Stackers,

I think this is a reasonable approach and appreciate the clarification of 
use-cases.

We've been discussing using Open vSwitch as the basis for non-Quantum Nova 
Networking deployments in Folsom.  While not Quantum, it feels like we're 
bringing Nova Networking a step closer to some of the core technologies that 
Quantum uses.

I'm interested in hearing what other's in the community think about this 
approach.

Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: openstack-bounces+rob_hirschfeld=dell....@lists.launchpad.net 
[mailto:openstack-bounces+rob_hirschfeld=dell....@lists.launchpad.net] On 
Behalf Of Dan Wendlandt
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 5:39 PM
To: openstack@lists.launchpad.net; OpenStack Development Mailing List
Subject: [Openstack] Quantum vs. Nova-network in Folsom

tl;dr  both Quantum and nova-network will be core and fully supported in Folsom.

Hi folks,

Thierry, Vish and I have been spending some talking about OpenStack networking 
in Folsom, and in particular the availability of nova-network now that Quantum 
is a core project.  We wanted to share our current thinking with the community 
to avoid confusion.

With a project like OpenStack, there's a fundamental trade-off between the rate 
of introducing new capabilities and the desire for stability and backward 
compatibility.  We agreed that OpenStack is a point in its growth cycle where 
the cost of disruptive changes is high.  As a result, we've decided that even 
with Quantum being core in Folsom, we will also continue to support 
nova-network as it currently exists in Folsom.  There is, of couse, overhead to 
this approach, but we think it is worth it.

With this in mind, a key question becomes: how do we "direct" users to the 
networking option that is right for them.  We have the following
guidelines:

1) For users who require only very basic networking (e.g., nova-network Flat, 
FlatDHCP) there's little difference between Quantum and nova-network is such 
basic use cases, so using nova's built-in networking for these basic use cases 
makes sense.

2) There are many use cases (e.g., tenant API for defined topologies and 
addresses) and advanced network technologies (e.g., tunneling rather than 
VLANs) that Quantum enables that are simply not possible with nova-network, so 
if these advanced capabilities are important to someone deploying OpenStack, 
they clearly need to use Quantum.

3) There are a few things that are possible in nova-network, but not in 
Quantum.  Multi-host is the most significant one, but there are bound to be 
other gaps, some of which we will uncover only when people try their particular 
use case with Quantum.  For these, users will have to use nova-network, with 
the gaps being covered in Quantum during Grizzly.

As a result, we plan to structure the docs so that you can do a basic 
functionality Nova setup with flat networking without requiring Quantum.  For 
anything beyond that, we will have an "advanced networking" section, which 
describes the different advanced use of OpenStack networking with Quantum, and 
also highlight reasons that a user may still want to use nova-networking over 
Quantum.

Moving beyond Folsom, we expect to fully freeze the addition of new 
functionality to nova-network, and likely deprecate at least some portions of 
the existing nova-network functionality.  Likely this will leave the basic flat 
and flat + dhcp nova networking intact, but reduce complexity in the nova 
codebase by removing more advanced networking scenarios that can also be 
achieved via Quantum.  This means that even those using nova-network in Folsom 
should still be evaluating Quantum if they networking needs beyond flat 
networking, such that this feedback can be incorporated into the Grizzly 
deliverable of Quantum.

Thanks,

Dan


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Wendlandt
Nicira, Inc: www.nicira.com
twitter: danwendlandt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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