ifplugin

README

Linux interface Plugin

The plugin watches the northbound configuration of Linux network interfaces, which is modelled by interfaces proto file and stored in ETCD under the following key:

/vnf-agent/<agent-label>/linux/config/v1/interface/<interface-name>

Linux interface is uniquely identified in the northbound configuration by its name. The same string is also used in the Linux network stack to label the interface and it has to be unique across all network namespaces. It is therefore recommended for the northbound applications to prefix interface names with namespace identifiers in case there is a chance of collisions across namespaces.

The re-synchronization procedure is a bit simpler than that from the VPP plugins. Linux plugin will not touch existing Linux interfaces which are not part of the northbound configuration. Managed interfaces which are already present when the agent starts will be re-created from the scratch.

The current version does not yet support interface notifications and statistics.

Linux plugin is also an optional dependency for ifplugin from VPP plugins. If linuxplugin is loaded, ifplugin will be watching for newly created and removed Linux interfaces. This is useful because AFPACKET interface will not function properly if it gets created when the target host interface is not available. ifplugin will ensure that AFPACKET interfaces are always created after the associated host interfaces. If the host interface gets removed so will the associated afpacket. ifplugin will keep the afpacket configuration in the cache and re-create it once the host interface is available again. To enable this feature, linuxplugin must be loaded before VPP default plugins.

VETH

Virtual Ethernet interfaces come in pairs, and they are connected like a tube — whatever comes in one VETH interface will come out the other peer VETH interface. As a result, you can use VETH interfaces to connect a network namespace to the outside world via the “default” or “global” namespace where physical interfaces exist.

VETH pair is configured through the northbound API as two separate interfaces, both of the type LinuxInterfaces_VETH and pointing to each other through the veth.peer_if_name reference. Agent will physically create the pair only after both sides are configured and the target namespaces are available. Similarly, to maintain the symmetry, VETH pair gets removed from the Linux network stack as soon as any of the sides is un-configured or a target namespace disappears (e.g. the destination microservice has terminated). The agent, however, will not forget a partial configuration and once all the requirements are met again the VETH will get automatically recreated.

VETH usage example

Consider a scenario in which we need to connect VPP running in the host (i.e. "default") namespace with a VPP running inside a Docker container. This can be achieved by both memif interface as well as through a combination of a Linux VETH pair with AF packet interfaces from VPP (confusingly called host interface in VPP). First you would supply northbound configurations for both sides of the VETH pair. That is two interfaces of type LinuxInterfaces_VETH with one end in the default namespace (namespace.Name=""), making it visible for the host VPP, and the other end inserted into the namespace of the container with the other VPP. This can be achieved by either directly referencing the PID of the container (namespace.type=PID_REF_NS; namespace.pid=<PID>), or, if the container is actually a microservice, a more convenient way is to reference the namespace by the microservice label (namespace.type=MICROSERVICE_REF_NS; namespace.microservice=<LABEL>). Peer references (veth.peer_if_name) need to be configured on both interfaces such that they point to each other. Next step is to create one AF packet interface on both VPPs and assign them to their respective sides of the VETH pair. Packet leaving host interface of one of these VPPs will get sent to its VETH counterpart via AF_PACKET socket, then forwarded to the other side of the VETH pair inside the Linux network stack, crossing namespaces in the process, and finally it is transferred to the destination and originally opposite VPP through a AF_PACKET socket once again.

JSON configuration example with vpp-agent-ctl

An example configuration for both ends of VETH in JSON format can be found here and here.

To insert config into etcd in JSON format vpp-agent-ctl can be used. For example, to configure interface veth1, use the configuration in the veth1.json file and run the following vpp-agent-ctl command:

vpp-agent-ctl -put "/vnf-agent/my-agent/linux/config/v1/interface/veth1" json/veth1.json

Inbuilt configuration example with vpp-agent-ctl

The vpp-agent-ctl binary also ships with some simple predefined VETH configurations. This is intended solely for testing purposes.

To create the veth1-veth2 pair where veth1 in the named namespace ns1 with IP address 192.168.22.1 and veth is in the named namespace ns2 with IP address 192.168.22.2, run:

vpp-agent-ctl -veth

To remove the both interfaces, run:

vpp-agent-ctl -vethd

Run vpp-agent-ctl with no arguments to get the list of all available commands and options. The documentation for vpp-agent-ctl is incomplete right now, and the only way to find out what a given command does is to study the source code itself.

Documentation

Index

• type LinuxDataPair
• type LinuxInterfaceConfig
• type LinuxInterfaceConfigurator
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) Close() error
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ConfigureLinuxInterface(linuxIf *interfaces.LinuxInterfaces_Interface) error
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) DeleteLinuxInterface(linuxIf *interfaces.LinuxInterfaces_Interface) error
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetCachedLinuxIfIndexes() ifaceidx.LinuxIfIndex
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetInterfaceByMsCache() map[string][]*LinuxInterfaceConfig
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetInterfaceByNameCache() map[string]*LinuxInterfaceConfig
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetLinuxInterfaceIndexes() ifaceidx.LinuxIfIndex
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) Init(logging logging.PluginLogger, ifHandler linuxcalls.NetlinkAPI, ...) (err error)
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ModifyLinuxInterface(newLinuxIf, oldLinuxIf *interfaces.LinuxInterfaces_Interface) (err error)
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ResolveCreatedVPPInterface(ifConfigMetaData *vppIf.Interfaces_Interface) error
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ResolveDeletedVPPInterface(ifConfigMetaData *vppIf.Interfaces_Interface) error
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) Resync(nbIfs []*interfaces.LinuxInterfaces_Interface) (errs []error)
• type LinuxInterfaceStateNotification
• type LinuxInterfaceStateUpdater
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceStateUpdater) Close() error
  • func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceStateUpdater) Init(logger logging.PluginLogger, ctx context.Context, ...) error

