+VNF component Auto Scale Out with Manual Trigger use case via VID and APPC
+---
+
+The Auto Scale Out with Manual Trigger use case shows how users/network operators can add capacity to an existing VNF. ONAP Beijing release supports scale out of VNF components in two ways, so as to demonstrate flexibility of the ONAP platform and the use case itself. One way involves triggering the scale out operations via the Virtual Infrastructure Deployment (VID) GUI, and uses the Application Controller (APPC) as a generic VNF Manager. This is demonstrated against the vLB/vDNS VNFs. The second example involves triggering scale out operations from the Use case UI (UUI) and uses Virtual Function Controller (VF-C) as generic VNF Manager. This is demonstrated against VoLTE VNFs (MME, SAE-GW, CSCF, TAS). Both scale out blueprints use the Service Orchestrator (SO) as workflow execution engine.
+
+This repository hosts the source code and scripts that implement the vLB/vDNS VNFs for the scale out blueprint that uses VID, SO, and APPC. At high level, the use case works as follows:
+ - The user/network operator triggers the scale out operation from the VID portal. VID translates the operation into a call to SO;
+ - SO instantiates a new VNF component and sends APPC a request for reconfiguring the VNF;
+ - APPC reconfigures the VNF, without interrupting the service.
+
+For this use case, we created a modified version of the vLB/vDNS, contained in vnfs/VLBMS. Unlike the vLB/vDNS VNF described before, in this modified version the vLB and the vDNS do not run any automated discovery service. Instead, the vLB has a Northbound API that allows an upstream system (e.g. ONAP) to change the internal configuration by updating the list of active vDNS instances. The Northbound API framework has been built using FD.io-based Honeycomb 1707, and supports both RESTconf and NETCONF protocols. Below is an example of vDNS instances contained in the vLB, in JSON format:
+
+ {
+ "vlb-business-vnf-onap-plugin": {
+ "vdns-instances": {
+ "vdns-instance": [
+ {
+ "ip-addr": "192.168.10.211",
+ "oam-ip-addr": "10.0.150.2",
+ "enabled": true
+ },
+ {
+ "ip-addr": "192.168.10.212",
+ "oam-ip-addr": "10.0.150.4",
+ "enabled": true
+ }]
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+According to the flow described above, during an execution of the use case against the vLB/vDNS VNF:
+ - The user/network operator triggers the instantiation of a new vDNS from the VID GUI;
+ - VID sends the request to SO, which spins up a new vDNS and sends APPC the details about the new vDNS (i.e. ip-addr, oam-ip-addr, enabled);
+ - APPC runs a NETCONF operation against the vLB to update the list of vDNS instances with the vDNS just created.
+
+Although the VNF supports the update of multiple vDNS records in the same call, for Beijing release APPC updates a single vDNS instance at a time.
+
+The use case includes design-time and run-time operations. For Beijing release, APPC has a new component called Controller Design Tool (CDT), a design-time tool that allows users to create and on-board VNF templates into the APPC. The template describes which control operation can be executed against the VNF (e.g. scale out, health check, modify configuration, etc.), the protocols that the VNF supports, port numbers, VNF APIs, and credentials for authentication. Being VNF agnostic, APPC uses these templates to "learn" about specific VNFs and the supported operations.
+
+CDT requires two input: 1) the list of parameters that APPC will receive (ip-addr, oam-ip-addr, enabled in the example above); 2) the VNF API that APPC will use to reconfigure the VNF.
+
+Below is an example of the parameters file (yaml format), which we call parameters.yaml:
+
+ version: V1
+ vnf-parameter-list:
+ - name: ip-addr
+ type: null
+ description: null
+ required: "true"
+ default: null
+ source: Manual
+ rule-type: null
+ request-keys: null
+ response-keys: null
+ - name: oam-ip-addr
+ type: null
+ description: null
+ required: "true"
+ default: null
+ source: Manual
+ rule-type: null
+ request-keys: null
+ response-keys: null
+ - name: enabled
+ type: null
+ description: null
+ required: "true"
+ default: null
+ source: Manual
+ rule-type: null
+ request-keys: null
+ response-keys: null
+
+Here is an example of API for the vLB VNF used for this use case. We name the file after the vnf-type contained in SDNC (i.e. Vloadbalancerms..base_vlb..module-0.xml):
+
+ <vlb-business-vnf-onap-plugin xmlns="urn:opendaylight:params:xml:ns:yang:vlb-business-vnf-onap-plugin">
+ <vdns-instances>
+ <vdns-instance>
+ <ip-addr>${ip-addr}</ip-addr>
+ <oam-ip-addr>${oam-ip-addr}</oam-ip-addr>
+ <enabled>${enabled}</enabled>
+ </vdns-instance>
+ </vdns-instances>
+ </vlb-business-vnf-onap-plugin>
+
+To create the VNF template in CDT, the following steps are required:
+ - Connect to the CDT GUI: http://APPC-IP:8080 (in Heat-based ONAP deployments) or http://ANY-K8S-IP:30289 (in OOM/K8S-based ONAP deployments)
+ - Click "My VNF" Tab. Create your user ID, if necessary
+ - Click "Create new VNF" entering the VNF type as reported in VID or AAI, e.g. vLoadBalancerMS/vLoadBalancerMS 0
+ - Select "ConfigScaleOut" action
+ - Create a new template identifier using the vnf-type name in SDNC as template name, e.g. Vloadbalancerms..base_vlb..module-0
+ - Select protocol (Netconf-XML), VNF username (admin), and VNF port number (2831 for NETCONF)
+ - Click "Parameter Definition" Tab and upload the parameters (.yaml) file
+ - Click "Template Tab" and upload API template (.yaml) file
+ - Click "Reference Data" Tab
+ - Click "Save All to APPC"
+
+Finally, log into the APPC controller container and set the VNF password in /opt/onap/appc/data/properties/appc_southbound.properties to admin.
+
+To trigger the scale out workflow, the user/network operator can log into VID from the ONAP Portal (demo/demo123456! as username/password), select "VNF Changes" and then the "New (+)" button. The user/network operator needs to fill in the "VNF Change Form" by selecting Subscriber, Service Type, NF Role, Model Version, VNF, Scale Out from the Workflow drop down window, and APPC from the Controller drop down window. After clicking "Next", in the following window the user/network operator has to select the VF Module to scale by clicking on the VNF and then on the appropriate VF Module checkbox. Finally, by clicking on the "Schedule" button, the scale out use case will run as described above.
+
+