Virtual Routing in the Cloud

The Cisco expert guide to planning, deploying, and operating virtual routing with the CSR 1000V Cloud Services Router

Virtual routing and the Cisco Cloud Services Router (CSR 1000V) are key enablers of today’s revolutionary shift to elastic cloud applications and low-cost virtualized networking. Now, there’s an authoritative, complete guide to building real solutions with the Cisco CSR 1000V platform.

Three leading experts cover every essential building block, present key use cases and configuration examples, illuminate design and deployment scenarios, and show how the CSR 1000V platform and APIs can enable state-of-the-art software-defined networks (SDN). Drawing on extensive early adopter experience, they illuminate crucial OS and hypervisor details, help you overcome migration challenges, and offer practical guidance for monitoring and operations.

This guide is an essential resource for all technical professionals planning or deploying data center and enterprise cloud services, and for all cloud network operators utilizing the Cisco CSR 1000V or future Cisco virtual routing platforms.

·         Review the fundamentals of cloud virtualization, multitenant data-center design, and software-defined networking

·         Understand the Cisco CSR 1000V’s role, features, and infrastructure requirements

·         Compare server hypervisor technologies for managing VM hardware with CSR 1000V deployments

·         Understand CSR 1000V software architecture, control and data-plane design, licensing requirements, and packet flow

·         Walk through common virtual router scenarios and configurations, including multiple cloud and data center examples

·         Integrate CSR 1000V into the OpenStack SDN framework, and use its APIs to solve specific problems

·         Master a best-practice workflow for deploying the CSR 1000V

·         Use the Cisco management tools to automate, orchestrate, and troubleshoot virtualized routing

Category: Networking/Cloud Computing

Covers: Cloud Services Router

This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press, which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers

Arvind Durai, CCIE No. 7016, is an advanced services principal architect for Cisco Systems. His primary responsibility in the past 17 years has been in supporting major Cisco customers in the enterprise sector, including financial, retail, manufacturing, e-commerce, state government, utility (smart grid networks), and health-care sectors. Some of his focuses have been on security, multicast, network virtualization, and data center, and he has authored several white papers and design guides on various technologies. He has also been involved in data center design for more than 10 years and has designed many enterprise private cloud data center environments.

Arvind maintains two CCIE certifications: Routing and Switching, and Security. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics and Communication, a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (MS), and a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA). He is a coauthor of two Cisco press books, Cisco Secure Firewall Services Moduleand TcL Scripting for Cisco IOS.

He has coauthored IEEE WAN smart grid architecture and has been a panel member for IEEE publications. Arvind also has presented in many industry forums, such as IEEE and Cisco LIVE.

Stephen Lynn, CCIE No. 5507 (Routing & Switching/WAN/Security) and CCDE No. 20130056, is an architect at Cisco Systems in the U.S. federal area. He has been with Cisco for more than 16 years and is a subject matter expert on enterprise network architecture. His focus is on large-scale network designs, including campus, WAN, and data center. As a recognized expert within Cisco and in the industry, Stephen has been working on large-scale, complex wide-area network designs in an enterprise environment. Stephen’s focus has been on architectural designs involving 1,000 nodes to more than 10,000 nodes, leveraging technologies such as DMVPN, GET VPN, and FlexVPN to provide transport encryption and network segmentation over IP transport such as MPLS/Ethernet. Other areas of focus include high availability and convergence, QoS, Performance Routing (PfR), and network virtualization.

Stephen is a well-known speaker who has presented at several conferences and seminars worldwide. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia. Stephen is based out of the Cisco office in Washington, DC.

Amit Srivastava is a senior manager with Equinix, Inc. At Equinix his team is responsible for global network and product fulfillment for Equinix’s Cloud Exchange platform. Amit formerly worked as a technical leader with Cisco Systems, Inc. He has developed, tested, and enhanced network software for nearly 14 years. Before joining Cisco, he held positions in software application development, management, and testing.

