Installation Instructions 5/1531-AXM10104/1 Uen M

Deployment Guide for VMware vCloud Director
Virtual Multimedia Resource Function

Contents


1 About This Document

This document describes vMRF deployment on a VMware cloud service. VMware service means VMware vCloud Director® including VMware ESXi® and VMware vCenter Server®.

The following user roles are distinguished in this document:
Cloud Administrator  

The cloud administrator is the cloud service provider who delivers the cloud service to the end user. The cloud administrator must fulfill certain prerequisites before the end user can start deploying vMRF.
End User  

The end user is the vMRF operator and deployment responsible, who is assumed to be a cloud service consumer on a vCloud cloud service. The end user is also referred to as a tenant.

2 vMRF Deployment Principles for VMware vCloud Director

If the hardware and software requirements are met, and after the needed configurations in VMware are done, vMRF is instantiated.

vMRF can contain one or more Virtual Network Functions (VNF).

A single VNF contains multiple Virtual Machines (VMs). See Figure 1 for an example overview of vMRF deployment with two VNFs.

Figure 1   vMRF Deployment

3 vMRF Deployment Process for VMware vCloud Director

The vMRF deployment process consists of preparations and basic configuration of the cloud environment, and the actual instantiation of one or more vMRF VNF instances.

Cloud Hardware and Software Preparation and Configuration Create Network Topology Onboard to the Catalog Deploy vApp from the Catalog Provide Initial Configuration from VNF Configuration ISO File Power on vMRF vApp Scaling Out to Full VNF Size Check vMRF Status
Figure 2   vMRF Deployment Process

  1. Prepare the cloud environment to run vMRF

    This set of steps is done by the cloud administrator.

    1. Prepare and configure cloud hardware and software

      This step involves checking that the necessary hardware exists, and making hardware-related configuration in VMware and in the host Operating System so that the requirements listed in Prerequisites for vMRF Deployment are fulfilled.

    2. Create the network topology

      This step involves ensuring that the required networks to which the VNF connects are in place. It requires the cloud administrator to set up the networks, create distributed port groups in vSphere and external networks in vCD; and organization administration to create organization specific networks and map them to the external networks.

  2. Deploy and check vMRF

    This set of steps is done by the end user.

    1. Download and extract the vMRF software delivery package

      The vMRF software delivery package contains the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) template and the related files. The vMRF software delivery package must be extracted to a place where the files can be accessed by the vCloud Director. vCloud Director offers the following options:

      • A local directory that is accessible by the vCloud Director client

      • The files can be uploaded to an HTTP server accessible from the vCloud Director

    2. Onboard the software delivery package to the Catalog.

    3. Deploy vApp from the Catalog and Provide Initial Configuration and Cloud Configuration Data

    4. Power On vMRF vApp

      After powering on the vMRF vApp, if the initial configuration is provided, and the components are operating with normal status, the VNF is capable of running traffic.

      It is recommended to check the status of the powered-on vMRF vApp before scaling out to full VNF size.

    5. Scale-out to Full VNF Size

    6. Check vMRF status

      It is recommended to run a status check on the newly deployed vMRF.

4 Prerequisites for vMRF Deployment

Before the end user can deploy and use vMRF, the cloud administrator must ensure that the environment fulfills hardware, software, and network requirements. The main requirements are listed in vMRF Infrastructure Requirements.

4.1 Configure vCloud Director Organization

The vCD organization must be prepared for the use of the following ExtraConfig OVF parameters to avoid degraded performance in high traffic load situations:

  • ethernet<X>.ctxPerDev

  • sched.mem.pin

  • sched.cpu.latencySensitivity

For more information on setting up vCD organization environment, see vCloud API Programming Guide for Service Providers.

Steps

  1. Set organization virtual datacenter allocation model to Reservation Pool.
  2. Configure the organization administrator role to preserve ExtraConfig parameters.

4.2 Configure vCloud Director to Assign Unique UUIDs

By default vCloud Director configuration, VMs created from a vApp template are assigned the same UUID. For vMRF deployments, it must be ensured that newly created VMs are assigned unique UUIDs.

Prerequisites

  • The vCloud Director installation directory is known.

Steps

  1. Use the following command to check vCloud Director settings for assigning UUIDs for VMs:
    <vCloud_Director_Installation_Directory>/bin/cell-management-tool manage-config --lookup --name backend.cloneBiosUuidOnVmCopy

    Property "backend.cloneBiosUuidOnVmCopy" has value "1".

