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diff --git a/requirements/02-use_cases.rst b/requirements/02-use_cases.rst deleted file mode 100644 index 775f0b77..00000000 --- a/requirements/02-use_cases.rst +++ /dev/null @@ -1,192 +0,0 @@ -Use cases and scenarios -======================= - -Telecom services often have very high requirements on service performance. As a -consequence they often utilize redundancy and high availability (HA) mechanisms -for both the service and the platform. The HA support may be built-in or -provided by the platform. In any case, the HA support typically has a very fast -detection and reaction time to minimize service impact. The main changes -proposed in this document are about making a clear distinction between fault -management and recovery a) within the VIM/NFVI and b) High Availability support -for VNFs on the other, claiming that HA support within a VNF or as a service -from the platform is outside the scope of Doctor and is discussed in the High -Availability for OPNFV project. Doctor should focus on detecting and remediating -faults in the NFVI. This will ensure that applications come back to a fully -redundant configuration faster than before. - -As an example, Telecom services can come with an Active-Standby (ACT-STBY) -configuration which is a (1+1) redundancy scheme. ACT and STBY nodes (aka -Physical Network Function (PNF) in ETSI NFV terminology) are in a hot standby -configuration. If an ACT node is unable to function properly due to fault or any -other reason, the STBY node is instantly made ACT, and affected services can be -provided without any service interruption. - -The ACT-STBY configuration needs to be maintained. This means, when a STBY node -is made ACT, either the previously ACT node, after recovery, shall be made STBY, -or, a new STBY node needs to be configured. The actual operations to -instantiate/configure a new STBY are similar to instantiating a new VNF and -therefore are outside the scope of this project. - -The NFVI fault management and maintenance requirements aim at providing fast -failure detection of physical and virtualized resources and remediation of the -virtualized resources provided to Consumers according to their predefined -request to enable applications to recover to a fully redundant mode of -operation. - -1. Fault management/recovery using ACT-STBY configuration (Triggered by critical - error) -2. Preventive actions based on fault prediction (Preventing service stop by - handling warnings) -3. VM Retirement (Managing service during NFVI maintenance, i.e. H/W, - Hypervisor, Host OS, maintenance) - -Faults ------- - -.. _uc-fault1: - -Fault management using ACT-STBY configuration -^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - -In :numref:`figure1`, a system-wide view of relevant functional blocks is -presented. OpenStack is considered as the VIM implementation (aka Controller) -which has interfaces with the NFVI and the Consumers. The VNF implementation is -represented as different virtual resources marked by different colors. Consumers -(VNFM or NFVO in ETSI NFV terminology) own/manage the respective virtual -resources (VMs in this example) shown with the same colors. - -The first requirement in this use case is that the Controller needs to detect -faults in the NVFI ("1. Fault Notification" in :numref:`figure1`) affecting -the proper functioning of the virtual resources (labelled as VM-x) running on -top of it. It should be possible to configure which relevant fault items should -be detected. The VIM (e.g. OpenStack) itself could be extended to detect such -faults. Alternatively, a third party fault monitoring tool could be used which -then informs the VIM about such faults; this third party fault monitoring -element can be considered as a component of VIM from an architectural point of -view. - -Once such fault is detected, the VIM shall find out which virtual resources are -affected by this fault. In the example in :numref:`figure1`, VM-4 is -affected by a fault in the Hardware Server-3. Such mapping shall be maintained -in the VIM, depicted as the "Server-VM info" table inside the VIM. - -Once the VIM has identified which virtual resources are affected by the fault, -it needs to find out who is the Consumer (i.e. the owner/manager) of the -affected virtual resources (Step 2). In the example shown in :numref:`figure1`, -the VIM knows that for the red VM-4, the manager is the red Consumer -through an Ownership info table. The VIM then notifies (Step 3 "Fault -Notification") the red Consumer about this fault, preferably with sufficient -abstraction rather than detailed physical fault information. - -.. figure:: images/figure1.png - :name: figure1 - :width: 100% - - Fault management/recovery use case - -The Consumer then switches to STBY configuration by switching the STBY node to -ACT state (Step 4). It further initiates a process to instantiate/configure a -new STBY. However, switching to STBY mode and creating a new STBY machine is a -VNFM/NFVO level operation and therefore outside the scope of this project. -Doctor project does not create interfaces for such VNFM level configuration -operations. Yet, since the total failover time of a consumer service depends on -both the delay of such processes as well as the reaction time of Doctor -components, minimizing Doctor's reaction time is a necessary basic ingredient to -fast failover times in general. - -Once the Consumer has switched to STBY configuration, it notifies (Step 5 -"Instruction" in :numref:`figure1`) the VIM. The VIM can then take -necessary (e.g. pre-determined by the involved network operator) actions on how -to clean up the fault affected VMs (Step 6 "Execute Instruction"). - -The key issue in this use case is that a VIM (OpenStack in this context) shall -not take a standalone fault recovery action (e.g. migration of the affected VMs) -before the ACT-STBY switching is complete, as that might violate the ACT-STBY -configuration and render the node out of service. - -As an extension of the 1+1 ACT-STBY resilience pattern, a STBY instance can act as -backup to N ACT nodes (N+1). In this case, the basic information flow remains -the same, i.e., the consumer is informed of a failure in order to activate the -STBY node. However, in this case it might be useful for the failure notification -to cover a number of failed instances due to the same fault (e.g., more than one -instance might be affected by a switch failure). The reaction of the consumer -might depend on whether only one active instance has failed (similar to the -ACT-STBY case), or if more active instances are needed as well. - -Preventive actions based on fault prediction -^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - -The fault management scenario explained in :ref:`uc-fault1` can also be -performed based on fault prediction. In such cases, in VIM, there is an -intelligent fault prediction module which, based on its NFVI monitoring -information, can predict an imminent fault in the elements of NFVI. -A simple example is raising temperature of a Hardware Server which might -trigger a pre-emptive recovery action. The requirements of such fault -prediction in the VIM are investigated in the OPNFV project "Data Collection -for Failure Prediction" [PRED]_. - -This use case is very similar to :ref:`uc-fault1`. Instead of a fault -detection (Step 1 "Fault Notification in" :numref:`figure1`), the trigger -comes from a fault prediction module in the VIM, or from a third party module -which notifies the VIM about an imminent fault. From Step 2~5, the work flow is -the same as in the "Fault management using ACT-STBY configuration" use case, -except in this case, the Consumer of a VM/VNF switches to STBY configuration -based on a predicted fault, rather than an occurred fault. - -NVFI Maintenance ----------------- - -VM Retirement -^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - -All network operators perform maintenance of their network infrastructure, both -regularly and irregularly. Besides the hardware, virtualization is expected to -increase the number of elements subject to such maintenance as NFVI holds new -elements like the hypervisor and host OS. Maintenance of a particular resource -element e.g. hardware, hypervisor etc. may render a particular server hardware -unusable until the maintenance procedure is complete. - -However, the Consumer of VMs needs to know that such resources will be -unavailable because of NFVI maintenance. The following use case is again to -ensure that the ACT-STBY configuration is not violated. A stand-alone action -(e.g. live migration) from VIM/OpenStack to empty a physical machine so that -consequent maintenance procedure could be performed may not only violate the -ACT-STBY configuration, but also have impact on real-time processing scenarios -where dedicated resources to virtual resources (e.g. VMs) are necessary and a -pause in operation (e.g. vCPU) is not allowed. The Consumer is in a position to -safely perform the switch between ACT and STBY nodes, or switch to an -alternative VNF forwarding graph so the hardware servers hosting the ACT nodes -can be emptied for the upcoming maintenance operation. Once the target hardware -servers are emptied (i.e. no virtual resources are running on top), the VIM can -mark them with an appropriate flag (i.e. "maintenance" state) such that these -servers are not considered for hosting of virtual machines until the maintenance -flag is cleared (i.e. nodes are back in "normal" status). - -A high-level view of the maintenance procedure is presented in :numref:`figure2`. -VIM/OpenStack, through its northbound interface, receives a maintenance notification -(Step 1 "Maintenance Request") from the Administrator (e.g. a network operator) -including information about which hardware is subject to maintenance. -Maintenance operations include replacement/upgrade of hardware, -update/upgrade of the hypervisor/host OS, etc. - -The consequent steps to enable the Consumer to perform ACT-STBY switching are -very similar to the fault management scenario. From VIM/OpenStack's internal -database, it finds out which virtual resources (VM-x) are running on those -particular Hardware Servers and who are the managers of those virtual resources -(Step 2). The VIM then informs the respective Consumer (VNFMs or NFVO) in Step 3 -"Maintenance Notification". Based on this, the Consumer takes necessary actions -(Step 4, e.g. switch to STBY configuration or switch VNF forwarding graphs) and -then notifies (Step 5 "Instruction") the VIM. Upon receiving such notification, -the VIM takes necessary actions (Step 6 "Execute Instruction" to empty the -Hardware Servers so that consequent maintenance operations could be performed. -Due to the similarity for Steps 2~6, the maintenance procedure and the fault -management procedure are investigated in the same project. - -.. figure:: images/figure2.png - :name: figure2 - :width: 100% - - Maintenance use case - -.. - vim: set tabstop=4 expandtab textwidth=80: |