Virtual Network Function (VNF) Manager for Virtual Broadband Remote Access Server (vBRAS) (VNFM-vBRAS) is a containerized software product for vBRAS lifecycle management. It must work with the VNF-Manager component to accomplish virtual machine (VM) image management, VM VNF package management, and VM lifecycle management. vBRAS lifecycle management provides carriers with fast deployment, initialization, and lifecycle management of vBRASs, providing more agile deployment capabilities.

Prerequisites

Server requirements

VNFM-vBRAS can be deployed on Unified Platform in either single-host mode or three-host mode.

Hardware requirements (deployment on physical server)

CAUTION:

· As a best practice to decrease the possibility of system failure due to abnormal power outages, make sure the RAID controllers used in servers support power fail protection with supercapacitors installed.

· For VNFM-vBRAS of a version earlier than E6302, the compatible Unified Platform version is earlier than E0706 (including E06xx), and the ETCD partition must use a separate physical hard disk.

· For VNFM-vBRAS of version E6302 or later, the compatible Unified Platform version is E0711 and later. The ETCD partition can share a physical hard disk with other partitions. For better performance, use a separate physical hard disk for the ETCD partition as a best practice.

The hardware requirements for running VNFM-vBRAS on Unified Platform are as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Hardware requirements

CPU	Memory	Disk	NIC
x86-64 (Intel64/AMD64), 10 cores, 2.0 GHz or above	108 GB or above	RAID configuration is required, and the RAID level can be RAID1 or RAID10. Select one of the following configuration options: · Disk configuration option 1: ¡ System disk: 2 × 960 GB SSDs in RAID1 or 4 × 480 GB SSDs in RAID10 (the total disk capacity after RAID configuration must be greater than or equal to 960 GB) ¡ ETCD disk: 2 × 480 GB SSDs in RAID1 (the total disk capacity after RAID configuration must be greater than or equal to 50 GB), installation path: /var/lib/etcd · Disk configuration option 2: ¡ System disk: 2 × 1200 GB HDDs in RAID1 or 4 × 600 GB HDDs in RAID10 (the total disk capacity after RAID configuration must be greater than or equal to 960 GB), 7.2K RPM or higher HDDs ¡ ETCD disk: 2 × 600 GB HDDs in RAID1 (the total disk capacity after RAID configuration must be greater than or equal to 50 GB), 7.2K RPM or higher HDDs, installation path: /var/lib/etcd ¡ RAID controller: 1 GB cache, power fail protection supported with a supercapacitor installed	· Non-bonding mode: 1 × 1Gbps or 1 × 10Gbps · Bonding mode: 2 × 1Gbps Linux bonding interfaces or 2 × 10Gbps Linux bonding interfaces

CPU

Memory

Disk

NIC

x86-64 (Intel64/AMD64), 10 cores, 2.0 GHz or above

108 GB or above

RAID configuration is required, and the RAID level can be RAID1 or RAID10. Select one of the following configuration options:

· Disk configuration option 1:

¡ System disk: 2 × 960 GB SSDs in RAID1 or 4 × 480 GB SSDs in RAID10 (the total disk capacity after RAID configuration must be greater than or equal to 960 GB)

¡ ETCD disk: 2 × 480 GB SSDs in RAID1 (the total disk capacity after RAID configuration must be greater than or equal to 50 GB), installation path: /var/lib/etcd

· Disk configuration option 2:

¡ System disk: 2 × 1200 GB HDDs in RAID1 or 4 × 600 GB HDDs in RAID10 (the total disk capacity after RAID configuration must be greater than or equal to 960 GB), 7.2K RPM or higher HDDs

¡ ETCD disk: 2 × 600 GB HDDs in RAID1 (the total disk capacity after RAID configuration must be greater than or equal to 50 GB), 7.2K RPM or higher HDDs, installation path: /var/lib/etcd

¡ RAID controller: 1 GB cache, power fail protection supported with a supercapacitor installed

· Non-bonding mode: 1 × 1Gbps or 1 × 10Gbps

· Bonding mode: 2 × 1Gbps Linux bonding interfaces or 2 × 10Gbps Linux bonding interfaces

NOTE:

Make sure the server supports operating system CentOS 7.6 or later.

