OPNFV Tests its Software on OCP Hardware.
The OPNFV open source group has released the report for its second plugfest, conducted in December. The plugfest was notable for testing OPNFV software on Open Compute Project (OCP) hardware designs. Lenovo and Nokia provided the OCP hardware, including servers and switches, for the tests.
“It was exciting bringing open source software and hardware together,” said Heather Kirksey, the director of OPNFV, at a Linux Foundation Leadership Summit. OPNFV hosted the December event at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory where 70 people from 23 organizations attended.
“We actually got a multi-site up and running with a remote lab in Santa Clara [California] and the one in New Hampshire,” said Kirksey.
Plugtests vs. Plugfests
Plugfests sound more fun than plugtests, right? Maybe the coders at plugfests periodically play loud music and dance during their breaks.
Recently, the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) put on a plugtest event in Madrid, Spain. The participants tested a number of virtual network functions (VNFs), management and orchestration systems, and infrastructure platforms. Asked how OPNFV’s plugfest differed from the ETSI plugtests, Kirksey said, “We were focused on the VIM [virtual infrastructure manager] on different commercial hardware and automated install tools working on multiple platforms. Compared to ETSI, we had less focus on VNFs.”
At the OPNFV plugfest, a contingent from Open-O also participated in interoperating its management and network orchestration (MANO) code with OPNFV’s software.
While OPNFV has focused mostly on the VIM infrastructure layer of the stack, its work with Open-O will allow it to expand to the orchestration layer. ETSI’s plugtest already included work at that layer.
Kirksey said OPNFV and ETSI are friendly with each other. Some OPNFV community members actually took the code to the ETSI plugtests. “Some of those infrastructures were OPNFV in that categorization,” she said.
OPNFV’s Next Code Release
OPNFV expects to issue its next code release, Danube, around the end of March. The release will include enhancements related to IPv6, service function chaining, and integration with Open-O, as well as some optimization for continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD). OPNFV is also working on some cross-community CI/CD to get its tool chain and processes more closely integrated with other open source projects.
Kirksey said some things within OPNFV that used to be a big deal are now routine, such as deploying OpenStack.
“Within a three-month period during the holidays, we deployed OpenStack 2,100 times as part of the automated CI/CD auto testing,” she said.
OPNFV will hold its next plugfest this spring at its Pharos Lab outside of Paris, which is hosted by Orange.
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