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Expose and manage Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (Operators) in a Kubernetes Cluster

Intended Audience: OpenSlice Service Designers

OpenSlice is capable of exposing Kubernetes Resources and Definitions as Service Specifications.

Use OpenSlice to expose NFV resources in service catalogs and deploy them in complex scenarios (service bundles) involving also other systems:

  • Include external resources, e.g. RAN controllers
  • Manage multiple NSDs in linked NFVOs (OSM installations)
  • Combine designed services
  • Control the lifecycle of services and pass values from one service to another

Awareness for CRDs and CRs in cluster

CRDs and CRs can appear (disappear) or change status at any time in a cluster. OpenSlice Resource Inventory need to be aware of these events.

When installing OpenSlice you can configure at least one management cluster. OpenSlice connects via a provided kubeconf

  • On start-up, OSL tries to register this cluster and context to OSL catalogs.
  • After the registration of this cluster as a Resource in OSL OSL is always aware of all CRDs and their CRs in the cluster, even if a CRD or CR is added/updated/deleted in the K8S cluster outside of OSL
  • Resources created by OpenSlice have labels, e.g. (org.etsi.osl.*)

Expose CRDs as Service Specifications in OpenSlice catalogs

A CRD by default is exposed as a Resource Specification

To ensure unique names across the clusters that OpenSlice can manage, the name of a CRD is constructed as follows:

Kind @ ApiGroup/version @ ContextCluster @ masterURL

For example you might see resource Specifications like:

  • Application@argoproj.io/v1alpha1@kubernetes@https://10.10.10.144:6443/```
  • IPAddressPool@metallb.io/v1beta1@kubernetes@https://10.10.10.144:6443/
  • Provider@pkg.crossplane.io/v1@kubernetes@https://10.10.10.144:6443/

All attributes of the CRD are translated into characteristics

The following specific characteristics are added:

- _CR_SPEC: Used for providing the json Custom Resource description to apply
- _CR_CHECK_FIELD: Used for providing the field that need to be checked for the resource status
- _CR_CHECKVAL_STANDBY: Used for providing the equivalent value from resource to signal the standby status
- _CR_CHECKVAL_ALARM: Used for providing the equivalent value from resource to signal the alarm status
- _CR_CHECKVAL_AVAILABLE: Used for providing the equivalent value from resource to signal the available status
- _CR_CHECKVAL_RESERVED: Used for providing the equivalent value from resource to signal the reserved status
- _CR_CHECKVAL_UNKNOWN: Used for providing the equivalent value from resource to signal the unknown status
- _CR_CHECKVAL_SUSPENDED: Used for providing the equivalent value from resource to signal the suspended status

  1. Create a new Service Specification and use this Resource Specification in Resource Specification Relationships

    • Then the Service Specification is saved as ResourceFacingServiceSpecification

    1.1. At this stage, you can give values to the characteristics:

    - _CR_SPEC, 
- _CR_CHECK_FIELD
- _CR_CHECKVAL_STANDBY
- _CR_CHECKVAL_ALARM
- _CR_CHECKVAL_AVAILABLE
- _CR_CHECKVAL_RESERVED
- _CR_CHECKVAL_UNKNOWN
- _CR_CHECKVAL_SUSPENDED

    1.2. You can now create LCM rules if you wish

  2. Create a new Service Specification and use the Resource Facing Service Specification in Service Specification Relationships

    • Then the Service Specification is saved as CustomerFacingServiceSpecification

    2.1. At this stage, you can give values to the characteristics: 

    - _CR_SPEC, 
- _CR_CHECK_FIELD
- _CR_CHECKVAL_STANDBY
- _CR_CHECKVAL_ALARM
- _CR_CHECKVAL_AVAILABLE
- _CR_CHECKVAL_RESERVED
- _CR_CHECKVAL_UNKNOWN
- _CR_CHECKVAL_SUSPENDED

    2.2. You can create LCM rules for this new Service Specification

    2.3. You can expose configurable values for users to configure during service order

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Service Orchestration and CRDs/CRs

OSOM - OpenSlice Service Orchestrator, checks the presence of attribute _CR_SPEC at the RFS to make a request for a CR deployment.

  • _CR_SPEC is a JSON or YAML string that is used for the request
    • It is similar to what one will do with e.g. a kubectl apply
    • There are tools to translate a yaml file to a json

LCM rules can be used to change attributes of this yaml/json file, before sending this for orchestration

Mapping the CR lifecycle that is defined in the CRD with the OpenSLice (TMF-based) resource Lifecycle

OpenSlice adds automatically as we see the following characteristics: 

- _CR_CHECK_FIELD
- _CR_CHECKVAL_STANDBY
- _CR_CHECKVAL_ALARM
- _CR_CHECKVAL_AVAILABLE
- _CR_CHECKVAL_RESERVED
- _CR_CHECKVAL_UNKNOWN
- _CR_CHECKVAL_SUSPENDED

These characteristics instrument OpenSlice services to manage and reflect the lifecycle of a kubernetes resource to OpenSlice's (TMF based) lifecycle

  • _CR_CHECK_FIELD: The name of the field that is needed to be monitored in order to monitor the status of the service and translate it to TMF resource status (RESERVED AVAILABLE, etc)
  • _CR_CHECKVAL_STANDBY: The CR specific value (of the CheckFieldName) that needs to me mapped to the TMF resource state STANDBY (see org.etsi.osl.tmf.ri639.model.ResourceStatusType)
  • _CR_CHECKVAL_ALARM: The CR specific value (of the CheckFieldName) that needs to me mapped to the TMF resource state ALARMS (see org.etsi.osl.tmf.ri639.model.ResourceStatusType)
  • _CR_CHECKVAL_AVAILABLE: The CR specific value (of the CheckFieldName) that needs to me mapped to the TMF resource state AVAILABLE (see org.etsi.osl.tmf.ri639.model.ResourceStatusType)
  • _CR_CHECKVAL_RESERVED: The CR specific value (of the CheckFieldName) that needs to me mapped to the TMF resource state RESERVED (see org.etsi.osl.tmf.ri639.model.ResourceStatusType)
  • _CR_CHECKVAL_UNKNOWN: The CR specific value (of the CheckFieldName) that needs to me mapped to the TMF resource state UNKNOWN (see org.etsi.osl.tmf.ri639.model.ResourceStatusType)
  • _CR_CHECKVAL_SUSPENDED: The CR specific value (of the CheckFieldName) that needs to me mapped to the TMF resource state SUSPENDED (see org.etsi.osl.tmf.ri639.model.ResourceStatusType)

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