Hardware requirements (deployment on VM)

VNFM-vBRAS supports VM-based deployment and can be installed in a VM environment. The virtualization environment provides necessary resources such as CPU, memory, and disks. Supported virtualization platforms and versions:

· VMware ESXi: 6.7.0

· CAS: H3C_CAS-E0706

For VM-based deployment, if the virtualization platform server has the hyper-threading mode enabled, the number of vCPUs must be twice the number of CPU cores required by physical server-based deployment. If the hyper-threading mode is not enabled, the number of vCPUs must be the same as that required by physical server-based deployment, and the memory and disk configuration can follow the requirements by physical server-based deployment. This section takes enabling hyper-threading as an example.

CAUTION:

· The CPU, memory, and disk resources allocated to a VM must meet the recommended capacity requirements. Make sure physical resources of the corresponding capacities exist. Do not enable the overcommitment mode, which allocates resources more than resources available. Additionally, you must reserve resources for the VNFM-vBRAS VM. If you do not do that, the system environment will be unstable.

· To deploy VNFM-vBRAS on a VM managed by VMware, you must enable the promiscuous mode and forged transmits on the host where the VM resides.

· As a best practice to ensure high availability, configure the three VM nodes of the VNFM-vBRAS cluster on three different physical hosts.

The hardware requirements for running VNFM-vBRAS on Unified Platform are as shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Hardware requirements

CPU	Memory	Disk
20 cores, 2.0GHz frequency	108 GB or higher	· Disk: ¡ System disk: 1.92 TB ¡ ETCD disk: 50 GB · NIC: 1 × 10Gbps

CPU

Memory

Disk

20 cores, 2.0GHz frequency

108 GB or higher

· Disk:

¡ System disk: 1.92 TB

¡ ETCD disk: 50 GB

· NIC: 1 × 10Gbps

Disk partitions

Table 3 Disk partition configuration

Mount point	Partition configuration for hard disk capacity of 2400 GB	Partition configuration for hard disk capacity of 1920 GB	Partition configuration for hard disk capacity of 960 GB
/var/lib/docker	500 GiB	450 GiB	-
/boot	1024 MiB	1024 MiB	1024 MiB
swap	1024 MiB	1024 MiB	1024 MiB
/var/lib/ssdata	550 GiB	500 GiB	-
/	800 GiB	500 GiB	692 GiB
/boot/efi	200 MiB	200 MiB	150 MiB
/var/lib/etcd	48 GiB	48 GiB	48 GiB
GFS partition	300 GiB	220 GiB	200 GiB

Software requirements

VNFM-vBRAS runs as a component on Unified Platform. Before deploying VNFM-vBRAS, you must first install Unified Platform.

Client requirements

You can access Unified Platform directly through a browser and do not need to install a client. Google Chrome 70 or later are recommended.

Check the installation environment

Table 4 describes the installation environment check items. Make sure all requirements for installing Unified Platform are met.

Table 4 Checking the installation environment

Check item		Check criteria
Server	Hardware check	Make sure all hardware components (including CPU, memory, hard disks, and NICs) meet the requirements Identify whether operating system CentOS 7.6 and later are supported.
Server	Software check	Make sure the system time has been configured. As a best practice, configure NTP for time synchronization and make sure the whole network uses the same clock source for time synchronization.
Client		Make sure the browser version meets the requirements

Installation workflow

VNFM-vBRAS is the core component of vBRAS lifecycle management. When deploying the VNFM-vBRAS component, you must also deploy the VNF-Manager component or make sure the VNF-Manager component has been deployed.

VNFM-vBRAS supports the following deployment methods:

· Deployment on Matrix.

· Deployment on Unified Platform.

Convergence deployment process on Matrix

Table 5 Convergence deployment process on Matrix

Step	Operation	Remarks
1. Prepare servers	According to the network requirements, prepare one or three servers.	Required. See "Server requirements" for hardware and software requirements.
2. Deploy Matrix	Install the H3Linux operating system and deploy Matrix on the servers.	Required. For more information, see H3C Unified Platform Deployment Guide.
3. Deploy the VNFM-vBRAS component	Log in to Matrix	Required.
	Upload installation packages	Required.
	Select applications	Required.
	Select installation packages	Required.
	Configure parameters	Required.

