14 min read

In this article by Jamie Goodyear, Mathieu Lemay, Rashmi Pujar, Yrineu Rodrigues, Mohamed El-Serngawy, and Alexis de Talhouët the authors of the book OpenDaylight Cookbook, we will be covering the following recipes:

  • Connecting OpenFlow switches
  • Mounting a NETCONF device
  • Browsing data models with Yang UI

(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

OpenDaylight is a collaborative platform supported by leaders in the networking industry and hosted by the Linux Foundation. The goal of the platform is to enable the adoption of software-defined networking (SDN) and create a solid base for network functions virtualization (NFV).

Connecting OpenFlow switches

OpenFlow is a vendor-neutral standard communications interface defined to enable the interaction between the control and forwarding channels of an SDN architecture. The OpenFlow plugin project intends to support implementations of the OpenFlow specification as it evolves. It currently supports OpenFlow versions 1.0 and 1.3.2. In addition, to support the core OpenFlow specification, OpenDaylight Beryllium also includes preliminary support for the Table Type Patterns and OF-CONFIG specifications.

The OpenFlow southbound plugin currently provides the following components:

  • Flow management
  • Group management
  • Meter management
  • Statistics polling

Let’s connect an OpenFlow switch to OpenDaylight.

Getting ready

This recipe requires an OpenFlow switch. If you don’t have any, you can use a mininet-vm with OvS installed. You can download mininet-vm from the website:

https://github.com/mininet/mininet/wiki/Mininet-VM-Images.

Any version should work

The following recipe will be presented using a mininet-vm with OvS 2.0.2.

How to do it…

  1. Start the OpenDaylight distribution using the karaf script. Using this script will give you access to the karaf CLI: 
    $ ./bin/karaf
  2. Install the user facing feature responsible for pulling in all dependencies needed to connect an OpenFlow switch: 
    opendaylight-user@root>feature:install odl-openflowplugin-all

    It might take a minute or so to complete the installation.

  3. Connect an OpenFlow switch to OpenDaylight.we will use mininet-vm as our OpenFlow switch as this VM runs an instance of OpenVSwitch:
    •     Login to mininet-vm using:  Username: mininet

        Password: mininet

    •    Let’s create a bridge: 
      mininet@mininet-vm:~$ sudo ovs-vsctl add-br br0
    • Now let’s connect OpenDaylight as the controller of br0: 
      mininet@mininet-vm:~$ sudo ovs-vsctl set-controller br0 tcp: ${CONTROLLER_IP}:6633
    •    Let’s look at our topology: 
      mininet@mininet-vm:~$ sudo ovs-vsctl show
0b8ed0aa-67ac-4405-af13-70249a7e8a96
    Bridge "br0"
      Controller "tcp: ${CONTROLLER_IP}:6633"
          is_connected: true
      Port "br0"
          Interface "br0"
              type: internal
    ovs_version: "2.0.2"

      ${CONTROLLER_IP} is the IP address of the host running OpenDaylight.

      We’re establishing a TCP connection.

    • Have a look at the created OpenFlow node.Once the OpenFlow switch is connected, send the following request to get information regarding the switch:
    •    Type: GET
    •    Headers:Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=
    •    URL: http://localhost:8181/restconf/operational/opendaylight-inventory:nodes/

    This will list all the nodes under opendaylight-inventory subtree of MD-SAL that store OpenFlow switch information. As we connected our first switch, we should have only one node there. It will contain all the information the OpenFlow switch has, including its tables, its ports, flow statistics, and so on.

How it works…

Once the feature is installed, OpenDaylight is listening to connection on port 6633 and 6640. Setting up the controller on the OpenFlow-capable switch will immediately trigger a callback on OpenDaylight. It will create the communication pipeline between the switch and OpenDaylight so they can communicate in a scalable and non-blocking way.

Mounting a NETCONF device

The OpenDaylight component responsible to connect remote NETCONF devices is called the NETCONF southbound plugin aka the netconf-connector. Creating an instance of the netconf-connector will connect a NETCONF device. The NETCONF device will be seen as a mount point in the MD-SAL, exposing the device configuration and operational datastore and its capabilities. These mount points allow applications and remote users (over RESTCONF) to interact with the mounted devices.

