Lenovo Intelligent Network Controller Instructions

: June 12, 2024
: Lenovo

Table of Contents

Introduction to Lenovo Intelligent Network Controller
Features
Virtualization platforms
Benefits
System Architecture
Use Cases
Tungsten Fabric Community
Technical requirements
Notices
References
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Intelligent Network Controller
Instructions

Introduction to Lenovo Intelligent Network Controller

Positioning Information (withdrawn product)
Enterprise CIOs are seeking to become truly virtual by implementing IT models such as Hybrid Cloud and various infrastructure offerings to drive better cost efficiencies and agile operations. On the other hand, Telco providers are seeking to develop new business models to capitalize on these enterprise requirements and address disruptions to their traditional revenue streams.
Lenovo Intelligent Network Controller is available to address the challenges faced by both IT departments and telco providers in building an intelligent network that can adopt to new business requirements. Intelligent Network Controller is a Software Defined Network (SDN) controller built on Tungsten Fabric (formerlly OpenContrail), which demonstrates Lenovo’s commitment to open solutions while providing quality customer experiences.

Features

Intelligent Network Controller has the following key features:

Linux Foundation Project, Tungsten Fabric (continuous community sync)
Multi-tenancy
VXLAN encapsulations
Forwarding Class Bit-marking QoS
Multicast Services
Service Function Chaining (SFC) with LBaaS/FWaaS/VPNaaS supporting commercial VNFs (Virtualized Network Functions)
High Availability
Enhanced Lenovo GUI
Rich Analytics
VM Live Migration
Rich Northbound REST APIs
Support and services offerings

Virtualization platforms

The following operating systems and virtualization platforms are supported:

Red Hat OpenStack 10 (RHOSP10) – OpenStack Newton
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5
Lenovo ThinkCloud Solution (for China only)

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Introduction to Lenovo Intelligent Network Controller (withdrawn product)

Benefits

Intelligent Network Controller has the following key customer benefits:

Simple
Lenovo Intelligent Network Controller is designed with simplicity in mind. It is easy to learn, intuitive to use, and well automated for a simple day-1 setup with orchestration systems such as Red Hat OpenStack and Lenovo ThinkCloud. The controller also provides user interface options with Simplified Chinese language for customers in China.
Open
Intelligent Network Controller is based on Tungsten Fabric, The Linux Foundation open-source project (formerly OpenContrail) and community of developers and users. It eliminates the risk of being lock-in by leveraging long-standing, well-proven open industry standards plus Lenovo’s quality commitment.
High Scale and Performance
Several large Enterprises and Telco currently have Open Contrail in production, standing up to the challenge of some of the most massive data center clouds. One controller installation can support thousands of virtual machines or Containers.
Seamless Integration
Intelligent Network Controller integrates with existing environments seeking to migrate to Private Cloud models. It includes support for standard protocols and integration with orchestration systems such as OpenStack. The Virtual router can integrate with routing protocols such as BGP and OSPF to enable undisrupted traffic paths.

System Architecture

The following figure shows an architecture that consists of distributed vRouters on each hypervisor node.
These vRouters peers with Lenovo switches or third-party routers and switches for internal and external routing to physical workloads. The Neutron plugin is the integration point with Openstack or Lenovo ThinkCloud.

Figure 1. System architecture

Use Cases

The following are key use cases:

Network Virtualization and Security
Creating virtual overlay networks across L2 or L3 infrastructure with VXLAN support. The controller also enables policies to secure these networks based on workload access requirements.
Service Function Chaining
In addition to built-in policy capabilities, additional Virtual Network Functions (VNF) services integrated into the network path to create as a “Service Chains”. Typical VNFs includes Firewalls, Load Balancers, IPS and others.
Virtual to Physical Mapping
IT Environments with both physical and virtual workloads requires mapping from one domain to the other. Lenovo Intelligent Network Controller can provide mapping from virtualized servers into physical legacy servers connected to Lenovo or third- party switches with VXLAN encapsulation support. This allows for unified management of these environments.

Tungsten Fabric Community

The original Contrail architecture was initiated by Juniper Networks and has expanded into an open community, now called Tungsten Fabric and is part of the Linux Foundation Networking group. Several community members are deploying Tungsten Fabric to production. Lenovo is a very active contributor to this community and provides a controller that is fully qualified into our Telco and Enterprise solutions.

Technical requirements

The minimum recommended hardware for a highly availability system in production is three servers with the following components:

256 GB RAM
500 GB storage
16 CPU cores
Two Intel Ethernet ports (82599 or newer)
Linux OS (CentOS or RHEL)

In a Proof of Concept (PoC) environment, Intelligent Network Controller can run with the following minimum hardware requirements:

32 GB RAM
350 GB storage
8 CPU cores
Two Intel Ethernet ports (82599 or newer), or E1000/VXNET3 compatible vNICs in the virtual environment

For More Information
For more information about Lenovo Intelligent Network Controller, go to the following web page: https://github.com/lenovo/Intelligent-network-controller
Lenovo Intelligent Network Controller is currently available for Customer Proof of Concept (PoC). Please contact Lenovo at -sdn- marketing@lenovo.com for more information.

Notices

Lenovo may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this document in all countries. Consult your local Lenovo representative for information on the products and services currently available in your area. Any reference to a Lenovo product, program, or service is not intended to state or imply that only that Lenovo product, program, or service may be used. Any functionally equivalent product, program, or service that does not infringe any Lenovo intellectual property right may be used instead. However, it is the user’s responsibility to evaluate and verify the operation of any other product, program, or service. Lenovo may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter described in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents. You can send license inquiries, in writing, to:
Lenovo (United States), Inc.
8001 Development Drive
Morrisville, NC 27560
U.S.A.
Attention: Lenovo Director of Licensing

LENOVO PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION ”AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some jurisdictions do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties in certain transactions, therefore, this statement may not apply to you.
This information could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in new editions of the publication. Lenovo may make improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication at any time without notice.
The products described in this document are not intended for use in implantation or other life support applications where malfunction may result in injury or death to persons. The information contained in this document does not affect or change Lenovo product specifications or warranties. Nothing in this document shall operate as an express or implied license or indemnity under the intellectual property rights of Lenovo or third parties. All information contained in this document was obtained in specific environments and is presented as an illustration. The result obtained in other operating environments may vary. Lenovo may use or distribute any of the information you supply in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you.
Any references in this publication to non-Lenovo Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those Web sites. The materials at those Web sites are not part of the materials for this Lenovo product, and use of those Web sites is at your own risk. Any performance data contained herein was determined in a controlled environment. Therefore, the result obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly. Some measurements may have been made on development-level systems and there is no guarantee that these measurements will be the same on generally available systems. Furthermore, some measurements may have been estimated through extrapolation. Actual results may vary. Users of this document should verify the applicable data for their specific environment.

This document, LP0842, was created or updated on September 10, 2018.
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Introduction to Lenovo Intelligent Network Controller (withdrawn product)