Onboard a Virtualized Network Function (VNF) for deployment on Azure Operator Nexus to Azure Operator Service Manager (AOSM)

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In this how-to guide, Network Function Publishers and Service Designers learn how to use the Azure CLI AOSM extension to onboard a virtualized network function to AOSM. This VNF can subsequently be deployed on Azure Operator Nexus. Onboarding is a multi-step process. Once you meet the prerequisites, you'll use the Azure CLI AOSM extension to:

  1. Generate BICEP files that define a Network Function Definition Group and Version (NFD).
  2. Publish the NFD and upload the VNF image to an Artifact Store (AOSM-managed Azure Container Registry (ACR)).
  3. Add your published NFD to the BICEP files that define a Network Service Design Group and Version (NSD).
  4. Publish the NSD.

Prerequisites

Note

It is strongly recommended that you have tested that the VM deployment succeeds on your Azure Operator Nexus instance before onboarding the VNF to AOSM.

Azure Operator Nexus virtual machine (VM) images and Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates

  • You have created an image for the Azure Operator Nexus Virtual Machine. This image must be available in an ACR.

  • You have created an ARM template that deploys an Azure Operator Nexus Virtual Machine.

  • The VM ARM template (for both AzureCore and Azure Operator Nexus) can only deploy ARM resources from the following Resource Providers

    • Microsoft.Compute
    • Microsoft.Network
    • Microsoft.NetworkCloud
    • Microsoft.Storage
    • Microsoft.NetworkFabric
    • Microsoft.Authorization
    • Microsoft.ManagedIdentity

  • The VNF ARM template should deploy one VM. Multiple VMs can be deployed by including multiple instances of the NFDV in the NSDV.

Configure permissions

  • You require the Contributor role over your subscription in order to create a Resource Group, or an existing Resource Group where you have the Contributor role.
  • You require the Reader/AcrPull role assignments on the source ACR containing your images.
  • You require the Contributor and AcrPush role assignments on the subscription that will contain the AOSM managed Artifact Store. These permissions allow the Azure CLI AOSM Extension to do a direct ACR-to-ACR copy. Direct copy is the fastest method of transferring images from one ACR to another.
    • Your company policy may prevent you from having subscription-scoped permissions. The --no-subscription-permissions parameter, available on the az aosm nfd publish and az aosm nsd publish commands, uses tightly scoped permissions derived from the AOSM service to orchestrate a two-step copy to and from your local machine. This two-step copy is slower, but doesn't require subscription scoped permissions.

Download and install Azure CLI

To install Azure CLI locally refer to How to install the Azure CLI.

To sign into the Azure CLI use the az login command and complete the prompts displayed in your terminal to finish authentication. For more sign-in options, refer to Sign in with Azure CLI.

Note

If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container. You can also use the Bash environment in the Azure cloud shell. For more information, see Start the Cloud Shell to use Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell.

Helm and Docker engine

  • Install Helm CLI on the host computer. You must use Helm v3.8.0 or later.
  • Install Docker on the host computer.

Install AOSM CLI extension

The Az CLI AOSM Extension requires version 2.54.0 or later of the Azure CLI.

  1. Run az version to see the version and dependent libraries that are installed.
  2. Run az upgrade to upgrade to the current version of Azure CLI.

Install the AOSM CLI extension using this command:

az extension add --name aosm

Build the Network Function Definition Group and Version

This section creates a folder in the working directory called vnf-cli-output with the BICEP templates of the AOSM resources that define your Network Function Definition Group and Version, and the Artifact Store. These resources will ultimately be included in your Network Service Design

  1. Generate the Azure CLI AOSM extension input file for a VNF.

    az aosm nfd generate-config --definition-type vnf-nexus --output-file <filename.jsonc>

  2. Open the input file you generated in the previous step and use the inline comments to enter the required values. This example shows the Az CLI AOSM extension input file for a fictional Contoso VNF, which runs on Azure Operator Nexus.

    Note

    The Azure CLI AOSM extension only exposes required parameters without default values in the input ARM template by default. You can set expose_all_parameters to true to expose all ARM template parameters in the Network Function Definition Version (NFDV) and Configuration Group Schema (CGS). See Parameter expose using the AOSM CLI extension for more detailed information.

    {
    // Azure location to use when creating resources e.g uksouth
    "location": "eastus",
    // Name of the Publisher resource you want your definition published to.
    // Will be created if it does not exist.
    "publisher_name": "contoso",
    // Resource group for the Publisher resource.
    // Will be created if it does not exist.
    "publisher_resource_group_name": "contoso-vnf",
    // Name of the ACR Artifact Store resource.
    // Will be created if it does not exist.
    "acr_artifact_store_name": "contoso-vnf-artifact-store",
    // Name of the network function.
    "nf_name": "contoso-vnf",
    // Version of the network function definition in 1.1.1 format (three integers separated by dots).
    "version": "1.0.0",
    // If set to true, all NFD configuration parameters are made available to the designer, including optional parameters and those with defaults.
    // If not set or set to false, only required parameters without defaults will be exposed.
    "expose_all_parameters": false,
    // ARM template configuration. The ARM templates given here would deploy a VM if run. They will be used to generate the VNF.
    "arm_templates": [
        {
            // Name of the artifact. Used as internal reference only.
            "artifact_name": "contoso-vnf",
            // Version of the artifact in 1.1.1 format (three integers separated by dots).
            "version": "1.0.0",
            // File path (absolute or relative to this configuration file) of the artifact you wish to upload from your local disk.
            // Use Linux slash (/) file separator even if running on Windows.
            "file_path": "/home/contoso-vnf/contoso-vnf-arm-template.json"
        }
    ],
    // List of images to be pulled from the acr registry.
    // You must provide the source acr registry, the image name and the version.
    // For example: 'sourceacr.azurecr.io/imagename:imageversion'.
    "images": ["contoso-vnf.azurecr.io/contosovnf:1.0.0"]
}```

