tacker/doc/source/user/scale_usage_guide.rst

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.. _ref-scale:

===========
VNF scaling
===========

VNF resources in terms of CPU core and memory are hardcoded in VNFD template
through image flavor settings. This result in either provisioning VNF for
typical usage or for maximum usage. The former leads to service disruption
when load exceeds provisioned capacity. And the later leads to underutilized
resources and waste during normal system load. So tacker provides a
way to seamlessly scale the number of VNFs on demand either manually or
automatically.


TOSCA schema for scaling policy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tacker defines TOSCA schema for the scaling policy as given below:

.. code-block:: yaml

  tosca.policies.tacker.Scaling:
    derived_from: tosca.policies.Scaling
    description: Defines policy for scaling the given targets.
    properties:
      increment:
        type: integer
        required: true
        description: Number of nodes to add or remove during the scale out/in.
      targets:
        type: list
        entry_schema:
          type: string
        required: true
        description: List of Scaling nodes.
      min_instances:
        type: integer
        required: true
        description: Minimum number of instances to scale in.
      max_instances:
        type: integer
        required: true
        description: Maximum number of instances to scale out.
      default_instances:
        type: integer
        required: true
        description: Initial number of instances.
      cooldown:
        type: integer
        required: false
        default: 120
        description: Wait time (in seconds) between consecutive scaling
        operations. During the cooldown period, scaling action will be ignored


Sample TOSCA with scaling policy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Following TOSCA snippet shows the scaling policy used in VNFD, in which vdu1
and vdu2 are already defined VDUs.

.. code-block:: yaml

     policies:

        sp1:

          type: tosca.policies.tacker.Scaling

          description: Simple VDU scaling

          properties:
             min_instances: 1

             max_instances: 3

             default_instances: 2

             increment: 1

             targets: [vdu1, vdu2]


Deploying scaling TOSCA template using Tacker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once OpenStack/Devstack along with Tacker has been successfully installed,
deploy a sample scaling template from location given
below:
https://github.com/openstack/tacker/tree/master/samples/tosca-templates/vnfd

Refer the 'Getting Started' link below on how to create a VNFD and deploy a
VNF:
https://docs.openstack.org/tacker/latest/install/getting_started.html


How to scale VNF using CLI
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tacker provides following CLI for scaling.

.. code-block::console

**tacker vnf-scale --vnf-id <vnf-id>**
                  **--vnf-name <vnf name>**
                  **--scaling-policy-name <policy name>**
                  **--scaling-type <type>**

Here,

* scaling-policy-name - Policy name defined in scaling VNFD
* scaling-type - in or out
* vnf-id - scaling VNF id
* vnf-name - scaling VNF name

For example, to scale-out policy 'sp1' defined above, this cli could be used
as below:

.. code-block::console

**tacker vnf-scale --vnf-name sample-vnf**
                  **--scaling-policy-name sp1**
                  **--scaling-type out**

How to scale VNF using REST API
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tacker provides following REST API for scaling.

**POST on v1.0/vnfs/<vnf-id>/actions**

with body

.. code-block::json

**{"scale": { "type": "<type>", "policy" : "<scaling-policy-name>"}}**

Here,

* scaling-policy-name - Policy name defined in scaling VNFD
* scaling-type - in or out
* vnf-id - scaling VNF id

Response http status codes:

* 202 - Accepted the request for doing the scaling operation
* 404 - Bad request, if given scaling-policy-name and type are invalid
* 500 - Internal server error, on scaling operation failed due to an error
* 401 - Unauthorized

VNF state transitions during scaling operation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
During the scaling operation, the VNF will be moving in below state
transformations:

* **ACTIVE -> PENDING_SCALE_IN -> ACTIVE**
* **ACTIVE -> PENDING_SCALE_IN -> ERROR**
* **ACTIVE -> PENDING_SCALE_OUT -> ACTIVE**
* **ACTIVE -> PENDING_SCALE_OUT -> ERROR**


Limitations
~~~~~~~~~~~

Following features are not supported with scaling:

* Auto-scaling feature is supported only with alarm monitors and it does
  not work with other monitors such as ping, http_ping.
* When VNF is modelled with scaling requirement in VNFD, any config
  management requirement in VNFD is not supported.
* Scaling feature does not support to selectively choose the VDU as part
  of scaling.