SDC is the ONAP visual modeling and design tool. It creates internal metadata that describes assets used by all ONAP components, both at design time and run time.

The SDC manages the content of a catalog, and logical assemblies of selected catalog items --as needed-- to completely define how and when VNFs  are realized in a target environment.  A complete virtual assembly of specific catalog items, together with selected workflows and instance configuration data,  completely defines how the deployment, activation, and life-cycle management of VNFs are accomplished.  Selected sub-assemblies may also be represented in the catalog and may be combined with other catalog items, including other sub-assemblies.

In the context of a catalog containing TOSCA nodes that are assembled to form a TOSCA blueprint within the SDC, it is expected that such nodes convey (as properties) all of the workflows and/or  workflow fragments) needed to realize the node in some specific target environment.  In this way, any assembly of such nodes (defined in a blueprint) can be used to define the end-to-end workflow needed to realize the VNF associated with the TOSCA blueprint.

SDC manages four levels of assets:

• Resource: a fundamental capability, implemented either entirely in software, or as software that interacts with a hardware device. Each Resource is a combination of one or more Virtual Function Components (VFCs), along with all the information necessary to instantiate, update, delete, and manage the Resource. A Resource also includes license-related information. There are three kinds of Resource:
  • Infrastructure (the Cloud resources, e.g., Compute, Storage)
  • Network (network connectivity functions & elements); example: a Virtual Network Function (VNF)
  • Application (features and capabilities of a software application); example: a load-balancing function

• Service: a well formed object comprising one or more Resources. Service Designers create Services from Resources, and include all of the information about the Service needed to instantiate, update, delete, and manage the Service
• Product: includes one or more Services packaged with commercialization attributes for customer ordering, billing, and issue resolution. Products are created by Product Managers, and can have one or more "category" attributes assigned by Product Strategists.
• Offer: bundling of Products with specific Marketing configurations for selling to customers

The key output of SDC is a set of models containing descriptions of asset capabilities and instructions to manage them. These models are stored in the SDC Master Reference Catalog for the entire enterprise to use.

There are four major components of SDC: