GHC 14 Redefining the Data Center WhiteBox Networking

#GHC 14 Redefining the Data Center: White-Box Networking Jennifer Casella October 9, 2014

Agenda § § § Data Center Background Open Compute Project Open Switch Hardware Specifications Open Switch Software Components Network Automation 2014

Data Center Background § Several companies, businesses and organizations are looking to data centers as means to store large amounts of data and house networking infrastructure equipment § Recent customer demand for open source in the data center is gaining momentum § “As data centers grow in size and complexity, traditional tools are proving too slow or too cumbersome to handle that expansion. ” 2014

OCP § Open Compute Project (OCP) developed by Facebook in 2011 − Aims to redefine the data center with increased efficiency and customizability, at reduced costs − Network, Compute and Storage − Open Rack, HW Management, Data Center Design § Goes hand-in-hand with Software Defined Networking (SDN), but NOT the same thing 2014

Open Switch Requirements § Three requirements need to be met in order to make a white-box network switch feasible in the data center: − Ability to program switching ASIC − Initial installation option (ONIE) − OS support for HW platform 2014

Hardware Specifications § Merchant silicon – “off the shelf” chip components, specifically Application Specific Integrated Chips (ASICs) − − Encoding Forwarding lookups Queueing ACLs § Port density (10 G server connectivity; 40 G uplinks) − SFP+/QSFP+ § Management, Power, Cooling § Several switch designs proposed for OCP: − − − Mellanox Broadcom Alpha Networks Accton Intel 2014

Broadcom Leaf Switch 2014

Broadcom Spine Switch 2014

Broadcom Switch Components § Trident II Switch (TIIS): mainboard that interfaces with DPP/CAP/IO Modules § Control and Application Processor (CAP) Module: runs Broadcom SDK and network OS to program TIIS § IO Modules: − Quad 10 G − Hex 40 G § Data Plane Processor (DPP) Module (optional): enables specialized network functions 2014

Broadcom Switch Block Diagram 2014

Software Components § Each switch supplied with a Software Development Kit (SDK) that contains drivers to implement interfaces to control the OCP platform § Software components: − − ONIE compatible boot loader Network OS Open Ethernet Switch APIs Platform interfaces 2014

Software Components cont’d 2014

Open Ethernet Switch APIs § Merchant switch silicon devices supplied with a proprietary SDK § Protocol driven SW stacks need to implement a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) to isolate its unified code from the vendor specific logic − Each HW vendor should provide a glue layer between OES and its SDK APIs − The SDK and glue logic will be responsible for implementing HW specific logic 2014

OCP Platform Control 2014

ONIE § Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) − − − Firmware installed on a management subsystem of whitebox switches installed for automated network OS provisioning Linux/Busy. Box foundation Combination boot loader/small operating system • Targets to enable administrators to deploy network OS’s in the same way servers are provisioned • When a switch boots for the first time, ONIE will locate and execute network OS installation program • ONIE will be bypassed on subsequent boots, and made available only for the purpose of un-install/re-install operations • ONIE utilizes the CPU complex of the switch, not the forwarding plane 2014

ONIE First Boot Up Operation 2014

ONIE Subsequent Boots Operation 2014

Network OS Discovery/Installation 2014

Network Automation § ONIE aids in the automation of large scale data center switch provisioning § Several configuration management/network automation tools: − − − Puppet Chef CFEngine Salt Ansible 2014

Summary § OCP aims at redefining the data center with increased efficiency and customizability, at reduced costs § White-box switches will enable administrators to select the network operating system they want to run on their switches (making a switch function as a server would) § Certain requirements need to be met for a white-box switch: − − − Ability to program switching ASIC Initial installation option (ONIE) OS support for HW platform § Many options exist for the purpose of controlling network build, deployment and management in parallel with white-box switches 2014