Exploring the Power of SONiC on NVIDIA Air

Summary

Testing and building proofs of concept (PoCs) for new networking environments can be challenging and costly. Proprietary network systems often require expensive licensing and hardware, limiting flexibility and scalability. This is where SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) comes in – a free, community-developed, Linux-based network operating system (NOS) that offers a low-cost, scalable, and fully controllable solution without sacrificing flexibility or security. This article explores how SONiC can be leveraged on NVIDIA Air, a platform that provides a true infrastructure-as-code (IaC) solution, making it easy to test and deploy networking infrastructure.

The Challenges of Traditional Networking Infrastructure

Testing out networking infrastructure and building working PoCs for a new environment can be tricky at best and downright dreadful at worst. You may run into licensing requirements you don’t meet, or pay pricey fees for advanced hypervisor software. Proprietary network systems can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars just to set up a test environment to play with. You may even be stuck testing on physical, perhaps outdated hardware you must hook up yourself, and if you need to test with more hardware, you must find and buy more.

Why SONiC?

SONiC is an ideal choice for centers looking for a low-cost, scalable, and fully controllable NOS without sacrificing flexibility or security. It offers all the standard networking functionality developers should need and is constantly evolving with new features and updates.

  • Open-Source: SONiC is open-source, eliminating licensing and vendor lock-in walls and significantly reducing costs compared to a proprietary NOS.
  • Customization: This also enables intense customization. You can build a custom image of SONiC with all the parts you need and none that you don’t.
  • Key Features:
    • Reduce unnecessary complexity and resource usage
    • Aid in automation
    • Deploy the same image to hundreds of switches, all pre-configured and ready to work
    • Enable Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP)
    • Install certain Docker containers
    • Configure routing
    • Build and add your own proprietary features

NVIDIA Air and SONiC

The NVIDIA Air platform offers a true infrastructure-as-code (IaC) solution. NVIDIA Air makes it so easy to instantly generate virtual data center replicas with hundreds of switches and servers. With NVIDIA Air, you can test as you please. When you irrevocably destroy something, spin up another copy.

  • Free Access: NVIDIA Air is free for anyone and everyone.
  • Preconfigured Labs: One of the amazing features of NVIDIA Air is the ability to spin up premade, fully configured labs on a dime. NVIDIA has created a new, preconfigured SONiC lab, equipped with the latest GA release of community SONiC in the classic spine-and-leaf architecture found in modern data centers.

Exploring the SONiC Lab on NVIDIA Air

The SONiC BGP EVPN VXLAN lab demo on NVIDIA Air is a new lab consisting of a standard spine-and-leaf topology running SONiC switches with Ubuntu servers connected to leaves to demonstrate VLAN connectivity.

  • Key Components:
    • BGP underlay fabric using BGP numbered interfaces
    • VXLAN & EVPN overlay encapsulation data plane and overlay control plane, respectively
  • Customization: You can also use the lab as a base and further configure it to your needs, using NVIDIA Air features such as full CLI and API functionality, control plane software including BGP, VLANs, and containers, automation and Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), network monitoring with streaming telemetry, and interop testing between NVIDIA Cumulus Linux and SONiC.

SONiC Switch Configuration

The lab uses the SONiC image specifically built for virtual devices, called sonic-vs. This image is already installed on all the SONiC switches in the lab. No need to boot into ONIE or install the image yourself.

  • Containerized Architecture: SONiC architecture is containerized. Programs with similar or dependent functionalities are placed in modules together, and each module is placed in an independent Docker container.
  • Central Configuration: Central configuration is managed by a redisDB instance referred to as ConfigDB. Device metadata, interfaces, ports, VLAN configuration, and much more are handled in ConfigDB.
  • Split-Unified Mode: split-unified mode is implemented for this lab. This mode enables separate switch and routing configurations. Switch configuration is handled by ConfigDB, while routing is configured with FRRouting (FRR) and placed into a single etc/sonic/frr/frr.conf file.

Routing Configuration

Routing configuration is handled by FRR, separate from the switch configuration. FRR is a fully featured, high-performance, free software IP routing suite for Linux and Unix platforms. It implements all standard routing protocols such as BGP, RIP, OSPF, IS-IS, and more, as well as many of their extensions.

  • Configuration Methods: There are two ways to configure routing using FRR:
    • Manually edit configuration files
    • Get familiar with VTYSH

Getting Started with SONiC on NVIDIA Air

SONiC is backed by a rich, active community and regularly contributed to by the networking industry experts at NVIDIA, who are fully committed to further evolving the open-networking experience that SONiC offers for all.

  • Future Plans: In the future, along with general updates and new features, NVIDIA plans to implement a bring-your-own-SONiC image infrastructure to NVIDIA Air, so that you can take full advantage of the customizability SONiC offers within the free, convenient environment that NVIDIA Air provides.

Conclusion

SONiC on NVIDIA Air offers a powerful combination for testing and deploying networking infrastructure. With its open-source nature, customization capabilities, and the ease of use provided by NVIDIA Air, SONiC is an ideal choice for centers looking for a low-cost, scalable, and fully controllable NOS. Whether you are building a proof of concept or testing out new networking configurations, SONiC on NVIDIA Air provides a flexible and cost-effective solution. Ready to give SONiC a try? Head to NVIDIA Air and spin up a copy of your own today.