SlideShare a Scribd company logo
Cumulus and Akanda at
DreamHost
Driving Scale, Efficiency, and Cost Reduction
Presenters: Jonathan LaCour (DreamHost), Nolan Leake (Cumulus
Networks) & Mark McClain (Akanda)
Introduction
▪ Founded in 1997
▪ Managed, mass-market web hosting
▪ ~400,000 customers
▪ Why Cloud?
▪ The rise of AWS
▪ The world needs a viable, open alternative
• Ceph and OpenStack lead the way!
• Public cloud compute service
• Built on OpenStack and Ceph
• Core networking requirements
• L2 tenant isolation
• IPv6
• 10G+ everywhere
Network: Gen 1
▪ Physical: White Box switches running Cumulus Linux
▪ L2 isolation: virtualized with Nicira NVP
▪ L3+
▪ Nicira lacks L3
▪ Software routing vendors don’t understand cloud
▪ Astara is born!
▪ Nicira / VMWare adds L3
▪ Time for a bake-off!
▪ Astara wins the battle, but gets some enhancements
▪ Move from OpenBSD and PF to Linux and iptables
▪ Significant optimizations to orchestration platform
▪ Gen 2 allows us to scale to 1,000+ customers, thousands of VMs
Network: Gen 2
DreamCompute Network: Generation 3
▪ VMWare NSX problems
▪ Scale: maxes out around 1,250 tenants
▪ Performance: OVS is slow and unstable
▪ Magic: difficult to debug and operate
▪ Gen 3 is built on open
▪ Physical: Cumulus Linux
▪ L2 isolation: hardware accelerated VXLAN in switch and hypervisor
▪ L3+: Astara
Network: Gen 3
DreamCompute Network: Generation 3
▪ Simple, open architecture
▪ Operational ease
▪ Proven technology: VXLAN, iptables, Linux networking stack
▪ Astara simplifies Neutron deployment
▪ Performance and scale
▪ Hardware accelerated VXLAN pervasive on switches / NICs
▪ VXLAN tunnels scale up massively
▪ Astara model of virtual network appliances scales easily
Gen 3 Benefits
● Created to fill in gaps in Neutron
● L3-L7 Service Orchestration for OpenStack
○ Dynamic Routing
○ IPv6
● Simplified Operations
○ Using standard APIs
● Astara Project
○ Open Source
○ OpenStack Foundation top-level project
Reference Neutron
Message
QueueNeutron Server
L2 Agent
L3 Agent
DHCP Agent
Adv ServicesDatabase
Astara + OpenStack Neutron
Message
QueueNeutron Server
L2 Agent
Astara
Database
Astara + OpenStack Neutron
Astara
Physical Network (L2)
Nova
Neutron
Open: OVS/LinuxBridge Proprietary
Astara OTT Platform (L2 Agnostic)
Astara Network Services: Routing/LB/FW/VPN
OpenStack APIs
Physical Network
Traditional L2-centric Design Falls Short
▪ Bottleneck!
▪ Core/Agg limits scale
▪ Dead Agg switch is a Big Deal
▪ Complex, Proprietary
▪ MLAG/vPC/Stacking
▪ HSRP/GLBP/NSRP
▪ Alphabet soup
▪ Complex Failure Modes
▪ Loops
▪ MAC flapping
▪ Large blast radius
▪ Scalability
▪ Limited total network size
▪ Limited number of VLANs
A Better Way
L2 L3
IP Fabric: CLOS/Fat-tree
▪ No Bottleneck!
▪ Full bandwidth across racks
▪ Crucial for network
virtualization
▪ Simple, Open
▪ IP
▪ BGP
▪ Fine-grained failures
▪ BGP runs the Internet
▪ Scales up to any size
▪ Just add more layers!
Open Networking: Bare-Metal Ecosystem
ONIE (Open Network Install Environment)
Automation and Monitoring
▪ Only way to effectively manage large numbers of
switches!
▪ Choice of Automation Tools
▪ DreamHost was already using Chef
▪ But you can use any tool that works on Linux!
▪ Choice of Monitoring Tools
▪ DreamHost was already using collectd+Graphite
▪ SNMP still there for legacy monitoring systems
▪ Other Options
▪ Elastic Search/LogStash/Kibana
▪ Sensu
▪ Even good old MRTG!
DreamCompute Gen 3 Details
VXLAN: L2 Virtualization over L3 IP Fabrics
▪ UDP tunnels between vswitches
▪ Guest L2 traffic is safely encapsulated in L3 packets on the physical network
▪ No L2 required in the physical network
▪ What about BUM Packets: Broadcast, Multicast, Unknown Unicast?
▪ “Official” RFC7348 answer: Multicast
▪ Multicast is complex and scales poorly: disabled on most networks
▪ Replicator
▪ Cumulus authored, Open Source daemon:
https://github.com/CumulusNetworks/vxfld
▪ Replicates BUM packets to multiple unicast receivers
▪ Can run on Linux switches, or Linux servers/hypervisor
▪ Hardware-accelerated when run on Cumulus Linux
VXLAN: HW VTEP
▪ VTEP: “VXLAN Tunnel Encapsulation/Decapsulation Point”
▪ Thing that encapsulates virtual network L2 traffic in L3 UDP packets for
physical transport
▪ Neutron-managed software VTEPs on hypervisors
▪ Encapsulations/Decapsulates packets for VMs
▪ Cumulus-managed hardware VTEP to connect to non-virtual networks
▪ Encapsulates/Decapsulates packets from VMs to routers, appliances, etc
▪ 100% in hardware, line rate.
Questions?
Extras
Neutron Reference
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
Network
Node
Network
Node
Astara with VMs
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV
HV

