Azure Stack WAN Simulator Project

This repo is still in process but feel free to PR or file issues if any feedback.

Background

To better support Azure Edge services, by having an automated customized traffic control validation mechanism and deployed to suit rapid growth product request.

This WAN-SIM Solution will help to validate scenarios that matches customer's network (T1,E1,Satellite,etc.) by customize network traffic control variables.

Before WAN-SIM Solution

• Lab design is high bandwidth, low latency.
• Edge customers networks are low bandwidth, high latency, and more unstable.

After WAN-SIM Solution

• Reroute cluster traffic to WAN-SIM VM, which is a ubuntu VM with FRRouting installed.
• Use NETEM to apply rules on WAN-SIM to control traffic.
• GRE Tunnel between WAN-SIM and TOR Switches.
• Less touch points and easy to integrate with CICD and telemetry.

Quick Start

Overall, here are main steps:

1. Setup WAN-SIM VM
2. Update Azure Stack Edge Switch Configuration
3. Define and Validation Network Profile Rule End-to-End

Reference

• Using NetEm to Emulate Networks
• FRRouting
• iPerf
• Telegraf Agent for Telemetry
• Azure NetworkMonitoring

Q&A

Will this solution break the standard Azure Stack Rack deployment or operation procedure?

The simple anwser is NO, the solution is only going to reroute and apply traffic rule on the subnets user defined and that is it. More detail explainations about the changes:

• The solution will NOT change any existing configuration out of box, but only add extra config specific to the WANSIM solution which only impact the standard Azure Stack Service.
• All the outgoing traffic (from Azure Stack rack to Internet) will be redirected to WANSIM VM.
• However, for incoming traffic (from Internet to Azure Stack rack), only user defined subnets will be redirected to WANSIM VM, all the rest subnets will remain its standard path.
• Because the outgoing and incoming traffic are both passing through WANSIM VM, the traffic control rule can be applied customized profiles for both downloading and uploading.

To summary, the solution will NOT break the existing Azure Stack setup, but only customized the traffic path and rules.

How to turn down the solution?

This solution is based on FRR service, so to free the rack from this solution, simply execute sudo service frr stop on WANSIM VM to shutdown routing service on WANSIM.

How can I know what Network Profile Rule should applied?

Please check this doc Define and Validation Network Profile Rule End-to-End first, then use this Network Profile Generator to generate your own customized rule.

What should I do if WANSIM Solution not working properly after deployed?

The WANSIM log has been customized and add into VM syslog, so please check these two logs and share with us if possible:

• syslog: /var/log/syslog
• frr log: /var/log/frr/frr.log

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.

Trademarks

This project may contain trademarks or logos for projects, products, or services. Authorized use of Microsoft trademarks or logos is subject to and must follow Microsoft's Trademark & Brand Guidelines. Use of Microsoft trademarks or logos in modified versions of this project must not cause confusion or imply Microsoft sponsorship. Any use of third-party trademarks or logos are subject to those third-party's policies.