The Network Function Agent (NF Agent) provides VNF (Virtual Network Function) management services as well as acting as a point of integration with Orchestrator software (like OpenStack) and VIMs (Virtual Infrastructure Managers) APIs that manage the VNF/VM lifecycles. The NF Agent provides the logical interface and mappings between virtual deployments and internal Policy objects and logic. The NF Agent has the responsibility of handling specific network functions that run on one or more virtual machines (MPE servers or MRA servers).
VNF management provides a set of services and functionality that allow for a virtual instance of an application (that is, VNF) to be instantiated, managed, and destroyed.
The NF Agent is a web service hosted on the same server that hosts the
CMP server. As an independent service, the NF Agent encapsulates virtual operations and VIM and Orchestrator interfaces. The NF Agent keeps mappings between logical
MPE and MRA devices as well as VNF, VM, VNFD (Virtual Network Function Descriptor) instances. The NF Agent provides support for the following VIM connection types:
- OpenStack API
- OpenStack HEAT API
- VMWare vCloud
The NF Agent functions as a service with a northbound RESTful API and multiple southbound client interfaces for various VIMs. The architecture provides sufficient flexibility for the easy implementation of additional VIM clients. The NF Agent expects the following VM profile and deployment information to the VIM so it can instantiate instances of the described VNF:
- Required vCPUs
- Required vNICs
- Required Networks and IP addressing
- Memory size
- Storage size
- Anti-affinity/Affinity requirements
Orchestration cases are manually implemented through the Topology Settings command. The user specifies operations on a new VNF.