Open Stack

On May 13, 2013, at 2:14 AM, Luke Gorrie <luke at tail-f.com> wrote:
> Howdy,
> 
> I would like to develop a Quantum plugin for the Tail-f Network Control System (NCS - http://www.tail-f.com/network-control-system/). I want to do this in a tasteful way that helps to make Quantum better. I am an OpenStack newbie so I would appreciate some advice on the first steps :-)
> 
> For background, NCS is a network provisioning system that knows how to control Cisco/Juniper/etc devices. The goal for this plugin is for Quantum to notify NCS of network/port/etc changes so that NCS can perform relevant provisioning of the physical switches and routers that connect the OpenStack nodes to the world and to each other.
> 
> That is: NCS owns the switches and routers, LinuxBridge/OVS owns the hypervisor networking, and the plugin keeps them in sync.
> 
> I have been reading the Quantum code and it looks like the BigSwitch plugin is close to what we need, i.e. a plugin that proxies all Quantum provisioning events over a REST interface to an external system. I have the impression though that this replaces the LinuxBridge/OVS plugin whereas we want to run that in parallel. (I also don't necessarily need the Quantum network state cached in the Python plugin.)
> 
> Any tips on how to move this forward and thrash out a design that's good for Quantum? I have the impression there is a lot of related work going on at the moment…
> 
You will want to make sure you follow closely the ML2 work being done by Bob Kakura. The blueprint is here:

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/quantum/+spec/modular-l2

This work will lead to exactly the situation you want: Being able to run the LinuxBridge and/or OVS plugins at the same time as your new device control layer. Also, FYI, the Cisco plugin does exactly what you want already. We have model layers in there for running the OVS plugin and at the same time controlling Nexus switches. But we plan to integrate with the ML2 work being done by Bob as well, as it's the right way forward for this type of approach.

Thanks,
Kyle

> Cheers,
> -Luke
> 
> 
> 
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