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Brocade VNF Manager
Enabling NFV Service Automation and Management


Overview:

As more organizations adopt Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), the need for effective orchestration and management tools continues to grow. Traditional network management tools, which are often proprietary and hardware-centric, are not designed to meet this challenge. Organizations need an open solution that can automate management and orchestration of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), while integrating with existing management tools and controllers.

Brocade VNF Manager is an NFV orchestration application based on the OpenStack Tacker Project. It provides automated NFV orchestration and VNF management using standards-based architectures. Through a combination of VNF health monitoring and lifecycle management, Brocade VNF Manager helps organizations automate network service delivery while simplifying NFV deployment. Brocade VNF Manager runs on top of Brocade SDN Controller 3.x to integrate critical elements of typical NFV and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) deployments.

Highlights

  • Provides a pure-play, open-source approach to Virtual Network Function (VNF) management for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)
  • Features an enhanced Brocade GUI framework, facilitating ease of use
  • Uses standards-based modeling (TOSCA) for multivendor VNF cataloging
  • Provides multivendor VNF support for lifecycle management and monitoring

VNF Availability

  • VNF monitoring
  • Interoperable infrastructure drivers for all VNFs
  • VNF cataloging with Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) based modeling

Automation and Management

  • VNF auto configuration utilizing NetConf/YANG
  • Life cycle management with interoperable infrastructure drivers for all VNFs
  • Standard APIs for integration into existing critical infrastructure applications

Open Source-Based VNF Management Reduces SDN and NFV Risk and Management Complexity

Extend the open standards benefits of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) to your management arsenal. Brocade VNF Manager is a network functions virtualization (NFV) orchestration application based on the OpenStack Tacker project. It works with the Brocade SDN controller to provide life cycle management of Virtual Network Functions (VNF).

Vendor Choice

Vendor Choice

Implement health monitoring and execute closed loop healing actions for any OpenStack-compatible VNF device in your SDN network from a single application. Vendor lock-in is out; flexibility and choice are in.

Portability

Portability

This pure-play open source manager works with any Open Daylight-based controller. It’s a level of portability that proprietary alternatives simply can’t match.

Operational and Business Service Integration

Operational and Business Service Integration

Get plug-and-play integration with your existing Operational Systems Services (OSS) and Business Systems Services (BSS). From buying a technical service to managing finances, the open source architecture approach increases efficiency and viability throughout your business.

Features:

Ensuring VNF Resiliency and Availability

Brocade VNF Manager continuously monitors the health status of deployed VNFs, ensuring the availability and reliability of the deployed services. It leverages a closed-loop system to provide self-healing and automatic recovery from network issues. As a result, VNFs can be deployed and failures auto-corrected based on VNF Descriptor (VNFD) policy (see Figure 1). Organizations can extend this support and gain access to advanced health and monitoring actions by integrating a robust, service-oriented monitoring framework.

Key VNF monitoring features include:

  • Health check
  • Continuous VNF availability monitoring
  • Auto-restart on failure (based on VNFD policy)
  • Extensible vendor- and service-specific health monitoring driver framework

Figure 1: Example of Brocade Topology Manager output.
Figure 1: Example of Brocade Topology Manager output.

Automating VNF Deployment

In addition to constant health monitoring, Brocade VNF Manager supports VNF lifecycle management. It simplifies VNF deployment by using an open, standardsbased approach to VNF descriptions and templates. The VNF templates are based on Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Application (TOSCA) and feature direct, integrated support for OpenStack Heat templates for service descriptions and deployments. In addition, Brocade VNF Manager supports the instantiation and termination of VNFs.

Key VNF lifecycle management features include:

  • VNF cataloging
  • Pluggable infra-driver framework
    • OpenStack Heat (default)
    • TOSCA to OpensStack Heat converter
    • VNF and service Virtual Machine (VM) instantiation based on TOSCA
    • Instantiation of one or more VMs described in the TOSCA template
  • Instantiation and termination of VNFs

Simplifying the VNF Onboarding Process

Operators deploying NFV must be able to catalog VNFs that are part of the services being deployed. Brocade VNF Manager cataloging features simplify the onboarding process and utilize TOSCA templates to define the necessary attributes each VNF requires for deployment (see Figure 2).

Key VNF cataloging features include:

  • Repository of VNFDs
  • VNF definition using TOSCA templates
    • Description of VNF attributes
    • Glance image IDs
    • Performance monitoring policy
    • Auto-healing policy
  • Support for multiple VMs per VNF Virtual Deployment Unit (VDU)
  • APIs to onboard and maintain VNF catalog
  • VNFDs are stored in the OpenStack Tacker catalog database

Figure 2: Example of Brocade Topology Manager output.
Figure 2: Example of Brocade Topology Manager output.

Brocade Global Services

Brocade Global Services has the expertise to help organizations build scalable, efficient cloud infrastructures. Leveraging 20 years of expertise in storage, networking, and virtualization, Brocade Global Services delivers worldclass professional services, technical support, and education services, enabling organizations to maximize their Brocade investments, accelerate new technology deployments, and optimize the performance of networking infrastructures.

Affordable Acquisition Options

Brocade Capital Solutions helps organizations easily address their IT requirements by offering flexible network acquisition and support alternatives. Organizations can select from purchase, lease, Brocade Network Subscription, and Brocade Subscription Plus options to align network acquisition with their unique capital requirements and risk profiles.

Maximizing Investments

To help optimize technology investments, Brocade and its partners offer complete solutions that include professional services, technical support, and education.

Specifications:

Brocade VNF Manager application runs on Brocade SDN Controller version 3.0 and above.

System Requirements
Server Linux (Ubuntu 14.04, RHEL 7.0.) OpenStack Liberty
RAM 6 GB minimum; 16 GB recommended
Network 1 GbE minimum; 10 GbE recommended
CPU 4 cores minimum; 8 cores recommended
Storage 32 GB minimum; 64 GB recommended
Browsers Mozilla Firefox v45, Google Chrome v49

Specific orchestration and management features supported:

  • VNF lifecycle management
    • VNF cataloging: Repository of VNF Descriptors (VNFDs)
    • VNF configuration: Configuration injection during instantiation
    • VNF instantiation and termination
  • VNF monitoring: Health and performance indicators
  • Support for both simple and complex VNFs
  • Brocade SDN Controller configuration driver using NETCONF (for Brocade vRouter)

Documentation:

Download the Brocade VNF Manager Datasheet(PDF).