This topic provides a brief introduction of the components in the OpenStack Neutron deployment and describes how the Oracle Ethernet Switch (ES2) solution fits into it.
Neutron relies on the ML2 plugin which delegates to one or multiple ML2 type drivers and mechanism drivers for network connectivity configuration. Each available tenant network type must have a corresponding ML2 type driver, which handles network allocation, validation and state maintenance. The mechanism driver uses the information provided by the type driver to perform the necessary vendor-specific actions to support a particular network type.
The ES2 Mechanism Driver leverages OpenvSwitch agents to configure VLAN network connectivity within an OpenStack node such as for virtual machines within a compute node, and instead focuses connecting nodes together on the data network. As tenant networks and virtual machines are created, the ES2 Mechanism Driver provides on-demand ES2 configuration through the Oracle Fabric Manager (OFM) ES2 plugin.
These are the major OpenStack software components.
Openstack controller, which is the OpenStack server where control processes, configuration, and management occur.
In the Oracle Ethernet Switch solution, the controller runs on either an Oracle VM server or Oracle Linux operating system. The Oracle Ethernet Switch ML2 Mechanism Driver is installed on the controller and leverages the existing OpenvSwitch agents on the controller and compute nodes.
It is possible to install the Oracle Fabric Manager software on the controller so that the same physical server is both the OpenStack controller and the Oracle Fabric Manager server.
OpenStack compute nodes, which are the OpenStack servers where instance VMs are hosted.
The Oracle Ethernet Switch ML2 Mechanism Driver is not installed on the compute nodes. Compute nodes us OpenvSwitch agents.
OpenStack Horizon, which is the OpenStack graphical user interface (GUI).
Horizon passes requests to OpenStack Neutron, and then to the Oracle Ethernet Switch ML2 Mechanism Driver which ultimately implements the requests.
Oracle Fabric Manager, which is the Oracle Ethernet Switch GUI. OFM is installed on one server, preferably on the controller.
OpenStack network, also called a tenant network, is typically a private data network.
In the ES2 ML2 Mechanism Driver, each network maps to a VLAN that is configured on each ES2 switch as it is needed.
The exception is external, or public, networks. External networks are not configured through the ES2 ML2 Mechanism Driver, and if needed, should be configured through the standard OpenStack Neutron procedure. For information, refer to the OpenStack documentation.
OpenStack port, which is the virtual connection from an instance VM to the network.