Rob Sherwood CTO, Big Switch Networks Open Network User’s Group: May, 2014
TUTORIAL: WHITE BOX/BARE METAL SWITCHES
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OUTLINE
• Mo5va5on • Ecosystem and Terminology • Support and Purchasing • Available Hardware • Available SoJware
• Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) • Commercial • Open Source
• Hand over to Sean Varley: NFV
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WHO AM I: ROB SHERWOOD • CTO, SoQware architect at Big Switch Networks
• ONF: former chair of ArchWG and vice-‐chair of TesVngWG
• Working in OpenFlow/SDN since 2008
• Campus Network admin of yore
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EVOLUTION OF NETWORK PROVISIONING: 1996-‐2013
1996 2013
Terminal Protocol: Telnet Terminal Protocol: SSH
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BUT HARDWARE VERTICALLY INTEGRATED HOLDS US BACK VerVcally Integrated Systems Have Changed Li^le Over the Past 15 Years
Feature 1 Feature 2 Provisioning and Management • StaVc, manual configuraVon • Low feature velocity
Proprietary System
Hardware Systems • Lock-‐in to a parVcular vendor
Proprietary Silicon
System Silicon • Slow innovaVon cycles • Expensive, no economies of scale
Proprietary Network OS
Opera5ng Systems • Few API’s, only CLI (closed OS) • Not externally programmable
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THREE REASONS TO BUY BARE METAL
1 Choice: avoid verVcal lock-‐in
2 Lower OpEx: be^er fit your needs
3 Lower CapEx: horizontal compeVVon
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ISN’T NETWORKING ALREADY OPEN? Faster Throughput = More commercial value = More Proprietary
Aggregate Throughput à
ß Open
10 Gb/s 100 Gb/s 1 Tb/s 10 Tb/s
All Hardware Specs Public X86 Servers
Closed OS, Open APIs for Policy, Stats
MulV-‐chassis Routers
Closed OS, Open Control
Plane APIs
DC – 1U ToRs, Spines
Binary SDK for Packet
Forwarding NPU, FPGA, SoC
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ISN’T NETWORKING ALREADY OPEN? Faster Throughput = More commercial value = More Proprietary
Aggregate Throughput à
ß Open
10 Gb/s 100 Gb/s 1 Tb/s 10 Tb/s
All Hardware Specs Public X86 Servers
Closed OS, Open APIs for Policy, Stats
MulV-‐chassis Routers
Closed OS, Open Control
Plane APIs
DC – 1U ToRs, Spines
Binary SDK for Packet
Forwarding NPU, FPGA, SoC DC – 1U
ToRs, Spines This talk
WHAT’S INSIDE A SWITCH?
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ApplicaVon
Network OS
Hardware Driver
Box
Silicon
COMPONENT ECOSYSTEM AND BARE METAL
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ApplicaVon
Network OS
Driver
Box
Silicon
Single Vendor Closed Product
TradiVonal Networking
(past)
Single Vendor Closed Product
TradiVonal Networking (today)
ODM Chip
ODM Box
TradiVonal Network Stack/OS
Vendor
ODM Chip
Bare Metal Vision
ODM Box
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SERVER ECOSYSTEM IS MATURE, HORIZONTAL Open Architecture – Choice of Vendors – InnovaVon Velocity – Low TCO
Intel AMD System Silicon • CompeVVon and rapid innovaVon
• Apache • MySQL • Nagios
Applica5ons • 3rd party or Custom
Linux Windows VMware KVM Xen
Opera5ng System • Open or closed source • Virtualized or bare metal • Many support models
Hardware Systems • Fierce compeVVon • Branded or “white box”
Dell HP Super Micro
“Bare Metal” Server
• Custom Web App • Hadoop • etc.
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“BARE METAL” MEANS BUYING JUST THE HARDWARE No verVcal integraVon – just like how we buy our servers
Merchant Silicon • Growing number of startups!
Applica5on • Re-‐create exisVng distributed protocols • New SDN-‐based applicaVons
Network Opera5ng System • Open or closed source • New Ecosystem
ODM and Brand Name Companies
BSN Switch Light
Pica8 Cumulus
“Bare Metal” Switch
Quanta CelesVca
Accton Delta Alpha
Broadcom Mellanox Marvell Centec Intel
SDN Apps TradiVonal
STP
OSPF BGP
IGMP OpenFlow
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“BARE METAL” IS MORE THAN WHITE BOX Both white box and brand name vendors can support bare metal switches
Brand Name
White Box
Dell No Name
HP SuperMicro
IBM Quanta (…)
Brand Name
White Box Quanta
Accton
Delta Networks (…)
Will brand name server vendors become brand name bare-‐ metal switch vendors? ?
Dell Networking
Dell Open Networking Model Offers open, innovative and best of breed solutions for the data center
Open Networking switch
Any OS
Optional 3rd Party SDN / NVO controller
Merchant silicon
Standard orchestration and automation tools
S4810-ON 1/10/40 GbE switch S6000-ON 10/40 GbE switch
Networking for Unified mgmt of servers & switches for Linux savvy customers
For Monitoring fabrics – capture growing market driven by Cyber attacks & application performance
Big Switch Big Tap & Cumulus OS are complementary & unique solutions
Dell’s rich, full-featured OS architected for performance, resiliency and portability across switch platforms
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ODM Manufacturer New Vendor Company
SAME BOXES, DIFFERENT LABELS
• ODMs directly supply tradi5onal networking vendors • Probably boxes you’ve already deployed
• Each ODM created new public face/commercial label • To create appearance of not compeVng directly
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PURCHASING AND SUPPORT: SERVERS
By a show of hands… • Where do you buy your server hardware:
• Direct from hardware vendor? Partners? VAR?
