New and Changed Features

Configure Assisted Replication on Datacenter Devices

Starting with Contrail Networking Release 1907, you can configure assisted replication and assign the roles AR-Replicator and AR-Client to the QFX10000 devices in a datacenter. An AR-Replicator is a network virtualization overlay (NVO) device or a provider edge (PE) device that can replicate ingress broadcast, unknown unicast, and multicast (BUM) traffic received through an overlay tunnel to other overlay tunnels and local attachment circuits. An AR-Client is a device that supports assisted replication and sends BUM traffic only to AR-Replicator.

Assisted replication feature optimizes the replication of BUM traffic received from the CE interfaces by replicating BUM traffic towards a single EVPN core Replicator PE (a QFX10000 device) rather than sending BUM traffic to all PE devices for replication. This reduces the load on the PEs and improves bandwidth utilization in the network.

You can configure the AR-Client role to MX Series, QFX10000 and QFX5000 devices as spine or leaf and the AR-Replicator role to QFX10000 devices as spine or leaf.

For more information, see Assisted Replication of Broadcast, Unknown Unicast, and Multicast Traffic.

Upgrade Devices During ZTP

Starting with Contrail Release 1907, you can upgrade devices during the zero touch provisioning (ZTP) process. Before you start with the ZTP process, ensure that you have already uploaded the necessary images files.

For more information, see Providing Intent Driven Automation Capabilities on Physical Network Elements.

Configure Hostnames for Datacenter Devices During ZTP

Starting with Contrail Release 1907, you can configure hostnames for all devices during Greenfield onboarding of devices in a Contrail datacenter. The hostnames are specified in the YAML file that lists the devices for zero touch provisioning (ZTP). When configured, the hostname is assigned to the physical router object in the database and the device is displayed with the configured hostname in the Contrail Command UI. If the hostname attribute is not specified, the device serial number is used as the hostname, by default. Prior to release 1907, the device serial number was used as the hostname.

For more information, see Provisioning Fabric Devices Using End-to-End ZTP.

Support for Return Material Authorization

Starting with Contrail Release 1907, Contrail Networking supports Return Material Authorization (RMA). You can create an RMA for a device after a Juniper Technical Assistance Center (JTAC) engineer has confirmed that the device is defective and has to be replaced or repaired. After you move a device to RMA state, the device cannot be configured and can be removed from the network. You can then replace the device that is in RMA state with a new device.

For more information, see Return Material Authorization.

Topology View in Contrail Command

Contrail Command UI provides visual representation of the network topology. All devices within a fabric are displayed in a single view. The Topology view supports basic manipulations such as dragging nodes, zooming in and out, fitting to view, in addition to having different layout visualizations.

For more information, see Viewing the Network Topology.

Upgrade Contrail Networking using Red Hat Fast Forward Upgrade Procedure

Starting with Contrail Release 1907, you can use a combined procedure to upgrade Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) from RHOSP 10 to RHOSP 13 by leveraging Red Hat Fast Forward Upgrade (FFU) procedure while simultaneously upgrading Contrail Networking from Release 4.1.x to Release 1907. The procedure leverages the In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) procedure from Contrail Networking to minimize the downtime.

For more information, see Upgrading Contrail Networking Release 3.x or 4.x with RHOSP10 to Contrail Networking Release 1907 with RHOSP13.