Hello All, We'd like to invite you all to try out networking-vpp 19.03. As many of you may already know, VPP is a fast user space forwarder based on the DPDK toolkit. VPP uses vector packet processing algorithms to mininmise the CPU time spent on each packet to maxmise throughput. Networking-vpp is a ML2 mechanism driver that controls VPP on your control and compute hosts to provide fast L2 forwarding under Neutron. This latest version is updated to work with VPP 19.01. In the 19.03 release, we added a few features: - To complement the GPE overlay, there is now also a L3 solution for port mirroring (OpenStack TaaS) connections. When you're using GPE, the overlay is L3 and you may have routers between your compute nodes, so moving the TAP traffic around also requires an L3 overlay. We use VXLAN point to point connections to get that copy of traffic to the VM destination, and these can be routed over L3. We automatically use VXLAN connections when you're tapping ports on GPE networks and VLAN connections for L2 networks so this should all Just Work. - We've worked on out Python 3 compatibility in preparation for the EOL of Pythnon 2. Both the Neutron server's driver components and the agent components that control VPP should now support Python 3, but this work is ongoing and if you do find any issues please report them on the Launchpad page. - We've worked on our L3 Neutron routers support and added functionality that allows you to use NAT from multiple routers simultaneously - ideal if, for instance, you like to use one router per tenant and in more unusual cases routers with different external networks. - We've been doing the usual round of bug fixes and updates - the code will work with both VPP 18.10 and 19.01 and has been updated to keep up with Neutron Rocky and Stein. The README [1] explains how you can try out VPP using devstack: the devstack plugin will deploy the mechanism driver and VPP and should give you a working system with a minimum of hassle. We will be continuing our development for VPP's 19.04 release. We welcome anyone who would like to come help us. -- Ian & Naveen