Amit was involved in developing embedded applications for mobile devices in his engagement with Hughes Networks prior to joining Cisco.

Amit has been involved in the development cycles of new operating systems such as IOS XR and IOS XE and delivering features such as MPLS-based Layer 2 and 3 VPNs and traffic engineering. With IOS XE, Amit has worked with platforms such as ASR 1000 and CSR 1000V right from their inception, delivering enterprise-level features like IPsec, NAT, firewalls, NetFlow, AVC, and QoS. Amit holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

Introduction xv

Chapter 1 Introduction to Cloud 1

Evolution of the Data Center 1

    Data Center Architecture Building Blocks 2

Introduction to Virtualization in the Data Center 4

    Evolution of Virtualization 5

    Conceptual Architecture of Virtualization 5

    Types of Virtualization Technologies 6

        Server Virtualization 6

        Types of Server Virtualization 8

        Storage Virtualization 9

        Types of Storage Virtualization 11

        Network Virtualization 12

        Network Virtualization Evolution 13

        Types of Network Virtualization 14

        Service Virtualization 15

    Introduction to the Multitenant Data Center 16

Introduction to Cloud Services 18

    Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) 18

    Platform as a Service (PaaS) 19

    Software as a Service (SaaS) 20

    Cloud Deployment Models 20

    Cloud Design Considerations 21

        Domain 1: Infrastructure and Environmental 22

        Domain 2: Abstraction and Virtualization 23

        Domain 3: Automation and Orchestration 23

        Domain 4: Customer Interface 24

        Domains 5 and 6: Service Catalog and Financials 24

        Domains 7 and 8: Platform and Application 24

        Domain 9: Security and Compliance 24

        Domain 10: Organization, Governance, and Process 25

    Enterprise Connectivity to the Cloud 26

        Internet for Transport 26

        Direct Connectivity to a Cloud Provider 28

    Enterprise Cloud Adoption Challenges 29

Software-Defined Networking 30

    Open Networking Foundation 31

    OpenDaylight Project 32

    Network Function Virtualization 33

    OpenStack 34

Summary 35

Chapter 2 Software Evolution of the CSR 1000 37

IOS Software Architecture 37

IOS XE Architecture 39

    The IOS XE Kernel 40

    The IOS Daemon 40

    The Forwarding Manager 41

    The Interface Manager 41

    The Platform Manager 41

Cisco ASR 1000 System Architecture Overview 41

    Route Processor 42

    Embedded Service Processor 42

    SPA Interface Processor 43

Cloud Service Router 1000V Overview 44

Deployment Requirements 45

Elastic Performance and Scaling 47

Rapid Deployment and Routing Flexibility in the Cloud 49

CSR 1000V Deployment Examples 50

    Secure Cloud VPN Gateway 50

    Network Extension from Premises to Cloud 51

    Segmentation Within a Cloud 52

CSR 1000V Key Features 52

Summary 57

Chapter 3 Hypervisor Considerations for the CSR 59

Understanding Operating Systems 59

    Operating System Design 60

        Physical Resource Management 60

        Software Access to Physical Resources 62

    Kernels 63

        Microkernels 63

        Hybrid Kernels 64

        The Cisco IOS Kernel 64

    The Boot Process 66

    Linux Memory Management 69

        Linux Swap Space and Memory Overcommit 69

        Linux Caching 71

Understanding Hypervisors 71

    How Does a Hypervisor Compare to an Operating System? 72

    Type 1 Hypervisor Design 74

        Monolithic Architecture 74

        Microkernel Architecture 74

        Core Partitioning 75

ESXi Hypervisor 75

    Architectural Components of ESXi 75

