Subject: [nvo3] Comments and questions ondraft-kreeger-nvo3-hypervisor-nve-cp-01

From: "Florian Mahr" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:09:19 +0200

I would like to make some comments on
draft-kreeger-nvo3-hypervisor-nve-cp-01.

In section 2 "Terminology" it states:

“VN Alias: [...] A VN Name is independent of the
underlying technology used to implement a VN and will generally
not be carried in protocol fields of control protocols used in
virtual networks. Rather, a VN Alias will be mapped into a VN
Name where precision is required.”

I think, it should state:
“VN Alias: [...] A VN Alias is independent of the
underlying technology used to implement a VN and will generally
not be carried in protocol fields of control protocols used in
virtual networks. Rather, a VN Alias will be mapped into a VN
Name where precision is required.”

“VN ID: A unique and compact identifier for a VN within the scope of
a specific NVO3 administrative domain. It will generally be more
efficient to carry VN IDs as fields in control protocols than VN
Aliases. [...]”

I think, it should state:
“VN ID: A unique and compact identifier for a VN within the scope of
a specific NVO3 administrative domain. It will generally be more
efficient to carry VN IDs as fields in control protocols than VN
Names.”

The term "VNIC" is defined in the Terminology section. I support

Larry's suggestion to replace that term with something more generic,

i.e. Tenant System Interface (TSI). A TSI can be either a vNIC or pNIC

as the term does not make any assumptions about the concrete
implementation.

The term "VNIC Name" is defined in the Terminology section.
However, it is never used throughout the document. I think, knowing the
VNIC Name might be helpful for the NVE in order to keep track of the
addresses
associated with a given VNIC. Therefore it might be useful to have the
capability to signal the VNIC Name within the control protocol between
the
hypervisor and the NVE?

I also have some questions on the draft:

(1)
According to its definition in the Terminology section the IMA (oracle)
distributes and maintains mapping information for the entire overlay
system. May it also contain policy information for VNs?
If so, it should be mentioned in the definition.

(2)
In section 4.1 " it states:
"An End Device that is making use of an offloaded NVE only needs to
communicate the VN Name or ID to the NVE, and get back a locally
significant tag value."
Have you thought about the possibility to signal a VNIC port-profile
identifier to the NVE? This identifier might refer to policy settings
(ACLs, QoS, etc.) the NVE should apply to the VAP the VNIC of the TS
is associated with. The VN ID might also be a part of the port-profile.

Thanks,

Florian