    1 in the command printout means that VMs are created with the same UUID. The default value is 1.

  2. Set the value of the CloneBiosUuidOnVmCopy parameter to 0 with the following command to ensure that each VM is created with a unique UUID:
    <vCloud_Director_Installation_Directory>/bin/cell-management-tool manage-config -n backend.cloneBiosUuidOnVmCopy -v 0
  3. Restart all vCloud Director cells in the server group.

4.3 Download and Extract vMRF Software Delivery Package

Before the deployment, the end user must download and extract the vMRF software delivery package. Both the end user and the cloud administrator must have access to the proper example files in the package.

Steps

  1. Download the vMRF software delivery package to a computer from which the cloud service clients are reachable.
  2. Extract the vMRF software delivery package.
  3. Check that the following files exist after extracting the vMRF software delivery package:

    • Deployment files (ovf files)

      OVF File Name

      Description

      vmrf.ovf

      OVF file for deployment with automatic IP address allocation from IP pools.

      vmrf_man_ip.ovf

      OVF file for deployment with manual IP address allocation.

    • vMRF image (vmdk file)

5 vMRF Deployment Preparations for the Cloud Administrator

The procedures for vMRF deployment preparation must be performed by the cloud administrator to prepare the cloud environment for running vMRF. The procedures described in this section serve as examples only to demonstrate how to fulfill the vMRF requirements.

5.1 Cloud Hardware and Software Preparation and Configuration

Preparation for vMRF deployment starts by checking that the necessary hardware exists, and making hardware-related configurations in the VIM, in the hypervisor, and in the host Operating System.

5.1.1 Group Compute Nodes for vMRF into DRS Cluster

Perform this procedure only if you want to specify exactly which hosts can run vMRF due to, for example hardware considerations.

Steps

  1. Create a Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) cluster for the hosts selected to run vMRF. For the details, see Using DRS Clusters to Manage Resources in the VMware documentation.
  2. Use VM-Host affinity rules to define a relationship between vMRF VMs and the group of hosts selected to run vMRF. For the details, see VM-Host Affinity Rules in the VMware documentation.

5.2 Create Network Topology

The vMRF VNF instance connects to networks. The networks in Table 1 must be created already before the VNF instance can be deployed, since the OVF template uses them as input parameters.

Table 1   vMRF Networks

Network Type
VNF-internal(1)

O&M

H.248 signaling towards MTAS

User plane towards media networks
(1) Each VNF instance version requires a dedicated VNF-internal network.

Steps

  1. Using the network plan, create the required networks listed in Table 1 depending on vNIC configuration, the following connectivity, if they do not exist.
    Depending on the IP allocation alternative, the following additional configuration options apply:
    • vmrf.ovf: Organization Networks must be configured with IP pool, subnet, subnet mask length, and gateway, and associated to the networks in Table 1.
      Note: Fake IP subnets for signaling and media can be used for trusted and untrusted networks. vMRF does not use these IP addresses, but the used IP addresses are configured in the vMRF MOM.

    • vmrf_man_ip.ovf: Organization Networks must be configured with subnet, subnet mask length, and gateway, and associated to the networks in Table 1.

  2. Inform the personnel who are doing the deployment.

6 vMRF Deployment for the End User

After the deployment preparations are completed by the cloud administrator, the end user can start vMRF deployment.

6.1 Initial VNF Configuration Data for Deployment

Initial configuration data means the data needed for vMRF to start processing traffic. This procedure describes how to prepare initial configuration data if you are importing it during deployment. For other options, see Initial Configuration Guide.

While providing cloud configuration data during deployment is mandatory, importing initial configuration is optional. It can be provided during deployment in Base64 encoding. The input can be generated with the following command:

base64 -w 0 mrsvconfig.tar.gz

If the size of the initial configuration data file mrsvconfig.tar.gz exceeds the 23 kB limit, it can be imported in an iso file. For more information, see Create VNF Configuration ISO File.

6.1.1 Create VNF Configuration ISO File

Initial configuration data must be imported to the VNF in an iso if it exceeds the limit imposed by vSphere and cannot be provided during deployment with cloud configuration data.

