Integrating vCenter for Contrail

Prerequisites

Before you start the integration, ensure that the contrail controller meets the prerequisites given in Server Requirements and Supported Platforms.

Follow these steps to prepare Contrail controller(s):

yum update -y

yum install -y yum-plugin-priorities https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

yum install -y python-pip git gcc python-devel sshpass

yum install -y git

pip install “ansible==2.5.0” pyvmomi

ESX Agent Manager

VMware provides a standard vCenter solution called vSphere ESX Agent Manager (EAM), that allows you to deploy, monitor, and manage ContrailVMs on ESXi hosts.

The ContrailVM is deployed as an Agent VM that is monitored by EAM. With this integration, ContrailVMs are marked as more critical and privileged than other tenant VMs on the host.

• Auto-deploy ContrailVMs on ESXi hosts in scope (clusters).

• Manage and Monitor ContrailVMs through EAM in the vSphere web client.

• Integrate with other vCenter features like AddHos, Maintenance Mode, vSphere DRS, vSphere DPM, and VMWare HA.

These topics provide instructions for integrating Contrail Release 5.1.x and microservices with VMware vCenter.

Set Up vCenter Server

1. Download the Contrail Ansible Deployer (contrail-ansible-deployer-< >.tgz) onto your provisioning host. You can download the deployer from https://www.juniper.net/support/downloads/?p=contrail#sw.
2. Untar the tgz.
   - tar xvf contrail-ansible-deployer-< >.tgz
3. Prepare a vcenter_vars.yml file populated with vCenter server and ESXI hosts parameters. You can download the CentOS 7.5 and ESXi VM Host from https://www.juniper.net/support/downloads/?p=contrail#sw.
   Note

   You can see a sample of the vcenter_vars.yml file in the contrail-ansible-deployer/playbooks
/roles/vcenter/vars/vcenter_vars.yml after you extract the image files.

   Note

   The ContrailVM’s Open Virtualization Format (OVF) image must be hosted on an http or https server which runs on and is reachable from the vCenter server. The location of the OVF is provided as a URL path for vmdk: as shown in the example given below.

   Example: Enabling HA and DRS in the cluster

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   vcenter_servers:
     - SRV1:
         hostname: 
         username:
         password:
         # Optional: defaults to False
         #validate_certs: False
         datacentername: 
         clusternames:
         #path to the ovf, is needed for ESX Agent Manager to deploy ContrailVMs
         vmdk: http://<ip-address>/centos-7.5/LATEST/ContrailVM.ovf
         # Optional: If not specified HA and DRS are turned off on the clusters.
         enable_ha: yes
         enable_drs: yes
   

   For definition examples, refer contrail-ansible-deployer/playbooks/roles/vcenter/vars/vcenter_vars.yml.sample.

   To enable HA and DRS in the cluster, set enable_ha and enable_drs to yes in the vcenter_vars.yml file. If these flags are not enabled, HA and DRS is turned off by default for newly created and existing clusters.

   Example instances.yaml File

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   provider_config:
     bms:
       ssh_pwd: password
       ssh_user: root
       ntpserver: 8.8.8.8
       domainsuffix: blah.net
   
   instances:
     bms1:
       provider: bms
       ip: <ip-address>
       roles:
         config_database:
         config:
         control:
         analytics_database:
         analytics:
         webui:
         vcenter_plugin:
     bms2:
       provider: bms
       esxi_host: <ip-address>
       ip: <ip-address>
       roles:
         vrouter:
         vcenter_manager:
           ESXI_USERNAME: root
           ESXI_PASSWORD: password
     bms3:
       provider: bms
       esxi_host: <ip-address>
       ip: <ip-address>
       roles:
         vrouter:
         vcenter_manager:
           ESXI_USERNAME: root
           ESXI_PASSWORD: password
     bms4:
       provider: bms
       esxi_host: <ip-address>
       ip: <ip-address>
       roles:
         vrouter:
         vcenter_manager:
           ESXI_USERNAME: root
           ESXI_PASSWORD: password
   
   
   global_configuration:
     CONTAINER_REGISTRY: hub.juniper.net/contrail
     CONTAINER_REGISTRY_USERNAME: username
     CONTAINER_REGISTRY_PASSWORD: password
     REGISTRY_PRIVATE_INSECURE: False
   
