Deploying OpenWRT as VNF

Once tacker is installed successfully, follow the steps given below to get started with deploying OpenWRT as VNF.

  1. Ensure Glance already contains OpenWRT image.

    Normally, Tacker tries to add OpenWRT image to Glance while installing via devstack. By running openstack image list to check OpenWRT image if exists.

    $ openstack image list
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------+--------+
    | ID                                   | Name                     | Status |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------+--------+
    | 8cc2aaa8-5218-49e7-9a57-ddb97dc68d98 | OpenWRT                  | active |
    | 32f875b0-9e24-4971-b82d-84d6ec620136 | cirros-0.4.0-x86_64-disk | active |
    | ab0abeb8-f73c-467b-9743-b17083c02093 | cirros-0.5.1-x86_64-disk | active |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------+--------+
    

    If not, you can get the customized image of OpenWRT 15.05.1 in your tacker repository, or download the image from 1. Unzip the file by using the command below:

    $ cd /path/to/tacker/samples/images/
    $ gunzip openwrt-x86-kvm_guest-combined-ext4.img.gz
    

    Then upload the image into Glance by using command below:

    $ openstack image create OpenWRT --disk-format qcow2 \
          --container-format bare \
          --file /path/to/openwrt-x86-kvm_guest-combined-ext4.img \
          --public
    
  2. Configure OpenWRT

    The example below shows how to create the OpenWRT-based Firewall VNF. First, we have a yaml template which contains the configuration of OpenWRT as shown below:

    tosca-vnfd-openwrt.yaml 2

    tosca_definitions_version: tosca_simple_profile_for_nfv_1_0_0
    
    description: OpenWRT with services
    
    metadata:
      template_name: OpenWRT
    
    topology_template:
      node_templates:
    
        VDU1:
          type: tosca.nodes.nfv.VDU.Tacker
          capabilities:
            nfv_compute:
              properties:
                num_cpus: 1
                mem_size: 512 MB
                disk_size: 1 GB
          properties:
            image: OpenWRT
            config: |
              param0: key1
              param1: key2
            mgmt_driver: openwrt
            monitoring_policy:
              name: ping
              parameters:
                count: 3
                interval: 10
              actions:
                failure: respawn
    
        CP1:
          type: tosca.nodes.nfv.CP.Tacker
          properties:
            management: true
            order: 0
            anti_spoofing_protection: false
          requirements:
            - virtualLink:
                node: VL1
            - virtualBinding:
                node: VDU1
    
        CP2:
          type: tosca.nodes.nfv.CP.Tacker
          properties:
            order: 1
            anti_spoofing_protection: false
          requirements:
            - virtualLink:
                node: VL2
            - virtualBinding:
                node: VDU1
    
        CP3:
          type: tosca.nodes.nfv.CP.Tacker
          properties:
            order: 2
            anti_spoofing_protection: false
          requirements:
            - virtualLink:
                node: VL3
            - virtualBinding:
                node: VDU1
    
        VL1:
          type: tosca.nodes.nfv.VL
          properties:
            network_name: net_mgmt
            vendor: Tacker
    
        VL2:
          type: tosca.nodes.nfv.VL
          properties:
            network_name: net0
            vendor: Tacker
    
        VL3:
          type: tosca.nodes.nfv.VL
          properties:
            network_name: net1
            vendor: Tacker
    

    We also have another configuration yaml template with some firewall rules of OpenWRT.

    tosca-config-openwrt-firewall.yaml 3

    vdus:
      VDU1:
        config:
          firewall: |
            package firewall
    
            config defaults
                option syn_flood '1'
                option input 'ACCEPT'
                option output 'ACCEPT'
                option forward 'REJECT'
    
            config zone
                option name 'lan'
                list network 'lan'
                option input 'ACCEPT'
                option output 'ACCEPT'
                option forward 'ACCEPT'
    
            config zone
                option name 'wan'
                list network 'wan'
                list network 'wan6'
                option input 'REJECT'
                option output 'ACCEPT'
                option forward 'REJECT'
                option masq '1'
                option mtu_fix '1'
    
            config forwarding
                option src 'lan'
                option dest 'wan'
    
            config rule
                option name 'Allow-DHCP-Renew'
                option src 'wan'
                option proto 'udp'
                option dest_port '68'
                option target 'ACCEPT'
                option family 'ipv4'
    
            config rule
                option name 'Allow-Ping'
                option src 'wan'
                option proto 'icmp'
                option icmp_type 'echo-request'
                option family 'ipv4'
                option target 'ACCEPT'
    
            config rule
                option name 'Allow-IGMP'
                option src 'wan'
                option proto 'igmp'
                option family 'ipv4'
                option target 'ACCEPT'
    
            config rule
                option name 'Allow-DHCPv6'
                option src 'wan'
                option proto 'udp'
                option src_ip 'fe80::/10'
                option src_port '547'
                option dest_ip 'fe80::/10'
                option dest_port '546'
                option family 'ipv6'
                option target 'ACCEPT'
    