Deployment process on Unified Platform

Table 6 VNFM-vBRAS installation process

Step		Operation	Remarks
1. Prepare servers		According to the network requirements, prepare one or three servers.	See "Server requirements" for hardware and software requirements.
2. Deploy Matrix		Install the H3Linux operating system and deploy Matrix on the servers.	Required. For more information, see H3C Unified Platform Deployment Guide.
3. Deploy Unified Platform	Versions earlier than E0713	Deploy Unified Platform and applications in the following order: · common_PLAT_GlusterFS_2.0 · general_PLAT_portal_2.0 · general_PLAT_kernel_2.0 · general_PLAT_kernel-base_2.0	Required. For more information, see H3C Unified Platform Deployment Guide. general_PLAT_kernel-base_2.0 does not require manual deployment after upload, because it can be automatically deployed when the VNFM-vBRAS component is deployed.
3. Deploy Unified Platform	E0713 and later	Deploy Unified Platform and applications in the following order: · UDTP_Middle · UDTP_GlusterFS · UDTP_Core · UDTP_Imonitor · BMP_Report · BMP_Alarm · BMP_Subscription · BMP_Template	Required. For more information, see H3C Unified Platform Deployment Guide.
4. Deploy the VNFM-vBRAS component		Log in to Unified Platform	Required.
		Upload installation packages	Required.
		Select components	Required.
		Configure parameters	Required.
		Configure networks	Required.
		Bind nodes	Required.
		Bind networks	Required.
		Confirm parameters	Required.

Install VNFM-vBRAS

CAUTION:

VNFM-vBRAS runs as a component on Unified Platform. Operations such as deployment, upgrade, and uninstallation of the component must be performed on Matrix or Unified Platform.

VNFM-vBRAS supports the following deployment methods:

· Deployment on Matrix.

· Deployment on Unified Platform.

When deploying the VNFM-vBRAS component, you must also deploy the VNF-Manager component or make sure the VNF-Manager component has been deployed. In this example, the VNF Manager component has been deployed. If the VNF-Manager component has not been deployed, deploy it as described in H3C VNF Manager Installation and Deployment Guide (Unified Platform).

Deployment on Matrix

CAUTION:

Only Unified Platform E0713 and later versions are supported.

Directly deploy the VNFM-vBRAS component and its dependent Unified Platform application installation packages on Matrix.

Log in to Matrix

1. In the address bar of the browser, enter https://ip_address:8443/matrix/ui to log in to Matrix.

The ip_address parameter specifies the northbound service VIP.

2. On the top navigation bar, click Deploy.

3. From the navigation pane, select Convergence Deployment.

4. Click Install.

The component deployment guide page opens.

Upload installation packages

1. Click the Upload button to upload the component installation packages and the dependent Unified Platform application installation packages to the system.

For the component installation packages and their dependent Unified Platform application installation packages, see Table 7 and Table 8.

2. After the upload is completed, click Next to parse the installation packages and access the application selection page.

Table 7 List of installation packages

Component name	Component installation package name
VNFM-vBRAS	VNFM-vBRAS-version-MATRIX.zip

Table 8 Dependent Unified Platform application installation packages

Installation package name	Description	Dependencies
UDTP_Middle_version_x86.zip	Middleware image repository	-
UDTP_GlusterFS_version_x86.zip	Provides local shared storage functionalities	Middle
UDTP_Core_version_x86.zip	Provides portal, unified authentication, user management, service gateway, help center, permission, resource identity, license, configuration center, resource group, and logging functions	Middle, GlusterFS
UDTP_IMonitor_version_x86.zip	Provides the self-monitoring service	Middle, GlusterFS, Core
BMP_Report_version_x86.zip	Report	-
BMP_Alarm_version_x86.zip	Provides the alarm service	Report

Figure 1 Uploading installation packages

Select applications

1. Select VNFM-vBRAS.

The VNF-Manager component and the dependent Unified Platform application packages will be automatically selected by default.

2. Click Next.

Figure 2 Selecting applications (1)

Figure 3 Selecting applications (2)

Select installation packages

Select the version number of each installation package. Click Next.

Figure 4 Selecting installation packages

Configure parameters

The VNFM-vBRAS application does not require any parameter configuration. Click Deploy, confirm the applications to be deployed, and start deployment. The deployment progress will be displayed on the page.

Figure 5 Configuring parameters

Figure 6 Application deployment in progress

Deployment on Unified Platform

Before deploying VNFM-vBRAS, you must first deploy the application package for Unified Platform. Then, deploy the VNFM-vBRAS component on Unified Platform.