Types

type LinuxDataPair

type LinuxDataPair struct {
	// contains filtered or unexported fields
}

LinuxDataPair stores linux interface with matching NB configuration

type LinuxInterfaceConfig

type LinuxInterfaceConfig struct {
	// contains filtered or unexported fields
}

LinuxInterfaceConfig is used to cache the configuration of Linux interfaces.

type LinuxInterfaceConfigurator

type LinuxInterfaceConfigurator struct {
	// contains filtered or unexported fields
}

LinuxInterfaceConfigurator runs in the background in its own goroutine where it watches for any changes in the configuration of interfaces as modelled by the proto file "model/interfaces/interfaces.proto" and stored in ETCD under the key "/vnf-agent/{vnf-agent}/linux/config/v1/interface". Updates received from the northbound API are compared with the Linux network configuration and differences are applied through the Netlink API.

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) Close

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) Close() error

Close does nothing for linux interface configurator. State and notification channels are closed in linux plugin.

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ConfigureLinuxInterface

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ConfigureLinuxInterface(linuxIf *interfaces.LinuxInterfaces_Interface) error

ConfigureLinuxInterface reacts to a new northbound Linux interface config by creating and configuring the interface in the host network stack through Netlink API.

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) DeleteLinuxInterface

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) DeleteLinuxInterface(linuxIf *interfaces.LinuxInterfaces_Interface) error

DeleteLinuxInterface reacts to a removed NB configuration of a Linux interface.

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetCachedLinuxIfIndexes

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetCachedLinuxIfIndexes() ifaceidx.LinuxIfIndex

GetCachedLinuxIfIndexes gives access to mapping of not configurated interface indexes.

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetInterfaceByMsCache

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetInterfaceByMsCache() map[string][]*LinuxInterfaceConfig

GetInterfaceByMsCache returns cache of microservice <-> interface list

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetInterfaceByNameCache

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetInterfaceByNameCache() map[string]*LinuxInterfaceConfig

GetInterfaceByNameCache returns cache of interface <-> config entries

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetLinuxInterfaceIndexes

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) GetLinuxInterfaceIndexes() ifaceidx.LinuxIfIndex

GetLinuxInterfaceIndexes returns in-memory mapping of linux inerfaces

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) Init

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) Init(logging logging.PluginLogger, ifHandler linuxcalls.NetlinkAPI, nsHandler nsplugin.NamespaceAPI,
	ifIndexes ifaceidx.LinuxIfIndexRW, ifNotif chan *nsplugin.MicroserviceEvent, stopwatch *measure.Stopwatch) (err error)

Init linux plugin and start go routines.

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ModifyLinuxInterface

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ModifyLinuxInterface(newLinuxIf, oldLinuxIf *interfaces.LinuxInterfaces_Interface) (err error)

ModifyLinuxInterface applies changes in the NB configuration of a Linux interface into the host network stack through Netlink API.

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ResolveCreatedVPPInterface

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ResolveCreatedVPPInterface(ifConfigMetaData *vppIf.Interfaces_Interface) error

ResolveCreatedInterface resolves a new vpp interfaces

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ResolveDeletedVPPInterface

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) ResolveDeletedVPPInterface(ifConfigMetaData *vppIf.Interfaces_Interface) error

ResolveDeletedInterface resolves removed vpp interfaces

func (*LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) Resync

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceConfigurator) Resync(nbIfs []*interfaces.LinuxInterfaces_Interface) (errs []error)

Resync writes interfaces to Linux. Interface host name corresponds with Linux host interface name (but name can be different). Resync consists of following steps: 1. Iterate over all NB interfaces. Try to find interface with the same name in required namespace for every NB interface. 2. If interface does not exist, will be created anew 3. If interface exists, it is correlated and modified if needed. Resync configures an initial set of interfaces. Existing Linux interfaces are registered and potentially re-configured.

type LinuxInterfaceStateNotification

type LinuxInterfaceStateNotification struct {
	// contains filtered or unexported fields
}

LinuxInterfaceStateNotification aggregates operational status derived from netlink with the details (state) about the interface.

type LinuxInterfaceStateUpdater

type LinuxInterfaceStateUpdater struct {
	// contains filtered or unexported fields
}

LinuxInterfaceStateUpdater processes all linux interface state data

func (*LinuxInterfaceStateUpdater) Close

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceStateUpdater) Close() error

Close watcher channel (state chan is closed in LinuxInterfaceConfigurator)

func (*LinuxInterfaceStateUpdater) Init

func (plugin *LinuxInterfaceStateUpdater) Init(logger logging.PluginLogger, ctx context.Context, ifIndexes ifaceidx.LinuxIfIndexRW,
	stateChan chan *LinuxInterfaceStateNotification) error

Init channels for interface state watcher, start it in separate go routine and subscribe to default namespace