The netconf-connector currently supports the RFC-6241, RFC-5277 and RFC-6022.

The following recipe will explain how to connect a NETCONF device to OpenDaylight.

Getting ready

This recipe requires a NETCONF device. If you don’t have any, you can use the NETCONF test tool provided by OpenDaylight. It can be downloaded from the OpenDaylight Nexus repository:

https://nexus.opendaylight.org/content/repositories/opendaylight.release/org/opendaylight/netconf/netconf-testtool/1.0.4-Beryllium-SR4/netconf-testtool-1.0.4-Beryllium-SR4-executable.jar

How to do it…

  1. Start OpenDaylight karaf distribution using the karaf script. Using this script will give you access to the karaf CLI: 
    $ ./bin/karaf
  2. Install the user facing feature responsible for pulling in all dependencies needed to connect an NETCONF device: 
    opendaylight-user@root>feature:install odl-netconf-topology odl-restconf

    It might take a minute or so to complete the installation.

  3. Start your NETCONF device.If you want to use the NETCONF test tool, it is time to simulate a NETCONF device using the following command: 
    $ java -jar netconf-testtool-1.0.1-Beryllium-SR4-executable.jar --device-count 1

    This will simulate one device that will be bound to port 17830.

  4. Configure a new netconf-connectorSend the following request using RESTCONF:
    •    Type: PUT
    •    URL: http://localhost:8181/restconf/config/network-topology:network-topology/topology/topology-netconf/node/new-netconf-deviceBy looking closer at the URL, you will notice that the last part is new-netconf-device. This must match the node-id that we will define in the payload.
    • Headers:Accept: application/xml

      Content-Type: application/xml

      Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=

    • Payload: 
      <node >
  <node-id>new-netconf-device</node-id>
  <host >127.0.0.1</host>
  <port >17830</port>
  <username >admin</username>
  <password >admin</password>
  <tcp-only >false</tcp-
only>
</node>

      Let’s have a closer look at this payload:

    •    node-id: Defines the name of the netconf-connector.
    •    address: Defines the IP address of the NETCONF device.
    •    port: Defines the port for the NETCONF session.
    •    username: Defines the username of the NETCONF session. This should be provided by the NETCONF device configuration.
    •    password: Defines the password of the NETCONF session. As for the username, this should be provided by the NETCONF device configuration.
    •    tcp-only: Defines whether or not the NETCONF session should use tcp or ssl. If set to true it will use tcp.

    This is the default configuration of the netconf-connector; it actually has more configurable elements that will be present in a second part.

    Once you have completed the request, send it. This will spawn a new netconf-connector that connects to the NETCONF device at the provided IP address and port using the provided credentials.

  5. Verify that the netconf-connector has correctly been pushed and get information about the connected NETCONF device.First, you could look at the log to see if any error occurred. If no error has occurred, you will see: 
    2016-05-07 11:37:42,470 | INFO  | sing-executor-11 | NetconfDevice | 253 - org.opendaylight.netconf.sal-netconf-connector - 1.3.0.Beryllium | RemoteDevice{new-netconf-device}: Netconf connector initialized successfully

    Once the new netconf-connector is created, some useful metadata are written into the MD-SAL’s operational datastore under the network-topology subtree. To retrieve this information, you should send the following request:

    • Type: GET
    • Headers:

    Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=

    URL: http://localhost:8181/restconf/operational/network-topology:network-topology/topology/topology-netconf/node/new-netconf-device

    We’re using new-netconf-device as the node-id because this is the name we assigned to the netconf-connector in a previous step.

    This request will provide information about the connection status and device capabilities. The device capabilities are all the yang models the NETCONF device is providing in its hello-message that was used to create the schema context.

