ASR5000 / ASR5500 Troubleshooting Guide

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/12539481/asr5000-asr5500-troubleshooting-guide

Virtulization and its Different Types

Virtualization is the abstraction of computing and network resources. In the computing world, there can be various degrees of virtualization:

Network Virtualization

Segmenting a common network into separate virtual networks to isolate user traffic within individual network domains involves logical separation of data-plane (and some control-plane) functionality. There can be several forms of network virtualization:

• Virtual LANs (VLANs) - Separate L2 LAN broadcast domains.
• Virtual Routing Forwarding (VRFs) - Separate L3 routing domains.
• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) - Creating virtual circuits in a shared network. Commonly deployed VPN technologies include MPLS-VPN, IPsec-VPN, etc.

Device Virtualization

Segmenting a device into separate logical independent entities.

• Virtual Contexts - Used on firewalls, load balancers, and other application networking platforms. Involves logical separation of data-plane, and some separation of configuration and management plane. Available on Cisco FWSM, ACE, etc.
• Secure Domain Routers (SDR) - Creating separate logical routers, each using its own route processors and line cards, within the same physical chassis. SDRs are isolated from each other in terms of their resources, performance, and availability. Available in Cisco IOS-XR platforms.
• Virtual Device Contexts (VDCs) - Logical separation of control-plane, data-plane, management, resources, and system processes that enables collapsing multiple logical networks into a single physical infrastructure. Available on Cisco Nexus 7000 platforms.

Server Virtualization

Hardware assisted virtualization simulates a complete hardware environment, or Virtual Machine (VM), in which an unmodified "guest" operating system executes in complete isolation. A physical computer server is partitioned into multiple logical servers so that each has the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted. With hardware-assisted full virtualization, multiple low usage servers can be virtualized - transformed into a Virtual Machine - and multiple VMs can be run simultaneously on the same physical server. VMs can also be moved from one server to another for load balancing or disaster recovery.

Desktop Virtualization or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

VDI is a server-centric computing model that provides the ability to host and centrally manage desktop virtual machines in the data center while giving end users a full PC desktop experience.

Storage Virtualization

Storage virtualization is the process of abstracting logical storage from physical storage. This abstraction can be done at any layer of the storage software and hardware stack. Virtualization of storage helps achieve location independence by abstracting the physical location of the data. The virtualization system presents to the user a logical space for data storage and itself handles the process of mapping it to the actual physical location. The logical storage can be a partition, volume, or virtual disk (vdisk). The abstraction can be host-based, storage device-based, or network-based. Storage area networks (SANs) can also be virtualized into zones and Virtual SAN (VSANs). Zoning is a distributed service common throughout the Fibre Channel (FC) fabric and prevents devices from communicating with other unauthorized devices. A VSAN provides the ability to create separate virtual fabrics on top of the same redundant physical infrastructure.

Oracle Unveils Four New VNFs - Policy Management, SBC, Converged Application Server & Services Gatekeeper

Oracle, has recently announced the release of four fully virtualized network functions (VNF) solution portfolio for Communications Service Providers (CSP). These Network Function Virtualization-enabled products - Oracle Communications Policy Management, Oracle Communications Converged Application Server, Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper, and Oracle Communications Session Border Controller - are aimed at helping CSPs to conquer the layers of complexity inherent in bridging physical and virtual environments as they continue on their journey toward NFV.

According to Oracle, the newest version of Oracle Communications Policy Management is a key component in the deployment of next-generation LTE networks. As network virtualization continues to advance, CSPs require the flexibility, reliability, and depth of feature functionality that enables them to evolve their networks through LTE, Voice over LTE (VoLTE), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and virtualization. In addition, the solution is designed to enable tight integration with charging and billing systems, to provide valuable network insights via an integrated policy analytics solution and to allow providers to serve all subscribers from a single policy management instance regardless of network access type.

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Ooredoo Kuwait rolls out unified cloud for NFV

Ooredoo Kuwait has successfully deployed network functions virtualisation (NFV) architecture and its IT applications on a single, unified cloud, it was announced this week.

The single cloud is based on VMware's vCloud for NFV platform, and was rolled out as part of Ooredoo's ‘Unify' initiative, which aims to take advantage of a software-defined data centre architecture, as well as NFV and software-defined networking (SDN).

VMware's professional services team partnered with the operator and its virtual network functions (VNF) vendor, Huawei, to design and deploy the VMware vCloud for NFV platform and virtual network functions into a test environment in less than three months. The solution supported the seamless transfer of the virtualised Core IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) from test environment to Ooredoo's production IT environment, and enabled Ooredoo to conduct its first voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) call.

"Reliability and availability were key factors in our decision to work with VMware. The production-proven VMware technology and our previous experience with the high levels of technical support offered by VMware professional services gave us the confidence to move to a unified cloud platform," said Mijbil Al-Ayoub, director of Corporate Comms, Ooredoo Kuwait.

"The speed at which we have been able to trial our unified cloud and onboard the VoLTE service functions into our IT network has exceeded our expectations. We did a joint R&D project that took only two months to complete, and we finalised the development of our vIMS product that can be deployed in a production, commodity infrastructure, automatically in only 3.5 hours."

The Ooredoo platform uses VMware's policy-based resource allocation features to maintain application service level agreement (SLA) enforcement, and software-defined networking capabilities of the VMware NSX network virtualisation platform to address NFV network scalability needs, multi-tenancy with microsegmentation, capacity on demand and QoS. VMware NSX is a main pillar in segregating tenants across Ooredoo‘s single converged private cloud.

"We're delighted to be working with such forward-thinking customers who understand the value of a platform-based deployment strategy for NFV," said David Wright, vice president, Telecommunications and NFV Group, VMware.

"By making the decision to deploy and manage a horizontally virtualised platform capable of supporting multivendor VNFs and IT workloads, Ooredoo Kuwait has created a powerful service environment capable of delivering high-value services to customers while managing operational costs."