Install Unified Platform

For information about installing Unified Platform, see H3C Unified Platform Deployment Guide.

Table 9 Dependent Unified Platform application installation packages (earlier than E0713)

Application installation package name	Description
common_PLAT_GlusterFS_2.0_version_x86.zip	Provides local shared storage functionalities
general_PLAT_portal_2.0_version_x86.zip	Provides the portal, unified authentication, user management, service gateway, and help center functions
general_PLAT_kernel_2.0_version_x86.zip	Provides the permission, resource identity, license, configuration center, resource group, and logging functions
general_PLAT_kernel-base_2.0_version_x86.zip	Provides the alarm, access parameter template, monitor template, report, and forwarding via mail or SMS functions

Table 10 Dependent Unified Platform application installation package (E0713 and later versions)

Installation package name	Description	Dependencies
UDTP_Middle_version_x86.zip	Middleware image repository	-
UDTP_GlusterFS_version_x86.zip	Provides local shared storage functionalities	Middle
UDTP_Core_version_x86.zip	Provides portal, unified authentication, user management, service gateway, help center, permission, resource identity, license, configuration center, resource group, and logging functions	Middle, GlusterFS
UDTP_IMonitor_version_x86.zip	Provides the self-monitoring service	Middle, GlusterFS, Core
BMP_Report_version_x86.zip	Report	-
BMP_Alarm_version_x86.zip	Provides the alarm service	Report
BMP_Subscription_version_x86.zip	Subscription service	Report, Alarm
BMP_Template_version_x86.zip	Access parameter templates and monitor templates	-

Log in to Unified Platform

1. In the address bar of the browser, enter the login address (the default is http://ip_address:30000/central/index.html) of Unified Platform to access the login page.

¡ The ip_address parameter specifies the northbound service VIP of the Unified Platform cluster.

¡ 30000 is the port number.

2. On the top navigation bar, click System.

3. From the navigation pane, select Deployment to access the component deployment guide page.

Upload installation packages

Click Upload to upload the component installation packages to the system. After the installation packages required for deploying this scenario are uploaded, click Next to parse the installation packages and access the component selection page.

Table 11 List of installation packages

Component name	Component installation package name
VNFM-vBRAS	VNFM_VBRAS-version-MATRIX.zip

Figure 7 Uploading installation packages

Select components

Expand the controller item, and select the VNF lifecycle management and VNFM-vBRAS options. Select the package names and versions to use, and click Next to access the parameter configuration page.

Figure 8 Selecting components

Configure parameters

VNFM-vBRAS does not need parameter configuration. Click Next to access the network configuration page.

Configure networks

VNFM-vBRAS does not require network configuration. Click Next to access the node binding page.

Bind nodes

VNFM-vBRAS does not require node binding. Click Next to access the network binding page.

Bind networks

VNFM-vBRAS does not require network binding. Click Next to proceed to the parameter confirmation page.

Confirm parameters

You do not need to confirm parameters for VNFM-vBRAS. Click Deploy to start deploying VNFM-vBRAS. The deployment progress will be displayed on the page.

Figure 9 Component deployment in progress

Log in to VNFM-vBRAS

VNFM-vBRAS runs on Unified Platform. To access the VNFM-vBRAS component page, you must first log in to Unified Platform.

The Unified Platform provides a friendly UI. To log in to Unified Platform:

1. In the address bar of the browser, enter the login address (the default is http://ucenter_ip_address: 30000/central/index.html) of Unified Platform to access the login page as shown in Figure 10.

¡ The ucenter_ip_address parameter is the northbound service VIP of the Unified Platform cluster.

¡ 30000 is the port number.

Figure 10 Login page of Unified Platform

2. Enter the username and password to log in to Unified Platform.

The default username is admin, and the default password is Pwd@12345. After successful login, the main page of Unified Platform opens.

3. On the top navigation bar, click Automation.

4. From the navigation pane, select VNF Manager > vBRAS Management to access the VNFM-vBRAS component page.

Register the software

Register Unified Platform

For information about registering Unified Platform, see H3C Unified Platform Deployment Guide.

Register VNFM-vBRAS

After VNFM-vBRAS is installed, all functions can be tried within 180 days. To continue using the software beyond this trial period, you must obtain the license authorization.

