openstack/ironic
Code Issues Proposed changes

docs: detail network switch simulator support

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Adds documentation around support for switch simulators
to the contributor documentation to appropriately scope aspects
as to why the support has been added for the devstack plugin.

Change-Id: Ic141804e6adc8d08957875e1b169dca52c99e448
This commit is contained in:
Julia Kreger 2025-03-12 10:24:02 -07:00
parent 7ef39b8cc4
commit 803a969133
1 changed files with 33 additions and 0 deletions
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33
doc/source/contributor/ironic-multitenant-networking.rst
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@ -129,3 +129,36 @@ configured in Neutron.
LOGFILE=$HOME/devstack.log
LOGDIR=$HOME/logs
IRONIC_VM_LOG_DIR=$HOME/ironic-bm-logs
Use of Switch Simulators
------------------------
The devstack plugin has logic to enable to exercising of simulated network
switches. This support in devstack exists to aid developers in verification
of networking-generic-switch or other ML2 plugin behavior, and is *not*
intended to be used to actually exercise the end behavior of the virtalized
switch.
To be very specific: This is not for Continuous Integration. Switch simulators
are exceptionally slow and are designed largely for users to ping across,
not attempt to perform deployments of machines across.
Generally, the starting point is to leverage the ``IRONIC_NETWORK_SIMULATOR``
setting and set it to a supported value. However, due to vendor limitations
on accessing product firmware artifacts, you may need to perform some initial
downloads of artifacts and even update filenames in the devstack plugin if
you need to leverage a different version. Thinking of the simulator,
you should mentally model it as an appliance.
Currently supported by the devstack plugin:
* force10_9 - Dell Force10 OS9 based switches utilizing the OS9 simulator
installation ISO image.
* force10_10 - Dell Force10 OS10 (SmartFabric) switches utilizing a user
downloaded switch simulator zip file.
The plugin generally work by attempting to plug the Virtual Machines used
for CI testing through to networking for the virtual switch appliance, while
also attaching the switch to the general networking of the host devstack is
running on, and establishing the necessary configuration so
networking-generic-switch may access the device and assert configuration.