OSM Ops

GitOps for Open Source MANO.

OSM Ops is a cloud-native micro-service to implement GitOps workflows within Open Source MANO (OSM). The basic idea is to describe the state of an OSM deployment through version-controlled text files hosted in an online Git repository. Each file declares a desired instantiation and runtime configuration for some of the services in a specified OSM cluster. Collectively, the files at a given Git revision describe the deployment state of the these services at a certain point in time. OSM Ops monitors the Git repository in order to automatically reconcile the desired deployment state with the actual live state of the OSM cluster. OSM Ops is implemented as a Kubernetes operator that plugs into the FluxCD framework in order to leverage the rich Kubernetes/FluxCD GitOps ecosystem.

This software has been developed by Martel Innovate as part of the Affordable5G EU-funded project. OSM Ops serves the specific needs of Affordable5G and is not intended as a replacement or alternative to OSM's own deployment and operations tools, rather as a complement.

Documentation

The introduction section of the software architecture document is the best starting point to learn about OSM Ops: it is a short read but presents the fundamental ideas clearly with the help of diagrams. The reader interested in gaining a deeper technical understanding of OSM Ops is invited to consider the remainder of the document too. Hands-on tutorials demonstrate the core features and exemplify deployment scenarios.

Features at a glance

• Declarative approach. Edit YAML files to specify which KNFs should be in the target OSM cluster and their configuration. OSM Ops determines whether to create a new KNF or update an existing one, then issues the OSM commands to realise your configuration. OSM Ops can also create or update OSM packages.
• GitOps workflow. Keep your OSM Ops YAML files in an online Git repository. OSM Ops automatically detects new commits and reconciles the deployment state declared in the YAML files with the actual live state of the OSM cluster.
• Multi-repo/multi-cluster. All the OSM Ops files in a Git repository target the same OSM cluster. However, you can have OSM Ops monitor multiple repositories if you need to manage several distinct OSM clusters at once.
• Secure handling of OSM credentials. Use Kubernetes secrets to provide the username, password and project for OSM Ops to connect to the target OSM cluster.
• Repo file filters. Optionally specify filters to match OSM Ops YAML files in your repository. Speeds up processing if there are a large number of files (e.g. source code, documents, etc.) that OSM Ops should not read.
• Efficient batch processing. Up to 6x faster and 89% bandwidth savings when processing many KNF create/update operations compared to using the osm CLI—thanks to caching (NS descriptors, VIM accounts, etc.) and smart management of authorisation token lifecycle.

Project status

• Early days. But the code is solid (modular, close to 100% test coverage) and is a good foundation for further development.
• Successfully deployed and run the Malaga Nov 2021 demo; ready for the Malaga end-to-end tests in Q3 2022.
• Only create/update KNF available. No rollbacks—delete not implemented. But you can still rollback to a previous Git version as long as the set of KNFs is the same in both versions.
• OSM packaging functionality partially relies on naming conventions. A reasonable choice given the current phase of the project, but it could be improved in later iterations. (Details.)