Steps

  1. Rename the exported_config.tar.gz file to mrsvconfig.tar.gz.
  2. Create an iso file which includes the mrsvconfig.tar.gz file. For example, on a Linux computer, use the following command:
    genisoimage -l -iso-level 4 -o mrs-init.iso mrsvconfig.tar.gz

7 Configure Shared Storage

Note: This procedure is optional. Perform the steps only if shared storage is used.
The external shared storage allows for the storage of the following files from each VM on a remote server:

  • Log files from the /var/log directory, including journal log files

  • Crash dump files

  • Configuration backup files created by the automatic backup and restore function

vMRF connects to the server with SSHFS, mounts a specified directory path, and creates a subfolder for the cluster, and subfolders for the files for each VM in the cluster. This ensures that logs and other shared files of different VMs and VNF instances do not get mixed up.

For authentication, an SSH key pair has to be created. This key pair can be cluster-specific, or common for all clusters.

The following parameters must be prepared and included in the example_environment.yaml file parameter list or the vApp property list during deployment:

  • Storage server username

  • Storage server address (IP address and port number)

  • Storage server path

  • Storage server SSH private key and fingerprint

Prerequisites

  • The private and public SSH keys are generated.

Steps

  1. Generate the private SSH key parameter value by replacing the end of line characters with the string "\n" and including the key data string between single quotation mark (') characters using the following command:
    echo "'$(awk 'BEGIN{ORS="\\n"} {print $0}' .ssh/id_rsa)'"
    Note: The resulting string must be added in OpenStack-based deployments as the shared_storage_ssh_private_key value in the example_environment.yaml file or, in VMware-based deployments as vApp property.
  2. Generate the SSH fingerprint parameter value from the public SSH key by replacing the end of line characters with the string "\n" using the following command:
    echo "'$(ssh-keyscan -p <server_port> <server_host> |awk 'BEGIN{ORS="\\n"} {print $0}')'"
    Note: The resulting string must be added in OpenStack-based deployments as the shared_storage_server_fingerprint_key value in the example_environment.yaml file or, in VMware-based deployments as vApp property.
  3. On the shared storage server, append the public key to the authorized keys file using the following command:
    cat .ssh/<public_key_file_name> >> .ssh/<authorized_keys_file_name>
Related tasks
Deploy vApp from the Catalog

8 Onboard to the Catalog

This procedure describes the steps needed for onboarding the OVF file to the Catalog.

Steps

  1. On the vApp Templates tab, click the Upload... icon, and select the OVF file to upload the package to the Catalog.
  2. If necessary, upload the initial configuration iso file to the catalog, under Media & Other.
    Note: The image has to contain the configuration with the name mrsvconfig.tar.gz.

9 Deploy vApp from the Catalog

This procedure describes how to deploy the vApp from the Catalog.

  1. Select the vApp template from All Templates, and click Next.
  2. Name the vApp, define its location, select a proper vCD, and click Next.
  3. Name the VM within the vApp, and click Next.
  4. Map network resources to their proper destinations. Set the IP allocation method according to the selected OVF package, and click Next.

    OVF File Name

    Description

    vmrf.ovf

    OVF file for deployment with automatic IP address allocation from IP pools.

    vmrf_man_ip.ovf

    OVF file for deployment with manual IP address allocation.
  5. Give values to parameters and click Next.
    Note: Mandatory parameters are marked by a red frame.

    The following restrictions apply when defining IP address and password parameter values:

    • IP addresses must be in the O&M network IP range.

    • Passwords must be generated with the following command: mkpasswd -m sha-512 <Password>

    For platform automatic IP address allocation, provide the following vApp properties:

    vApp Property Type

    vApp Property

    Emergency user credentials

    Username

    Password hash. The default password must be changed by supplying a new password hash in this parameter.(1)

    Ssh public key

    O&M IP address of the VNF

    Movable IP address, an IPv4 address in dot-decimal notation

    NTP server IP address

    NTP IPs, that is, the list of NTP server addresses separated by a space character
    Shared storage configuration(2)

    Shared storage server username
    Shared storage server path(3)

    Shared storage server IP

    Shared storage server port

    Shared storage server fingerprint

    (4)
    Shared storage ssh private key(5)

    Announcement storage configuration(2)

    Announcement storage server username
    Announcement storage server path(6)

    Announcement storage server IP

    Announcement storage server port

    Announcement shared storage server fingerprint(4)

    Announcement storage ssh private key(5)

    PM data monitoring configuration(2)

    Pm data monitoring hosts IP address

    Pm data monitoring hosts port

    Initial configuration(2)