   contrail_configuration:
     CLOUD_ORCHESTRATOR: vcenter
     CONTROLLER_NODES: <ip-address>
     CONTRAIL_VERSION: 5.1.0-0.360
     RABBITMQ_NODE_PORT: 5673
     VCENTER_SERVER: <ip-address>
     VCENTER_USERNAME: administrator@vsphere.net
     VCENTER_PASSWORD: password
     VCENTER_DATACENTER: <DC name here>
     VCENTER_DVSWITCH: overlay
     VCENTER_WSDL_PATH: /usr/src/contrail/contrail-web-core/webroot/js/vim.wsdl
     VCENTER_AUTH_PROTOCOL: https
   

   Note

   The default login credentials for Contrail OVF is

   Username: root

   Password: c0ntrail123

   Example vcenter_vars.yml File

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   ---
   vcenter_servers:
     - SRV1:
         hostname: <host-ip-address>
         username: administrator@vsphere.net
         password: password
         # Optional: defaults to False
         #validate_certs: False
         datacentername: "<your DC name here>"
         clusternames:
           - "<your cluster name here>"
         vmdk: http://<ip-address>/contrail/images/ContrailVM.ovf
         dv_switch:
           dv_switch_name: overlay
         dv_port_group:
           dv_portgroup_name: VM_pg
           number_of_ports: 1800
   
   esxihosts:
     - name: <ip-address>
       username: root
       password: password
       datastore: <your local datastore here>
       datacenter: "<your DC name here>"
       cluster: "<your cluster name here>"
       contrail_vm:
         networks:
           - mac: 00:77:56:aa:bb:01
       vcenter_server: SRV1 #leave this
     - name: <ip-address>
       username: root
       password: password
       datastore: <your local datastore here>
       datacenter: "<your DC name here>"
       cluster: "<your cluster name here>"
       contrail_vm:
         networks:
           - mac: 00:77:56:aa:bb:02
       vcenter_server: SRV1 #leave this
     - name: <ip-address>
       username: root
       password: password
       datastore: <your local datastore here>
       datacenter: "<your DC name here>"
       cluster: "<your cluster name here>"
       contrail_vm:
         networks:
           - mac: 00:77:56:aa:bb:77
       vcenter_server: SRV1 #leave this
   

4. Run the Contrail vCenter playbook.
   ansible-playbook playbooks/vcenter.yml
   Note

   Verify that the hostnames for the contrail controller(s) and the ContrailVMs (vRouters) are unique in /etc/hostname file.

   You can verify hostname from either the DHCP options (if the management network uses DHCP) or manually (if the management network uses static IP allocation).

Configure Contrail Parameters

Populate the file config/instances.yaml with Contrail roles.

For an example file, see contrail-ansible-deployer/confing/instances.yaml.vcenter_example.

Install Contrail

Install Contrail by running the following Contrail playbooks:

Monitor and Manage ContrailVM from ESX Agent Manager

ContrailVMs can be monitored from EAM by using ContrailVM-Agency.

1. Resolve issues from the ContrailVM-Agency.

   The ContrailVM-Agency is in an alert state when the ContrailVM in any host is powered off or is deleted.

   Click Resolve All Issues from the ContrailVM-Agency to correct the issue. The ContrailVM-Agency will attempt to correct the issue by bringing the ContrailVM back online or by spawning a ContrailVM from the OVF on the ESXi host.

   Figure 1: vCenter Server Extensions

   

   Figure 2: ESX Agencies

   

2. Add host.
   1. Add ESXi host to the cluster.
   2. Configure Agent VM Settings for the ESXI host.

      Figure 3: Configure Agent VM Settings

      

      For more information on configuring Agent VM, network, and datastore settings, see Configure Agent VM Settings.

      EAM deploys a ContrailVM (from the base OVF) on the ESXi host.

   3. Add ESXi host details to vcenter_vars.yml and repeat step 4 to add appropriate interfaces to the ContrailVM and to configure necessary settings in the vCenter server.
   4. Add ContrailVM details to instances.yaml and provision Contrail on the newly added ContrailVm (router). For more information on provisioning Contrail, see Install Contrail.
3. Clean up the ContrailVM-Agency.

   Delete ContrailVM-Agency from the EAM user interface to delete ContrailVM and the agency.