ONF Connect 2019

Network operators need the ability to maintain a dynamic set of services that can change over time -- services may be added, deleted, or upgraded over the lifecycle of a running pod. In SEBA, the NEM manages not only the containers that implement these services, but also the data model that holds configuration and coordination data on behalf of these services. From a disaggregated set of service specifications, the NEM automatically generates this data model and a gRPC API that enables both inter-component communication and northbound consumers. This presentation will begin by discussing our motivation in creating the data model and API, then we will discuss some of the unique challenges encountered in our design, including how the NEM handles software upgrade. In service software upgrade (ISSU) is a multi-phase process that begins with upgrading the containers via Helm or Kubernetes and concludes with a migration of the NEM's database schema and live data. We will discuss the XOS and NEM specific implementation of data migration in SEBA, and the operational aspects of performing database migration in an operator's production environment. We will conclude with a demo of a new tool that ONF and the community have developed, cordctl, that is a command-line interface to the NEM. Cordctl exercises a wide range of API features, from being able to query and update models (subscribers, devices, etc) in a SEBA pod to being able to initiate backup and restore. We will demonstrate a few common operations using this tool.