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SDN Controller

What is SDN Controller?

The SDN controller is the core of the SDN architecture, responsible for centralized management and control of network devices.

Feature Highlights

  • Unified Management: Supports multiple software and hardware SDN controller types and delivers a consistent management experience.
  • Automated Configuration Deployment: Automatically pushes network configurations to the SDN controller when creating L3 networks, significantly improving deployment efficiency.
  • SDN Tenant-Level Resource Isolation: Automatically allocates subnets to target SDN tenants, ensuring resource isolation and preventing resource contention across tenants.

Supported Controller Types

The following table lists the supported controller types.
Vendor Version Description
Cloud SDN Controller - A software SDN controller provided by ZStack Cloud. You can create OVS-DPDK L2 networks with high performance and low latency.
H3C VCFC R6506 With H3C SDN controllers, you can manage SDN networks of hardware switches, thereby reducing network latency and improving VXLAN network performance.
E2507
HUAWEI iMaster NCE-Fabric V100R023 With Huawei SDN controllers, you can achieve centralized management and automated configuration deployment, enabling efficient VXLAN network construction and intelligent operation.

Core Concepts

Tenant
An SDN tenant is a logically isolated entity on H3C or Huawei SDN controllers that enjoys independent network resources and security policies.
Logical Router
A virtualized network device on Huawei SDN controllers that connects VMs across different networks, enabling cross-layer-3 communication between virtual machines.
Remote VPC
A security domain on Huawei SDN controllers that provides inter-tenant network isolation. Each VPC typically corresponds to a specific business unit or department.

Add an SDN Controller

On the main menu of ZStack Cloud, choose Resource Center > Network Resource > SDN Device > SDN Controller. On the SDN Controller page, click Add SDN Controller. Then, the Add SDN Controller page is displayed.

Add a Cloud SDN Controller

On the displayed page, set the following parameters:
  • Name: Enter a name for the SDN controller.
  • Description: Optional. Enter a description for the SDN controller.
  • Manufacturer: Select Cloud SDN Controller.
  • SDN Cluster VIP: Enter the VIP address of the SDN cluster.
  • Associated Host: After associated, the configuration will be deployed to the host.
    Note:
    • To associate hosts, make sure the IOMMU is enabled. Otherwise, the hosts cannot be associated.
    • An SDN controller without an associated host will not be able to provide an available network.
    • Bond Mode: Select the physical port aggregation mode. The following three modes are supported:
      • Active-Backup: All network traffic is handled by the primary port. If the primary port fails, traffic automatically switches to the backup port to avoid service interruption.
      • Balance-SLB: Distributes network traffic across ports based on source MAC address and VLAN ID to achieve load balancing.
      • Balance-TCP: Distributes network traffic across ports based on TCP flow's source/destination IP addresses and port numbers for more granular load balancing.
    • Physical NIC Port: Select the physical ports to be bonded. Active-Backup mode supports bonding one to two ports. Balance-SLB and Balance-TCP modes support bonding one to eight ports.
    • VTEP IP: Specify the VTEP IP.
    • Netmask: Specify the netmask.
Figure 1. Add SDN Controller


Add an H3C VCFC

Prerequisites:
  • Make sure a valid SDN network license is added to the platform.
  • To add an SDN controller to ZStack Cloud, you must plan the management network in advance and complete the basic configuration of the SDN controller.
  • To configure hardware SDN using VCFC, you must configure the VLAN-to-VXLAN mapping table on the VCFC in advance to ensure successful configuration.
On the displayed page, set the following parameters:
  • Name: Enter a name for the SDN controller.
  • Description: Optional. Enter a description for the SDN controller.
  • Vendor: Select H3C VCFC.
  • Version: Select a version of H3C VCFC. Options include R6506 and E2507.
    • For R6506, enter the IP address, username, and password of the SDN controller.
    • For E2507, enter the IP address, username, password, and virtual distributed switch UUID of the SDN controller.
      Note:
      • You need to configure a virtual distributed switch on the SDN controller in advance.
      • With this virtual distributed switch, an available VNI range of the hardware SDN VXLAN Pool can be determined.
Figure 2. Add H3C VCFC


Add a HUAWEI iMaster NCE-Fabric

Prerequisites:
  • Make sure a valid SDN network license is added to the platform.
  • Make sure the LLDP is enabled on the hosts and switches.
  • Make sure you have completed the Fabric, VPC, tenant, and VLAN range configurations on the HUAWEI SDN controller.
On the displayed page, set the following parameters:
  • Name: Enter a name for the SDN controller.
  • Description: Optional. Enter a description for the SDN controller.
  • Vendor: Select HUAWEI.
  • Version: Select iMaster NCE-Fabric V100R023
  • VLAN Range: Enter a VLAN range that matches the one configured on the Huawei SDN controller.
    Note:
    • VLAN range: 1-4094.
    • You can enter multiple VLAN ranges, with each range separated by a comma. Example: 2-100,1000-1999
  • IP Address: Enter the IP address of the SDN controller.
  • User Name: Enter the username of the SDN controller.
  • Password: Enter the password.
Figure 3. Add HUAWEI iMaster NCE-Fabric


Manage an SDN Controller

On the main menu of ZStack Cloud, choose Resource Center > Network Resource > SDN Service > SDN Controller. Then, the SDN Controller page appears.

Manage a Cloud SDN Controller

The following table lists the actions that you can perform on an SDN controller.
Action Description
Add SDN Controller Add an SDN controller to the Cloud.
Reconnect SDN Controller Reconnect the SDN controller.
Note: Reconnecting SDN controller will update configurations to the SDN instances, which may cause network interruptions. Proceed with caution.
Edit Name and Description Edit the name and description of an SDN controller.
Delete SDN Controller Deleting the SDN controller will clear OVS configurations on the associated hosts and delete associated L2 networks and VM instance NICs. Proceed with caution.

Manage an H3C VCFC

The following table lists the actions that you can perform on an SDN controller.
Action Description
Add SDN Controller Add an SDN controller to the Cloud.
Note: Before you can add an SDN controller to the Cloud, you need to plan for management networks in advance, and complete the basic configurations of the SDN controller.
Edit SDN Controller Edit the name and description of an SDN controller.
Delete SDN Controller Delete an SDN controller.
Note: Deleting an SDN controller also deletes the SDN-based VXLAN Pool that is associated with the SDN controller, and deletes all VXLAN networks and corresponding L3 networks in the VXLAN Pool. Proceed with caution.

Manage a HUAWEI iMaster NCE-Fabric

The following table lists the actions that you can perform on an SDN controller.
Action Description
Add SDN Controller Add an SDN controller to the Cloud platform.
Reconnect SDN Controller Reconnect an SDN controller.
Edit Name and Description Edit the name and description of an SDN controller.
Synchronize Remote Password After changing the HUAWEI SDN password due to expiration, you need to submit the updated password here to ensure synchronization.
Delete SDN Controller Delete an SDN controller.
Note: Deleting the SDN controller will clear virtual switch configurations on the associated hosts and delete associated L2 networks and VM NICs. Proceed with caution.
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