    Initial configuration
    (1) Password change for the emergency user is supported only during deployment.
    (2) Optional property type.
    (3) The external shared storage POSIX path pointing to a directory on the shared storage server.
    Note: vMRF creates VM specific folders under this path. In order to separate VMs of different vApps, include vApp identifier in this path.
    (4) The input can be generated by replacing the end of line characters with the string "\n" and including the key data string between single quotation mark (') characters with the following command: echo "'$(ssh-keyscan -p <server_port> <server_ip_address> |awk 'BEGIN{ORS="\\n"} {print $0}')'".
    (5) The input can be generated by replacing the end of line characters with the string "\n" and including the key data string between single quotation mark (') characters using the following command: echo "'$(awk 'BEGIN{ORS="\\n"} {print $0}' .ssh/id_rsa)'".
    (6) The announcement shared storage POSIX path pointing to a directory on the shared storage server.
  6. Customize VM resources according to your needs and in line with minimum requirements described in vMRF Infrastructure Requirements, and click Next.
  7. Review the vApp configurations.
  8. If the optional initial configuration is properly set up, or it is not provided during deployment, select the Power on vApp after this wizard is finished option. Otherwise continue with the next step.
  9. Click Finish.
  10. For the optional steps regarding providing initial configuration, continue with the following procedure, otherwise move on to Power on vMRF vApp.

If the Power on vApp after this wizard is finished was not selected in Step 8, and initial configuration is to be provided during deployment.

  1. Continue with Provide Initial Configuration from VNF Configuration ISO File.

10 Provide Initial Configuration from VNF Configuration ISO File

This procedure describes how to provide initial configuration from an iso file created in Create VNF Configuration ISO File.

Note: This procedure is optional. Only do the following steps if configuration is needed from an iso file.

Steps

  1. Right-click on the VM.
  2. Select Insert CD/DVD from Catalog.
  3. Select the proper iso file.
  4. Click Insert.

11 Power on vMRF vApp

This procedure describes how to power on the vMRF vApp that is now in the inventory. After powering on the vMRF vApp, if initial configuration was provided during deployment time, vMRF starts running traffic.
Note: If no configuration was provided before power on, the VM starts processing traffic only after configuration is completed either manually, or by importing it.

Steps

  1. Navigate to the VM in the vApp.
  2. Right-click the VM, and select Power On.

    If a delay is set in the startup settings of the VM, the VM is powered on only after the set time expires.

  3. Check if the VM works correctly as described in Check vMRF Status.

12 Scaling Out to Full VNF Size

These procedures describe how to scale out to the full size of the VNF.

12.1 Scale-out Using the Catalog

This procedure describes how to scale out using the Catalog.

Steps

  1. Click on the vApp name on the My Cloud > vApps tab.
  2. Select Add VM to add VMs.
    1. Select the VM in the Catalog.
    2. Click Add to add new VMs.
    3. Click Next.
  3. Map networks to vNICs based on the settings of the existing VM, select IP address allocation method, and click Next.
    Note: If manual IP address allocation is used, provide IP addresses for the networks, and make sure that these IP addresses are not colliding with IP addresses configured in VM Guest Properties after scale-out but before power-on.

    IPv4, IPv6, or both addresses can be assigned to the user plane network towards media networks.

    IPv4 addresses must be assigned to the other networks.

    The networks must be mapped to vNICs according to the following table:

    vNIC

    Network Type

    vNIC0

    VNF-internal

    vNIC1

    O&M

    vNIC2

    Signaling

    vNIC3

    User plane towards media networks
  4. Power on the VM.

13 Check vMRF Status

This procedure describes how to verify the vMRF deployment. The status check involves running a vMRF command.

Steps

  1. Open an SSH connection to the O&M IP address of the vMRF VNF instance using the following command:
    ssh -A <user_ID>@<O&M_IP_address>
  2. Run the following command to check the status of VMs in the cluster:
    verify_vmrf_cluster_status.py

    • If the VMs are operating correctly, the OK status is displayed in the command printout. You can exit this procedure.

    • If there are VMs with faulty components, a list of faulty VMs and detailed component information of the cluster is displayed. Continue with the next step.

  3. Check all components with erroneous state. For specific trouble cases and remedies, refer to the vMRF Troubleshooting Guideline.
    Note: The MrfDirector and COM components are in the OK state only for the VM whose SC role is ACTIVE, that is, the active System Controller (SC) VM. In all other VMs, these components are in the OK, NOT RUNNING state, which is normal behavior.
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