• Where do you buy your server OS and applica5ons? • Direct from soQware vendor(s)? Partners? VAR?
• Who do you call if there is a problem? • SoQware or hardware supplier? Or a VAR?
Server Support Ecosystem Has Evolved to Fit Business Needs
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PURCHASING AND SUPPORT Just like a servers: many choices
Single Throat Disaggregated Channel VAR
SoQware Purchase
Hardware Purchase
First Support Call
Hardware RMA
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PURCHASING AND SUPPORT Just like a servers: many choices
Single Throat Disaggregated Channel VAR
SoQware Purchase
SoQware Company
Hardware Purchase
SoQware Co. (pass through)
First Support Call
SoQware Company
Hardware RMA
SoQware Co. (pass through)
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PURCHASING AND SUPPORT Just like a servers: many choices
Single Throat Disaggregated Channel VAR
SoQware Purchase
SoQware Company
SoQware Company
Hardware Purchase
SoQware Co. (pass through)
3rd Party: any from HCL
First Support Call
SoQware Company
SoQware Company
Hardware RMA
SoQware Co. (pass through)
3rd Party
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PURCHASING AND SUPPORT Just like a servers: many choices
Single Throat Disaggregated Channel VAR
SoQware Purchase
SoQware Company
SoQware Company
Channel Partner
Hardware Purchase
SoQware Co. (pass through)
3rd Party: any from HCL
Channel Partner
First Support Call
SoQware Company
SoQware Company
SoQware Company
Hardware RMA
SoQware Co. (pass through)
3rd Party SoQware Co. (pass through)
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PURCHASING AND SUPPORT Just like a servers: many choices
Single Throat Disaggregated Channel VAR
SoQware Purchase
SoQware Company
SoQware Company
Channel Partner
VAR
Hardware Purchase
SoQware Co. (pass through)
3rd Party: any from HCL
Channel Partner
VAR
First Support Call
SoQware Company
SoQware Company
SoQware Company
VAR
Hardware RMA
SoQware Co. (pass through)
3rd Party SoQware Co. (pass through)
VAR
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SUPPORT PROGNOSTICATIONS
• Which support process will dominate? • Rapidly evolving: our customers use all of these • Depends on geographic region: Japan à VAR, EMEA àpartner, US à direct • Claim: “Single throat to choke” will transiVon to VAR then direct sales.
• SoJware Licenses: subscrip8on versus perpetual plus support • Depends on company size, internal accounVng • “Both” may be the right long term answer • Larger quesVon than networking soQware
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SIMPLIFIED HARDWARE PURCHASING
Transparent Pricing
Streamlined Procurement
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SURPRISINGLY LOW CAPEX
32x40G for ~$10K ==
$312/40G port
~$6k – 4x40G@$312 ==
$99/10G port
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OUTLINE
• Mo5va5on • Ecosystem and Terminology • Support and Purchasing • Available SoJware
• Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) • Open Source • Commercial
• Hand over to Sean Varley: NFV
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OPEN NETWORK INSTALL ENVIRONMENT (ONIE) • Open source project to install/uninstall network OS
• h^p://github.com/onie/onie or h^p://onie.github.io/onie/ • Think of it like a hybrid PC BIOS and Grub/LILO/Sysimage • Co-‐opera5ve project: OCP, Cumulus, Big Switch, Others
• In pracVce: Curt Brune from Cumulus Networks does almost all of the work
• Allows a network admin to install/uninstall a network OS • In pracVce, it is itself a ~4MB mini-‐Linux installaVon
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COMMERCIAL BARE METAL SWITCH SOFTWARE
• Tradi5onal Control Plane • Cumulus Linux
• Pica8’s PicOS • SDN Control Plane
• Big Switch Networks’s Switch Light OS
This is not a product pitch talk – talk to me aQerwards.
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OPEN SOURCE: OPEN NETWORK LINUX
• Open-‐sourced commercial code, build scripts, drivers from Switch Light • Part of Open Compute Project (OCP)
• Project goals: • Improve percepVon/de-‐risk bare metal • “Crowd source” larger Switch Light HCL
• Released mid-‐January: Ini5al results • Strong community response from ODMs, OCP • Accton self-‐supporVng three new boxes, more ODMs interested • Other vendors invesVgaVng ONL for their own purposes • Info: h^p://opennetlinux.org – under construcVon
A Linux distribuVon for bare metal switches
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ONL – SUPPORTED HARDWARE X86 versus PPC Discussion
• ONL Support is Pre-‐cursor to Switch Light Support
• Working on OCP box from Interface Masters with x86 support
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SWITCH LIGHT ARCHITECTURE
ONL Linux Kernel ASIC
LibC on Debian Wheezy Base DistribuVon ASIC SDK
SSH Fan Control NTP Syslog SNMP
CLI
Indigo
Indigo/ASIC Driver
OpenFlow Agent Loxi
Legend
Open Network Linux
BSN Open
BSN Closed
3rd Party Closed Source
Switch Light OS
ZTN Loader
I2C GPIO Device Trees
Switch Light is our Indigo OpenFlow Agent running on Open Network Linux on x86 or ASIC-‐based hardware.
Big Network Controllers
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CONCLUSIONS
• Tradi5onal network vendors have outsourced much of their hardware: box and ASICs
• Buy/support/run your network like your servers • Growing ecosystem
• Silicon: Broadcom, Intel, Marvel, Centec, etc. • Hardware: Dell, Accton, Quanta, Agema, etc. • SoQware: Big Switch Networks, Cumulus, Pica8
1 Choice 2 Lower OpEx 3 Lower CapEx