Install licenses on the license server

For more information about requesting and installing the license, see H3C Software Product Remote Licensing Guide.

Obtain the license authorization

After installing the license for the product on the license server, you only need to connect to the license server from the license management page to obtain the license authorization. To do that, perform the following tasks:

1. Log in to Unified Platform.

2. On the top navigation bar, click System.

3. From the navigation pane, select License Management > License Information.

4. Configure the license server parameters on the page.

Table 12 describes each parameter.

Table 12 Parameters

Parameter	Description
IP Address	IP address of the server for installing the license server.
Port Number	The default is 5555, which is the same as the port number of the license server authorization service.
Client Name	Client name set on the license server.
Client Password	Password for the client set on the license server.

5. After configuration, click Connect to establish a connection to the license server.

After the connection is established successfully, VNFM-vBRAS can automatically obtain license authorization.

Upgrade and uninstall software

CAUTION:

· Before upgrading or uninstalling the software, back up both VNFM-vBRAS and VNF-Manager on Unified Platform. When restoring data, you must use backup files from the same time.

· To upgrade Unified Platform compatible with VNFM-vBRAS from E0711 or earlier to E0713 or later, first upgrade Unified Platform and then upgrade VNFM-vBRAS.

This chapter describes the upgrade and uninstallation procedures of the VNFM-vBRAS component. For information about the upgrade and uninstallation procedures of Unified Platform, see H3C Unified Platform Deployment Guide.

Upgrade VNFM-vBRAS

Upgrade on Matrix

On Matrix, you can upgrade a component with its configuration retained. Upgrading components might cause service interruption. Please perform this operation with caution.

1. Log in to Matrix.

2. Access the Deployment > Convergence Deployment page.

Figure 11 Deployment page

3. Click the button on the left of the datacenter scenario to expand component information. Then, click the button in the Actions column for the VNFM-vBRAS application to access the upgrade page.

4. Upload the installation packages, select the installation packages to be upgraded, and click Upgrade to start the component upgrade.

Figure 12 Upgrading applications

Upgrade on Unified Platform

On Unified Platform, you can upgrade a component with its configuration retained. Upgrading components might cause service interruption. Please perform this operation with caution.

1. Log in to the Unified Platform.

2. Navigate to the System > Deployment page.

Figure 13 Deployment page

3. Click the button on the left of the component to expand component information. Then, click the button to access the upgrade page.

4. Upload the installation packages, select the installation packages to be upgraded, and click Upgrade to upgrade the components.

Figure 14 Upgrading components

5. If the component upgrade fails, click Roll Back to roll back the components to the versions before the upgrade.

Uninstall VNFM-vBRAS

Uninstallation on Matrix

1. Log in to Matrix.

2. Access the Deployment > Convergence Deployment page.

3. Select the checkboxes on the left of the components to be uninstalled, and click Uninstall to uninstall the specified components.

Figure 15 Uninstalling components

Uninstallation on Unified Platform

1. Log in to Unified Platform.

2. Access the System > Deployment page.

3. Select the checkboxes on the left of the components to be uninstalled, and click Uninstall to uninstall the specified components.

Figure 16 Uninstalling components

Scale out VNFM-vBRAS

You can scale out VNFM-vBRAS from single-host mode to cluster mode. VNFM-vBRAS can be scaled out on Matrix or Unified Platform.

In this mode, you must add two more master nodes to Matrix to form a three-host cluster with the original master node. Then, scale out Unified Platform, VNF Manager, and VNFM-vBRAS in sequence.

Scale-out on Matrix

Scale out Matrix

For more information, see H3C Unified Platform Deployment Guide.

Scale out Unified Platform

For more information, see H3C Unified Platform Deployment Guide.

Scale out VNF-Manager

For more information, see H3C VNF Manager Installation and Deployment Guide (Unified Platform).

Scale out VNFM-vBRAS

1. Log in to Matrix.

2. Access the Deployment > Convergence Deployment page.

Figure 17 Deployment page

3. Click the button on the left of the datacenter scenario to expand component information. Then, click the icon in the Actions column for the VNFM-vBRAS component to access the scale-out page.

Figure 18 Scale-out page

4. Click Scale Out to start scale-out.

The scale-out progress will be displayed on the page.

Figure 19 Scaling out applications