            config rule
                option name 'Allow-MLD'
                option src 'wan'
                option proto 'icmp'
                option src_ip 'fe80::/10'
                list icmp_type '130/0'
                list icmp_type '131/0'
                list icmp_type '132/0'
                list icmp_type '143/0'
                option family 'ipv6'
                option target 'ACCEPT'
    
            config rule
                option name 'Allow-ICMPv6-Input'
                option src 'wan'
                option proto 'icmp'
                list icmp_type 'echo-request'
                list icmp_type 'echo-reply'
                list icmp_type 'destination-unreachable'
                list icmp_type 'packet-too-big'
                list icmp_type 'time-exceeded'
                list icmp_type 'bad-header'
                list icmp_type 'unknown-header-type'
                list icmp_type 'router-solicitation'
                list icmp_type 'neighbour-solicitation'
                list icmp_type 'router-advertisement'
                list icmp_type 'neighbour-advertisement'
                option limit '190/sec'
                option family 'ipv6'
                option target 'REJECT'
    

    In this template file, we specify the mgmt_driver: openwrt which means this VNFD is managed by openwrt driver 4. This driver can inject firewall rules which defined in VNFD into OpenWRT instance by using SSH protocol. We can run cat /etc/config/firewall to confirm the firewall rules if inject succeed.

  3. Create a sample vnfd

    $ openstack vnf descriptor create \
        --vnfd-file tosca-vnfd-openwrt.yaml <VNFD_NAME>
    
  4. Create a VNF

    $ openstack vnf create --vnfd-name <VNFD_NAME> \
          --config-file tosca-config-openwrt-firewall.yaml <NAME>
    
  5. Check the status

    $ openstack vnf list
    $ openstack vnf show <VNF_ID>
    

    We can replace the firewall rules configuration file with tosca-config-openwrt-vrouter.yaml 5, tosca-config-openwrt-dnsmasq.yaml 6, or tosca-config-openwrt-qos.yaml 7 to deploy the router, DHCP, DNS, or QoS VNFs. The openwrt VNFM management driver will do the same way to inject the desired service rules into the OpenWRT instance. You can also do the same to check if the rules are injected successful: cat /etc/config/network to check vrouter, cat /etc/config/dhcp to check DHCP and DNS, and cat /etc/config/qos to check the QoS rules.

  6. Notes

    1. OpenWRT user and password

      The user account is ‘root’ and password is ‘’, which means there is no password for root account.

    2. Procedure to customize the OpenWRT image

      The OpenWRT is modified based on KVM OpenWRT 15.05.1 to be suitable for Tacker. The procedure is following as below:

      $ cd ~
      $ wget https://archive.openwrt.org/chaos_calmer/15.05.1/x86/kvm_guest/openwrt-15.05.1-x86-kvm_guest-combined-ext4.img.gz \
              -O openwrt-x86-kvm_guest-combined-ext4.img.gz
      $ gunzip openwrt-x86-kvm_guest-combined-ext4.img.gz
      
      $ mkdir -p imgroot
      
      $ sudo kpartx -av openwrt-x86-kvm_guest-combined-ext4.img
      
      # Replace the loopXp2 with the result of above command, e.g., loop0p2
      $ sudo mount -o loop /dev/mapper/loopXp2 imgroot
      $ sudo chroot imgroot /bin/ash
      
      # Set password of this image to blank, type follow command and then enter two times
      $ passwd
      
      # Set DHCP for the network of OpenWRT so that the VNF can be ping
      $ uci set network.lan.proto=dhcp; uci commit
      $ exit
      
      $ sudo umount imgroot
      $ sudo kpartx -dv openwrt-x86-kvm_guest-combined-ext4.img
      

Footnotes

1

https://opendev.org/openstack/tacker/src/branch/master/samples/images/openwrt-x86-kvm_guest-combined-ext4.img.gz

2

https://opendev.org/openstack/tacker/src/branch/master/samples/tosca-templates/vnfd/tosca-vnfd-openwrt.yaml

3

https://opendev.org/openstack/tacker/src/branch/master/samples/tosca-templates/vnfd/tosca-config-openwrt-firewall.yaml

4

https://opendev.org/openstack/tacker/src/branch/master/tacker/vnfm/mgmt_drivers/openwrt/openwrt.py

5

https://opendev.org/openstack/tacker/src/branch/master/samples/tosca-templates/vnfd/tosca-config-openwrt-vrouter.yaml

6

https://opendev.org/openstack/tacker/src/branch/master/samples/tosca-templates/vnfd/tosca-config-openwrt-dnsmasq.yaml

7

https://opendev.org/openstack/tacker/src/branch/master/samples/tosca-templates/vnfd/tosca-config-openwrt-qos.yaml