  6. More configuration for the netconf-connectorAs mentioned previously, the netconf-connector contains various configuration elements. Those fields are non-mandatory, with default values. If you do not wish to override any of these values, you shouldn’t provide them.
    • schema-cache-directory: This corresponds to the destination schema repository for yang files downloaded from the NETCONF device. By default, those schemas are saved in the cache directory ($ODL_ROOT/cache/schema). Using this configuration will define where to save the downloaded schema related to the cache directory. For instance, if you assigned new-schema-cache, schemas related to this device would be located under $ODL_ROOT/cache/new-schema-cache/.
    • reconnect-on-changed-schema: If set to true, the connector will auto disconnect/reconnect when schemas are changed in the remote device. The netconf-connector will subscribe to base NETCONF notifications and listens for netconf-capability-change notification. Default value is false.
    • connection-timeout-millis: Timeout in milliseconds after which the connection must be established. Default value is 20000 milliseconds.
    •  default-request-timeout-millis: Timeout for blocking operations within transactions. Once this timer is reached, if the request is not yet finished, it will be canceled. Default value is 60000 milliseconds.
    •  max-connection-attempts: Maximum number of connection attempts. Non-positive or null value is interpreted as infinity. Default value is 0, which means it will retry forever.
    •  between-attempts-timeout-millis: Initial timeout in milliseconds between connection attempts. This will be multiplied by the sleep-factor for every new attempt. Default value is 2000 milliseconds.
    •  sleep-factor: Back-off factor used to increase the delay between connection attempt(s). Default value is 1.5.
    •  keepalive-delay: Netconf-connector sends keep alive RPCs while the session is idle to ensure session connectivity. This delay specifies the timeout between keep alive RPC in seconds. Providing a 0 value will disable this mechanism. Default value is 120 seconds.

    Using this configuration, your payload would look like this:

    <node >
  <node-id>new-netconf-device</node-id>
    <host >127.0.0.1</host>
    <port >17830</port>
      <username >admin</username>
      <password >admin</password>
    <tcp-only >false</tcp-
only>
    <schema-cache-directory >new_netconf_device_cache</schema-cache-directory>
    <reconnect-on-changed-schema >false</reconnect-on-changed-schema>
    <connection-timeout-millis >20000</connection-timeout-millis>
    <default-request-timeout-millis >60000</default-request-timeout-millis>
    <max-connection-attempts >0</max-connection-attempts>
    <between-attempts-timeout-millis >2000</between-attempts-timeout-millis>
    <sleep-factor >1.5</sleep-factor>
    <keepalive-delay >120</keepalive-delay>
</node>

How it works…

Once the request to connect a new NETCONF device is sent, OpenDaylight will setup the communication channel, used for managing, interacting with the device. At first, the remote NETCONF device will send its hello-message defining all of the capabilities it has. Based on this, the netconf-connector will download all the YANG files provided by the device. All those YANG files will define the schema context of the device.

At the end of the process, some exposed capabilities might end up as unavailable, for two possible reasons:

  1. The NETCONF device provided a capability in its hello-message but hasn’t provided the schema.
  2. ODL failed to mount a given schema due to YANG violation(s).

OpenDaylight parses YANG models as per as the RFC 6020; if a schema is not respecting the RFC, it could end up as an unavailable-capability.

If you encounter one of these situations, looking at the logs will pinpoint the reason for such a failure.

There’s more…

Once the NETCONF device is connected, all its capabilities are available through the mount point. View it as a pass-through directly to the NETCONF device.

Get datastore

To see the data contained in the device datastore, use the following request:

  • Type: GET
  • Headers:Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=
  • URL: http://localhost:8080/restconf/config/network-topology:network-topology/topology/topology-netconf/node/new-netconf-device/yang-ext:mount/

Adding yang-ext:mount/ to the URL will access the mount point created for new-netconf-device. This will show the configuration datastore. If you want to see the operational one, replace config by operational in the URL.

