ETSI NFV-SOL CNF Scaling

This document describes how to scale CNF in Tacker v2 API.

Overview

The diagram below shows an overview of the CNF scaling.

  1. Request scale VNF

    A user requests tacker-server to scale a VNF or all VNFs with tacker-client by requesting scale VNF.

  2. Call Kubernetes API

    Upon receiving a request from tacker-client, tacker-server redirects it to tacker-conductor. In tacker-conductor, the request is redirected again to an appropriate infra-driver (in this case Kubernetes infra-driver) according to the contents of the instantiate parameters. Then, Kubernetes infra-driver calls Kubernetes APIs.

  3. Change the number of Pods

    Kubernetes Master change the number of Pods according to the API calls.

../../../../_images/scale.svg

Prerequisites

The following packages should be installed:

  • tacker

  • python-tackerclient

Execute up to “Instantiate VNF” in the procedure of ETSI NFV-SOL CNF (Containerized VNF) Deployment. In other words, the procedure after “Terminate VNF” is not executed.

CNF Scaling Procedure

As mentioned in Prerequisites, the VNF must be instantiated before performing scaling. Users can scale the number of pod replicas managed by controller resources such as Kubernetes Deployment, StatefulSet, and ReplicaSet.

Note

If kind is Stateful Set and not dynamic provisioning (no-provisioner), user must create the Persistent Volume for the maximum replicas in advance because the increased Persistent Volume is not created during the scale out operation.

Details of CLI commands are described in VNF Lifecycle Management.

There are two main methods for CNF scaling.

  • Scale out CNF

  • Scale in CNF

How to Identify ASPECT_ID

In order to execute scaling, it is necessary to specify ASPECT_ID, which is the ID for the target scaling group. First, the method of specifying the ID will be described.

ASPECT_ID is described in VNFD included in the VNF Package. In the following VNFD excerpt, vdu1_aspect corresponds to ASPECT_ID.

node_templates:
  VNF:
    type: company.provider.VNF
    properties:
      flavour_description: A simple flavour

  VDU1:
    type: tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.Compute
    properties:
      name: vdu1
      description: VDU1 compute node
      vdu_profile:
        min_number_of_instances: 1
        max_number_of_instances: 3

policies:
  - scaling_aspects:
      type: tosca.policies.nfv.ScalingAspects
      properties:
        aspects:
          vdu1_aspect:
            name: vdu1_aspect
            description: vdu1 scaling aspect
            max_scale_level: 2
            step_deltas:
              - delta_1

  - VDU1_initial_delta:
      type: tosca.policies.nfv.VduInitialDelta
      properties:
        initial_delta:
          number_of_instances: 2
      targets: [ VDU1 ]

  - VDU1_scaling_aspect_deltas:
      type: tosca.policies.nfv.VduScalingAspectDeltas
      properties:
        aspect: vdu1_aspect
        deltas:
          delta_1:
            number_of_instances: 1
      targets: [ VDU1 ]

  - instantiation_levels:
      type: tosca.policies.nfv.InstantiationLevels
      properties:
        levels:
          instantiation_level_1:
            description: Smallest size
            scale_info:
              vdu1_aspect:
                scale_level: 1
          instantiation_level_2:
            description: Largest size
            scale_info:
              vdu1_aspect:
                scale_level: 2
        default_level: instantiation_level_1

  - VDU1_instantiation_levels:
      type: tosca.policies.nfv.VduInstantiationLevels
      properties:
        levels:
          instantiation_level_1:
            number_of_instances: 2
          instantiation_level_2:
            number_of_instances: 3
      targets: [ VDU1 ]

Note

See NFV-SOL001 v2.6.1 annex A.6 for details about ASPECT_ID.

How to Scale Out CNF

Execute Scale CLI command and check the number of replicas before and after scaling. This is to confirm that the number of replicas has increased after Scale-out. An example using deployment is described.

Replicas information before scale-out:

$ kubectl get deployment
NAME   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
vdu1   2/2     2            2           7h4m

Scale-out CNF can be executed by the following CLI command.

$ openstack vnflcm scale --type SCALE_OUT --aspect-id ASPECT_ID \
  VNF_INSTANCE_ID --os-tacker-api-version 2

Result:

Scale request for VNF Instance 431b94b5-d7ba-4d1c-aa26-ecec65d7ee53 has been accepted.

Replicas information after scale-out:

$ kubectl get deployment
NAME   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
vdu1   3/3     3            3           7h8m

How to Scale in CNF

Execute Scale CLI command and check the number of replicas before and after scaling. This is to confirm that the number of replicas has increased after Scale-in. An example using deployment is described.

Replicas information before scale-out:

$ kubectl get deployment
NAME   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
vdu1   3/3     3            3           7h8m

Scale-in VNF can be executed by the following CLI command.

$ openstack vnflcm scale --type SCALE_IN --aspect-id ASPECT_ID \
  VNF_INSTANCE_ID --os-tacker-api-version 2

Result:

Scale request for VNF Instance 431b94b5-d7ba-4d1c-aa26-ecec65d7ee53 has been accepted.

Replicas information after scale-in:

$ kubectl get deployment
NAME   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
vdu1   2/2     2            2           7h12m

History of Checks

The content of this document has been confirmed to work using the following VNF Package.