  3. Execute the following command to build the Network Function Definition Group and Version.

az aosm nfd build --definition-type vnf-nexus --config-file <filename.jsonc>

Publish the Network Function Definition Group and Version

This step creates the AOSM resources that define the Network Function Definition and the Artifact Store that will be used to store the Network Function's VM images. It also uploads the images to the Artifact Store either by copying them directly from the source ACR or, if you don't have subscription scope Contributor and AcrPush roles, by retagging the docker images locally and uploading to the Artifact Store using tightly scoped credentials generated from the AOSM service.

  1. Execute the following command to publish the Network Function Definition Group and Version. If you don't have subscription scope Contributor and AcrPush roles, include --no-subscription-permissions in the command.
az aosm nfd publish --build-output-folder vnf-cli-output --definition-type vnf

You can review the folder and files structure and make modifications if required.

Build the Network Service Design Group and Version

This section creates a folder in the working directory called nsd-cli-output. This folder contains the BICEP templates of the AOSM resources that define a Network Service Design Group and Version. This Network Service Design is a template used in the Site Network Service resource that will deploy the Network Function you onboarded in the previous sections.

  1. Generate the Azure CLI AOSM Extension NSD input file.

    az aosm nsd generate-config --output-file <nsd-output-filename.jsonc>

  2. Open the input file you generated in the previous step and use the inline comments to enter the required values. The generated input file contains an additional resource_element_type of type ArmTemplate. This is unnecessary when onboarding a VNF; you can delete it. This example shows the Az CLI AOSM extension input file for a fictional Contoso NSD that can be used to deploy a fictional Contoso VNF onto an Azure Operator Nexus instance.

    {
    // Azure location to use when creating resources e.g uksouth
    "location": "eastus",
    // Name of the Publisher resource you want your definition published to.
    // Will be created if it does not exist.
    "publisher_name": "contoso",
    // Resource group for the Publisher resource.
    // Will be created if it does not exist.
    "publisher_resource_group_name": "contoso-vnf",
    // Name of the ACR Artifact Store resource.
    // Will be created if it does not exist.
    "acr_artifact_store_name": "contoso-vnf-artifact-store",
    // Network Service Design (NSD) name. This is the collection of Network Service Design Versions. Will be created if it does not exist.
    "nsd_name": "contoso-vnf-nsd",
    // Version of the NSD to be created. This should be in the format A.B.C
    "nsd_version": "1.0.0",
    // Optional. Description of the Network Service Design Version (NSDV).
    "nsdv_description": "An NSD that deploys the onboarded contoso-vnf NFD",
    // List of Resource Element Templates (RETs).
    // There must be at least one NF RET.
    // ArmTemplate RETs are optional. Delete if not required.
    "resource_element_templates": [
        {
            // Type of Resource Element. Either NF or ArmTemplate
            "resource_element_type": "NF",
            "properties": {
                // The name of the existing publisher for the NSD.
                "publisher": "contoso",
                // The resource group that the publisher is hosted in.
                "publisher_resource_group": "contoso-vnf",
                // The name of the existing Network Function Definition Group to deploy using this NSD.
                // This will be the same as the NF name if you published your NFDV using the CLI.
                "name": "contoso-vnf",
                // The version of the existing Network Function Definition to base this NSD on.
                // This NSD will be able to deploy any NFDV with deployment parameters compatible with this version.
                "version": "1.0.0",
                // The region that the NFDV is published to.
                "publisher_offering_location": "eastus",
                // Type of Network Function. Valid values are 'cnf' or 'vnf'.
                "type": "vnf"
            }
        }
    ]
}

    Note

    The resource element template section defines which NFD is included in the NSD. The properties must match those used in the input file passed to the az aosm nfd build command. This is because the Azure CLI AOSM Extension validates that the NFD has been correctly onboarded when building the NSD.

  3. Execute the following command to build the Network Service Design Group and Version BICEP templates.

az aosm nsd build --config-file <nsd-output-filename.jsonc>

You can review the folder and files structure and make modifications if required.

Publish the Network Service Design (NSD)

This step creates the AOSM resources that define the Network Service Design Group and Version. It also uploads artifacts required by the NSD to the Artifact Store (Network Function ARM template).

  1. Execute the following command to publish the Network Service Design Group and Version. If you don't have subscription scope Contributor and AcrPush roles, include --no-subscription-permissions in the command.
az aosm nsd publish --build-output-folder nsd-cli-output

You now have a complete set of AOSM publisher resources and are ready to perform the operator flow.

Next steps