If your device defines yang model, you can access its data using the following request:

  • Type: GET
  • Headers:Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=
  • URL: http://localhost:8080/restconf/config/network-topology:network-topology/topology/topology-netconf/node/new-netconf-device/yang-ext:mount/<module>:<container>

The <module> represents a schema defining the <container>. The <container> can either be a list or a container. It is not possible to access a single leaf. You can access containers/lists within containers/lists. The last part of the URL would look like this:

…/ yang-ext:mount/<module>:<container>/<sub-container>

Invoke RPC

In order to invoke an RPC on the remote device, you should use the following request:

  • Type: POST
  • Headers:Accept: application/xml

    Content-Type: application/xml

    Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=

  • URL: http://localhost:8080/restconf/config/network-topology:network-topology/topology/topology-netconf/node/new-netconf-device/yang-ext:mount/<module>:<operation>

This URL is accessing the mount point of new-netconf-device, and through this mount point we’re accessing the <module> to call its <operation>. The <module> represents a schema defining the RPC and <operation> represents the RPC to call.

Delete a netconf-connector

Removing a netconf-connector will drop the NETCONF session and all resources will be cleaned. To perform such an operation, use the following request:

  • Type: DELETE
  • Headers:Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=
  • URL: http://localhost:8181/restconf/config/network-topology:network-topology/topology/topology-netconf/node/new-netconf-device

By looking closer to the URL, you can see that we are removing the NETCONF node-id new-netconf-device.

Browsing data models with Yang UI

Yang UI is a user interface application through which one can navigate among all yang models available in the OpenDaylight controller. Not only does it aggregate all data models, it also enables their usage. Using this interface, you can create, remove, update, and delete any part of the model-driven datastore. It provides a nice, smooth user interface making it easier to browse through the model(s).

This recipe will guide you through those functionalities.

Getting ready

This recipe only requires the OpenDaylight controller and a web-browser.

How to do it…

  1. Start your OpenDaylight distribution using the karaf script. Using this client will give you access to the karaf CLI: 
    $ ./bin/karaf
  2. Install the user facing feature responsible to pull in all dependencies needed to use Yang UI: 
    opendaylight-user@root>feature:install odl-dlux-yangui

    It might take a minute or so to complete the installation.

  3. Navigate to http://localhost:8181/index.html#/yangui/index.Username: admin

    Password: admin

    Once logged in, all modules will be loading until you can see this message at the bottom of the screen:

    Loading completed successfully

    You should see the API tab listing all yang models in the following format:

    <module-name> rev.<revision-date>
    For instance:

    •     cluster-admin rev.2015-10-13
    •     config rev.2013-04-05
    •     credential-store rev.2015-02-26

    By default, there isn’t much you can do with the provided yang models. So, let’s connect an OpenFlow switch to better understand how to use this Yang UI.

    Once done, refresh your web page to load newly added modules.

  4. Look for opendaylight-inventory rev.2013-08-19 and select the operational tab, as nothing will yet be in the config datastore. Then click on nodes and you’ll see a request bar at the bottom of the page with multiple options.You can either copy the request to the clipboard to use it on your browser, send it, show a preview of it, or define a custom API request.

    For now, we will only send the request.

    You should see Request sent successfully and under this message should be the retrieved data. As we only have one switch connected, there is only one node. All the switch operational information is now printed on your screen.

You could do the same request by specifying the node-id in the request. To do that you will need to expand nodes and click on node {id}, which will enable a more fine-grained search.

How it works…

OpenDaylight has a model-driven architecture, which means that all of its components are modeled using YANG. While installing features, OpenDaylight loads YANG models, making them available within the MD-SAL datastore.

YangUI is a representation of this datastore. Each schema represents a subtree based on the name of the module and its revision-date. YangUI aggregates and parses all those models. It also acts as a REST client; through its web interface we can execute functions such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.

There’s more…

The example shown previously can be improved on, as there was no user yang model loaded. For instance, if you mount a NETCONF device containing its own yang model, you could interact with it through YangUI.

You would use the config datastore to push/update some data, and you would see the operational datastore updated accordingly. In addition, accessing your data would be much easier than having to define the exact URL.

See also

  • Using API doc as a REST API client.

Summary

Throughout this article, we learned recipes such as connecting OpenFlow switches, mounting a NETCONF device, browsing data models with Yang UI.

Resources for Article:

Further resources on this subject:

Packt

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