This section describes how to design, develop, and submit a Virtual Network Function for use as a Network Resource in the OpenECOMP environment.

Additionally, this section includes an outline of actions to be taken by a service provider to design and deploy a Service containing a VNF.

The primary audiences for this documentation are

• VNF providers: creators of VNFs (executables and related configuration files)
• Acceptance personnel: thse tasked with certifying VNFs (approving them to run in OpenECOMP environments)
• Service Designers: those who combine Virtual Functions (including VNFs) into Services in OpenECOMP
• DevOps: those who deploy, operate, and monitor OpenECOMP Services containing VNFs

There are three stages in the life cycle of a VNF, shown here:

Figure 1. VNF complete life cycle stages

Reference Documents for VNF Providers

There are four reference documents for VNF Providers, summarized here.

<<DocRef: VNF Guidelines for Network Cloud and OpenECOMP>>

• identifies audiences interested in VNFs
• describes the VNF environment
• gives an overview of requirements
• points out differences between OpenECOMP VNFs and ETSI VNFs

<<DocRef: VNF Cloud Readiness Requirements for OpenECOMP (formerly: "Common Requirements...">>

• design requirements (API versioning, decomposition, reliance on open source database, packet size limitations)
• resiliency requirements
• security requirements

<<DocRef: VNF Management Requirements for OpenECOMP>>

• requirements imposed by the targeted network cloud infrastructure, including the hypervisor
• identification requirements for the VNF and its components
• configuration management requirements
  
  • a VNF must provide a Device YANG model
  • a VNF must implement a NETCONF server; the required NETCONF API's are referenced, and the supplier must demonstrate mounting the NETCONF server on OpenDaylight
• monitoring and operations requirements
  • format of messages (event records)
  • frequency of reporting
  • security
• licensing requirements

<<DocRef: VNF Heat Template Requirements for OpenECOMP>>

• provides recommendations and standards for building Heat templates compatible with OpenECOMP

Example VNFs Included with OpenECOMP

The example VNFs distributed with OpenECOMP are:

• vFW (Firewall)
• vDNS (Domain Name Server).

The Demos page describes how to design and operate Services using these VNFs.

VNF Acceptance

Here is an outline of the steps used by a service provider to test a VNF and add it to the OpenECOMP inventory.

Pre-onboarding

1. Create a tenant
2. Validate VFs
3. Generate manifest and package artifacts

Resource onboarding

1. Create a license model
2. Licensing
   1. Create a license key group [optional]
   2. Create an entitlement pool
   3. Create a feature group
   4. Create a license agreement
3. Create a Vendor Software Product
4. Update VFCs in a VSP [optional]
5. Update a VSP [optional]

VF creation and testing

1. Create a VF
2. Update a VF [optional]
3. Submit a VF for testing
4. Test a VF

Designing a Service Using a VNF

1. Create a service
2. Create workflows [optional]
   1. Create a management workflow [optional]
   2. Create a network callflow [optional]
   3. Select VID inputs [optional]
3. Update a service [optional]
4. Submit a service for testing
5. Test a service
6. Assign an IP address plan

Governance Approval and Service Distribution

1. Review a service for governance approval
2. Request service distribution
3. Distribute a service
4. Verify that the blueprint is deployed

Closed Loop Design

1. Design a model
2. Collector
   1. Configure Collector
   2. Configure StringMatch
   3. Configure Policy

Policy Design

1. Import a policy attribute dictionary [optional]
2. Edit a policy attribute dictionary [optional]
3. Add a scope
4. Assign a scope to a user
5. Create a policy
6. Push a policy