evpn-connector

A service for automating the management distributed switch or router based on EVPN standards

Key Features

• EVPN Standards Support:
  • RFC 7432: BGP MPLS-Based Ethernet VPN
  • RFC 8365: Network Virtualization Overlay
  • RFC 7988: Ingress Replication Tunnels in Multicast VPN
  • RFC 9135: Integrated Routing and Bridging in Ethernet VPN
  • RFC 9136: IP Prefix Advertisement in Ethernet VPN
• Hardware Integration: Interaction with the hardware switch and routers via EVPN
• GoBGP Integration: Interaction with the gobgpd daemon to pull or push EVPN annouces
• OpenvSwitch Management: Direct management of bridges and flows within the OpenvSwitch system
• Reconciliation Loop Design: Built on a closed-loop control architecture to ensure fault tolerance and reduce the impact of external factors
• Configurability: Flexible setup via INI daemon configuration files and JSON clients configuration files

Documentation

The details of the EVPN's operation and evpn-connector daemon workflow are described in the presentation (in Russian only).

Installation & Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8
• System Dependencies:
  • gobgp (for interaction via BGP within the EVPN control plane)
  • openvswitch-switch (for interaction via VXLAN within the EVPN data plane)
• Permissions: Requires root privileges for interaction with OpenvSwitch

1. Install dependencies:

   On Ubuntu/Debian:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install openvswitch-switch openvswitch-common gobgpd

   On CentOS/RHEL:

   sudo yum install gobgp openvswitch
   # or for newer versions:
   # sudo dnf install gobgp openvswitch

2. (Optional) Install latest GoBGP from binary release:

   wget https://github.com/osrg/gobgp/releases/download/v3.34.0/gobgp_3.34.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz
   mkdir gobgp
   tar -xf gobgp_3.34.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz -C gobgp/

3. (Recommended) Create a virtual environment: Recommended installation gobgp versions >= v3.34

   python3 -m venv evpn
   source evpn/bin/activate
   pip install --upgrade pip setuptools

4. Install evpn-connector:

   pip install evpn-connector

Configuration

Before the first run, you need to create a configuration file.

1. GoBGP config: Copy the example configuration file and adapt it to your environment.

   cp etc/gobgpd/gobgp.conf.sample /etc/gobgpd/gobgp.conf

   It is necessary to configure gobgp so that all nodes can exchange announces with afi-safi "l2evpn-evpn"

2. evpn-connector config: Copy the example configuration file and adapt it to your environment.

   mkdir /etc/evpn_connector/
   cp etc/evpn_connector/logging.yaml /etc/evpn_connector/logging.yaml
   cp etc/evpn_connector/evpn_connector.cfg.sample /etc/evpn_connector/evpn_connector.conf

3. Edit /etc/evpn_connector/evpn_connector.conf: Specify the necessary parameters:

   • [gobgp] section: Settings for connecting to the GoBGP daemon
     • [gobgp] source_ip: Source IP address for all VXLAN packets
   • [ovs] section: Settings for OpenvSwitch dataplane parameters
     • [ovs] switch_name: Name of switch created in OvS
   • [daemon] section: Settings for evpn_connector daemon
     • [daemon] configs_dir: Path to client configs

4. Client configs: Create clients configs. Example config:

   • For L2 connectivity

     {
     "cfg_type": "l2",           // Config type for L2 connectivity use "l2"
     "mac": "36:e7:a5:7e:0c:81", // MAC address of client
     "ip": "10.0.0.1",           // IP address of client
     "vni": 10,                  // VXLAN segment identifier
     "ofport": 1000,             // OpenFlow port number in current OpenvSwitch switch
     "type": "flat",             // OpenvSwitch port type. May be "flat" and "vlan"
     "tag": 0,                   // OpenvSwitch port segment identifier. Ignored on "flat"
     "imp_rt": ["65000:10"],     // List of imported BGP Route Targets
     "exp_rt": ["65000:10"]      // List of exported BGP Route Targets
     }

   • For L3 connectivity

     {
     "cfg_type": "l3",           // Config type for L3 connectivity use "l3"
     "mac": "36:e7:a5:7e:0c:81", // MAC address of client
     "routes": ["10.0.0.1/32"],  // List of CIDR prefixes for this client
     "vni": 10,                  // VXLAN segment identifier
     "ofport": 1000,             // OpenFlow port number in current OpenvSwitch switch
     "type": "flat",             // OpenvSwitch port type. May be "flat" and "vlan"
     "tag": 0,                   // OpenvSwitch port segment identifier. Ignored on "flat"
     "imp_rt": ["65000:10"],     // List of imported BGP Route Targets
     "exp_rt": ["65000:10"]      // List of exported BGP Route Targets
     }

   Need create json config for all clients in configs_dir

   mkdir /var/lib/evpn_connector/client_configs/
   vim /var/lib/evpn_connector/client_configs/vm1.json

Running the Service

Start the service by specifying the path to your configuration file:

1. Run GoBGP:

   sudo gobgpd -f /etc/gobgpd/gobgp.conf

2. Run evpn-connector

   source evpn/bin/activate
   evpn-connector --config-file /etc/evpn_connector/evpn_connector.conf --daemon-configs_dir "/var/lib/evpn_connector/client_configs/"