DCNM Integration Overview
supports integration with Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM). As part of this integration, provides the automation of virtual network services in Cisco Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA). In the Cisco DFA solution, services like firewalls and load balancers are deployed at leaf nodes within the spine-leaf topology and in border leaf nodes, in contrast to more traditional data centers where these services are deployed at the aggregation layer.
The following table describes the primary items in the integration with DCNM:
Item | Description |
---|---|
|
Provides central management of network services in a multi-tenant environment. |
DCNM |
|
Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA) cluster |
Provides a simplified spine-leaf architecture, enhanced forwarding, and distributed control plane. |
Adaptor |
|
provides centralized management of network services by supporting the following actions:
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The creation, reading, updating, and deletion of vPath-based service chains.
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The creation, updating, and deletion of network services.
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Communicating changes about network services to the Adapter.
The GUI reflects this support by displaying information for networks and subnetworks associated with a tenant, and network services in a tenant's network.
Terminology
The following table identifies the corresponding terms in and DCNM:
Prime Network Services Controller Name | DCNM Name | Description |
---|---|---|
Tenant |
Organization |
A collection of VDCs for tenant-level separation of resources and data. |
Virtual Data Center (VDC) |
Partition |
An independent routing domain that includes a collection of subnetworks. A VDC can belong to only one tenant. |
Subnetwork |
Network |
A Layer 2 network with a unique identifier. A subnetwork can belong to only one VDC. |
Networks
After an admin user provisions one or more tenant networks in DCNM, DCNM sends the information about the tenant network to . A tenant-admin user in can then deploy network services such as firewalls, load balancers, and routers on those networks.
For each network, DCNM provides with a handle that uniquely identifies the network on a VM manager and the network's Layer 3 IP details, such as subnet prefix, mask, and default gateway.
To view these networks in , choose Resource Management > Managed Resources > root > tenant (or other subordinate organization), and then click the Subnetworks tab.
You can place the interfaces of a network service that is deployed at a particular level (or node) in the tenant organizational hierarchy on available networks at the following locations:
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The organization node on which the service is being deployed.
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Organization nodes that are children of the organization node on which the service is being deployed.
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Organization nodes that are ancestors of the organization node on which the service is being deployed.
Network Roles
Networks are qualified by a role property which identifies their intended usage. The following table describes the various network roles.
Network Role | Description |
---|---|
Host |
Tenant-specific network intended for tenant application VMs. Service nodes can also be connected to this network. |
Service |
Tenant network intended exclusively for service nodes. |
External |
Tenant network that provides external connectivity. Both tenant application VMs and service nodes can connect to this network. |
Management |
Shared infrastructure network used for communication between service nodes and . Service node management interfaces connect to this network. |
HA |
Shared infrastructure network intended for high availability communications between service nodes. Service node HA interfaces connect to this network. |
In contrast with tenant networks, which are tenant-specific and provisioned on the data center fabric by DCNM, infrastructure networks are shared by all tenants and are provisioned on the data center fabric out of band.
Details about infrastructure networks need to be added to by the admin user. Because these networks are shared, they can be added only to root (Tenant Management > root).
To add details about infrastructure networks, choose Resource Management > Managed Resources and then click the Subnetworks tab.
Roles and Privileges
The following roles support integration with DCNM:
Role | Responsibility |
---|---|
admin |
|
tenant-admin |
|