    The VMkernel 75

        Components of the VMkernel 76

    Processes Running on the VMkernel 77

    Device Drivers 78

    File Systems 79

    Management 80

KVM 82

    Architectural Components of KVM/QEMU 84

    Guest Emulator (QEMU) 85

    Management Daemon (Libvirt) 88

        User Tools (virsh, virt-manager) 89

Hyper-V 91

Xen 92

Summary 94

Chapter 4 CSR 1000V Software Architecture 95

System Design 95

    Virtualizing the ASR 1001 into the CSR 1000V 98

    CSR 1000V Initialization Process 99

    CSR 1000V Data Plane Architecture 100

    CSR 1000V Software Crypto Engine 103

Life of a Packet on a CSR 1000V: The Data Plane 103

    Netmap I/O 104

    Packet Flow 106

        Device Initialization Flow 106

        TX Flow 107

        RX Flow 108

        Unicast Traffic Packet Flow 109

Installing the CSR 1000V on a VMware Hypervisor 110

    Bringing Up the VM with the CSR 1000V on ESXi 110

Installing the CSR 1000V on a KVM Hypervisor 126

    Bring Up the CSR 1000V as a Guest 126

Performance Tuning of the CSR 1000V 137

Summary 139

Chapter 5 CSR 1000V Deployment Scenarios 141

VPN Services 141

    Layer 2 VPNs 141

    Layer 3 VPNs 142

        Site-to-Site VPNs 143

        Remote Access VPNs 147

Use Cases for the CSR 1000V as a VPN Service Gateway 148

    Enterprise Data Center Network Extension 148

        The CSR 1000V as a VPN Gateway 148

    CSR for Secure Inter-Cloud Connectivity 152

    Remote VPN Access into the Cloud 153

BGP Route Reflector Use Case for the CSR 155

    The CSR 1000V in a Hierarchical Route Reflector Use Case 157

Planning for Future Branch Design with the CSR 1000V 162

    Evolution of Branch Virtualization 164

LISP and CSR 168

    LISP Terminology 169

    The LISP Data Plane 171

    The LISP Control Plane 171

    Typical LISP Use Cases 175

        IP Mobility 175

        IPv6 Migration 175

        Network-to-Network Connectivity 175

        Network-to-Network Interconnection Topology and Configuration 176

Summary 183

Chapter 6 CSR Cloud Deployment Scenarios 185

CSR in a Multitenant Data Center 185

Cloudburst 190

    Direct Access Model 191

    Redirection Access Model 192

    The Cisco Inter-Cloud Fabric 194

Private Cloud Deployment with CSR in OpenStack 195

    Introduction to OpenStack 196

        Primary Use Case for OpenStack 196

        OpenStack Components 197

    CSR Within OpenStack 206

        CSR 1000V as a Neutron Router 206

        CSR 1000V as a Tenant Router 209

CSR 1000V in a Public Cloud 211

    Amazon Web Services Deployment for the CSR 211

        Amazon Web Service Solutions 211

        Routing in AWS Clouds 212

    CSR 1000V Deployment in AWS 216

        Instantiate a CSR in AWS 217

Summary 222

Chapter 7 CSR in the SDN Framework 223

Deploying OpenStack 225

CSR as an OpenStack Tenant Deployment 235

Instantiate CSR Plugin to OpenStack 242

Summary 245

Chapter 8 CSR 1000V Automation, Orchestration, and Troubleshooting 247

Automation 248

    BDEO 248

    NSO (Tail-f) 249

        NSO Example for NFV Orchestration with OpenStack (Service Chain) 252

Orchestration 267

    Virtual Managed Services (VMS) 267

    Cisco Prime Network Services Controller (PNSC) 269

CSR 1000V Troubleshooting 271

    Architecture Overview 271

    I/O Configuration 272

        vSwitch 272

        PCI Passthrough 274

        SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization) 274

        Host Configurations 275

    Debugging Packet Loss 276

        High-Level Packet Flow 276

        ESXi Packet Debugging 289

Summary 292

Appendix A Sample Answer File for Packstack 293

9781587144943   TOC   4/8/2016

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