jklare / orca_nw_lib

gNMI python package for SONiC switch discovery and management.

ORCA Network Library

ORCA Network Library is an open source python package to facilitate CRUD operations on SONiC devices using gNMI interface. orca_nw_lib maintains a graph database with the realtime device configurations and network topology. ORCA Network Library can be used to develop the orchestration solutions, NMS applications and network data analytics.

• ORCA Network Library
  • Install orca_nw_lib using pip
  • Prerequisite
    • Install Neo4j
    • orca_nw_lib configuration
  • Build and Install orca_nw_lib from source
  • Using the ORCA Network APIs
  • Knowing API call status
  • Keeping graph DB in sync with realtime Network state.
  • Executing Tests
  • Releases of orca_nw_lib
  • Supported SONiC versions
  • Contribute

Install orca_nw_lib using pip

Latest release of ORCA Network Library can be simply installed using pip as follows:

pip install orca_nw_lib

Prerequisite

After installing the orca_nw_lib package, orca_nw_lib can be used like any other python package in your application. But before using orca_nw_lib, it is required to install Neo4j and do some basic configurations.

Install Neo4j

orca_nw_lib uses Neo4j to store the network topology. The easiest way to install Neo4j is to run the Neo4j Docker image in container with the following command:

docker run \
    --name testneo4j \
    -p7474:7474 -p7687:7687 \
    -d \
    -v $HOME/neo4j/data:/data \
    -v $HOME/neo4j/logs:/logs \
    -v $HOME/neo4j/import:/var/lib/neo4j/import \
    -v $HOME/neo4j/plugins:/plugins \
    --env NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/password \
    neo4j:latest

Then open https://localhost:7474 with credentials neo4j/password to browse the database.

orca_nw_lib configuration

In the application where orca_nw_lib is used, the load_orca_config function in utils.py must be called before using any APIs of orca_nw_lib. This function loads device and Neo4j access information as well as the logging configuration by default from orca.yml and logging.yml files. In addition to that, the user can also call load_orca_config with custom config files. The parameter information is documented in the orca.yml file and the logging.yml contains standard python logging configuration.

Build and Install orca_nw_lib from source

Optionally if the user wants to build and install orca_nw_lib from source, the ORCA Network Library uses poetry to build the orca_nw_lib package. As a pre-requisite poetry must be installed in this case. Poetry can be easily installed using the following command:

pip install poetry

To build orca_nw_lib use the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/STORDIS/orca_nw_lib.git
cd orca_nw_lib
poetry build
pip install dist/orca_nw_lib-****.whl

Once installed, the orca_nw_lib packagex and orca_nw_lib can be used like any other python package in your application.

Using the ORCA Network APIs

For normal usage, the following APIs in python modules in the package orca_nw_lib are useful:

• utils.py - load_orca_config() function must be called before using any APIs of orca_nw_lib.
• discovery.py - discover_all() function can be used to discover complete topology as per the network defined in orca.yml
• bgp.py - BGP CRUD operations
• device.py - Get device system info.
• interface.py - Interfaces CRUD operations.
• lldp.py - Read LLDP relation, usefull while doing discovery.
• mclag.py - MCLAG CRUD operations.
• port_chnl.py - Port Channel CRUD operations.
• portgroup.py - Read port group information.
• vlan.py - VLAN CRUD operations.

The modules having the suffixes _db and _gnmi, contain operations to be performed in db or on device using gNMI respectively.

The interface.py for example contains general operation on interfaces and users can achieve normal interface configurations by using functions present in it. The interface_db.py has functions to perform CRUD operations in graph DB and interface_gnmi.py has functions to configure interfaces on devices.

Test cases are a good starting point to know the usage of APIs in orca_nbw_lib.

Knowing API call status

Exception objects raised by APIs in the modules above can be caught to know the API status. The exception object contains all necessary details about the error.

Keeping graph DB in sync with real-time Network state.

Any configuration done on the device via orca_nw_lib APIs automatically keeps the DB in sync with the real-time network state, by triggering the discovery method for the network component. Although gNMI subscriptions would have been the best way to achieve this, SONIC currently lacks support for those for all openconfig models. Therefore only pull mechanism can be used to keep graph DB in sync with real-time network state.

NOTE: For changes done on the device outside of orca_nw_lib, i.e. changes done directly on the device, the best way to keep graph DB in sync with the real-time network state is to trigger full discovery at a pre-defined interval.

Executing Tests

Tests are not only used for regular software testing, but are a good example to learn about the usage of APIs in orca_nw_lib. When starting to use orca_nw_lib, referring to the tests can be a good starting point. Test cases are located in the test directory. To execute tests a topology of 3 switches (1-spine, 2-leaves) is required. Prior to execute tests, the leaves should be connected to the spine and respective interfaces should be enabled, so that by providing one of the switch IPs in orca.yml whole topology gets discovered.

For performing tests creating a topology in GNS3 can be a good starting point.

• To execute tests

pytest orca_nw_lib/test/test_network.py

• To execute single test cases

pytest orca_nw_lib/test/test_network.py -k test_remove_port_chnl_members

• To print console messages from code

pytest orca_nw_lib/test/test_interface.py -k test_remove_port_chnl_members -s

Releases of orca_nw_lib

orca_nw_lib releases are hosted at PyPI - https://pypi.org/project/orca_nw_lib/#history.

To create a new release, increase the release number in pyproject.toml.

Supported SONiC versions

• Broadcom Enterprise SONiC (Latest tested on >=4.0.5)

Contribute

You can contribute to the project by opening an issue or sending a pull request.