fields labeled 1, 2 and 3. When it needs to perform a name query, the Bootstrap Blade tries to contact the first DNS server in the list. If that attempt fails, it then attempts to contact the next DNS server in the list.
OSS OAM	The IP address for the Bootstrap Blades on the VLAN used for administrative traffic, including Web access to the Administration Console. This address serves as a floating IP address for system administration. It is taken by the primary Bootstrap Blade. In a failover event, the standby Bootstrap Blade claims this address and assumes the primary role. The configuration fields are: Type: The mode in which the virtual adapter acquires an IP address. It can be Static, in which case the address is specified in the Address field, or DHCP, in which case the address is acquired dynamically from the default gateway. Address: If Type is static, the IP address to use. Mask: The subnet mask that identifies the network portion of the address, such as 255.255.254.0.
Time Zone	The time zone used for time display purposes. Choose from the following options: Coordinated Universal Time by selecting the UTC check box. A specific time zone by selecting a location or region from the Zone list. Changes to this setting take effect immediately on applying configuration modifications.
SIP/Diameter	The static routes and routing table rules for the IP protocol VLAN, which applies to SIP, Diameter, and other types of IP-based communications traffic. The configuration should be entered in the Route and Rule fields. See "Configuring Static Routes and IP Rules" for more information.
SIGTRAN	The static routes and routing table rules for the SIGTRAN VLAN. The configuration should be entered in the Route and Rule fields. See "Configuring Static Routes and IP Rules" for more information.
OSS OAM	The static routes and routing table rules for the OSS OAM VLAN. The configuration should be entered in the Route and Rule fields. See "Configuring Static Routes and IP Rules" for more information.

Configuring Static Routes and IP Rules

The communication networks to which the blades connect are likely to be separate in terms of their network services and topology, and therefore, have different connectivity requirements.

The Network Configuration tab enables you to configure static routes and IP rules per VLAN. These VLAN-specific settings apply to all Worker Blade adapters on the same network. That is, a route specified for the SIGTRAN network applies to the SIGTRAN network adapters on all Worker Blades.

You configure the network-specific settings in the Route and Rule fields in the Network Configuration tab. The content of each field is used to compose the corresponding rule-interface and route-interface files on disk, which are conventional Linux interface configuration files. Therefore, the content of the field follows standard interface file format.

The Route value for the SIGTRAN network, for example, would be written to a file on a disk named route-bond0.22. (See "About Predefined VLANs" for the interface identifiers for each VLAN.) A sample value for the Route field that uses network/netmask directive style is:

ADDRESS0=0.0.0.0
NETMASK0=0.0.0.0
GATEWAY0=10.148.94.1
ADDRESS1=10.148.124.0
NETMASK1=255.255.252.0
GATEWAY1=10.148.94.1
ADDRESS3=10.148.104.0
NETMASK3=255.255.254.0
GATEWAY3=10.148.94.1

The example shows three static route definitions, each of which is made up of the network address, the network mask, and the gateway to use for that network address.

By default, the Route and Rule text fields are empty, except for the Route field for the OAM OSS network, where route information is derived from the configuration at system initialization time.

For more information on static routes, see Red Hat documentation on static routes:

http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Deployment_Guide/s1-networkscripts-static-routes.html

The Rule field enables you to specify traffic routing policies for packets based on various packet attributes. The contents of the field should conform to standard Linux ip rule statements. For more information on the ip rule command format, see the ip rule subsection for the Linux ip command man page.

Configuring Worker Blade Network Settings

To enable connectivity between the HA Manager Worker Blades and remote communications networks, you need to configure the network settings for the Worker Blades (the VLAN interface parameters). The interface parameters specify the local IP address for each blade on the SIP/Diameter or SIGTRAN network. This is the address to which systems, external to HA Manager (such as a load balancer), direct traffic to the Worker Blades.

Note:

Blade-specific settings are actually associated with a slot in the chassis rather than a specific blade. This makes the blades in the chassis hot-swappable. That is, if you change blades in a particular slot, the configuration settings applicable to that slot are assigned to the new blade.

Depending on your network topology, you may also need to specify static routes for each network. See "Configuring Static Routes and IP Rules" for more information.

To configure the Worker Blade network settings:

From a Web browser, click the Network Configuration tab in the System Console.

The domain navigation pane shows the chassis slots that are occupied by server modules, identified by its slot number, such as Slot 2.
Under the Chassis node in the domain navigation pane, select the slot corresponding to the blade for which you want to configure network settings.

The network settings for that slot appear in the configuration pane. The page defines settings for two network adapters:
- SIP/Diameter: Intended for IP-based traffic, such as SIP and Diameter.
- SIGTRAN: Intended for SS7 SIGTRAN traffic.
For the network to which you want to enable connectivity, choose the address allocation mode from the Type list, from the following options:
- DHCP: Specifies dynamic address allocation for the adapter. In this case, the blade acquires an address from the default gateway specified in the global settings.
- Static: Specifies a static IP address for the adapter. If selected, the Address and Mask field are enabled. In the fields, enter the IP address and subnet mask for the adapter on the network.
Reboot the blade to effect the changes.

To complete the network connectivity configuration for the HA Manager, configure the Signaling Server, as described in the Oracle Communications Service Broker Signaling Domain Configuration Guide.

Keeping a Record of Network Settings for Worker Blades

It is imperative that you keep a record of your Worker Blade network settings. If an HA Manager Worker Blade fails, you need to replace it and configure the new one with the exact same network settings.

To keep a record of network settings of a Worker Blade:

In the CMM ILOM Web interface, in the chassis tree, select a blade whose network settings you want to record.

The System Overview tab appears.
Click the Configuration tab and then click the Network tab.

The Network tab shows the MAC address and network settings for the selected Worker Blade.
Keep a record of the network settings for future reference.
Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each Worker Blade in the deployment.