More Related Content

PDF
Cumulus Linux 2.5.5 What's New
PDF
VPNaaS in Neutron
PDF
Cumulus Linux 2.5.4
PDF
Manage your switches like servers
PPTX
Cumulus Linux 2.5.3
PDF
Open Networking for Your OpenStack
PPTX
Linux networking is Awesome!
PDF
OpenContrail Cloudwatt Feedback
Cumulus Linux 2.5.5 What's New
VPNaaS in Neutron
Cumulus Linux 2.5.4
Manage your switches like servers
Cumulus Linux 2.5.3
Open Networking for Your OpenStack
Linux networking is Awesome!
OpenContrail Cloudwatt Feedback

What's hot (20)

PPTX
Neutron DVR
PPTX
Openstack Basic with Neutron
PDF
OpenStack Neutron IPv6 Lessons
PDF
NaaS in OpenStack - CloudCamp Moscow
PDF
NFD9 - Dinesh Dutt, Data Center Architectures
PPTX
OpenContrail deployment experience
PDF
OpenStack in Action 4! Emilien Macchi & Sylvain Afchain - What's new in neutr...
PDF
OpenStack Neutron Tutorial
PDF
Deploying IPv6 on OpenStack
PDF
Linux Tag 2014 OpenStack Networking
PDF
Accelerating SDN Applications with Open Source Network Overlays
PPTX
Overview of Distributed Virtual Router (DVR) in Openstack/Neutron
PPTX
L2 and L3 agent restructure
PPTX
IPv6 at Mythic Beasts - Networkshop44
PDF
Neutron high availability open stack architecture openstack israel event 2015
PPTX
Webinar-Linux Networking is Awesome
PDF
Osdc2014 openstack networking yves_fauser
PPTX
Demystifying Networking Webinar Series- Routing on the Host
PPTX
High Availability in Neutron
PDF
Openstack Neutron, interconnections with BGP/MPLS VPNs
Neutron DVR
Openstack Basic with Neutron
OpenStack Neutron IPv6 Lessons
NaaS in OpenStack - CloudCamp Moscow
NFD9 - Dinesh Dutt, Data Center Architectures
OpenContrail deployment experience
OpenStack in Action 4! Emilien Macchi & Sylvain Afchain - What's new in neutr...
OpenStack Neutron Tutorial
Deploying IPv6 on OpenStack
Linux Tag 2014 OpenStack Networking
Accelerating SDN Applications with Open Source Network Overlays
Overview of Distributed Virtual Router (DVR) in Openstack/Neutron
L2 and L3 agent restructure
IPv6 at Mythic Beasts - Networkshop44
Neutron high availability open stack architecture openstack israel event 2015
Webinar-Linux Networking is Awesome
Osdc2014 openstack networking yves_fauser
Demystifying Networking Webinar Series- Routing on the Host
High Availability in Neutron
Openstack Neutron, interconnections with BGP/MPLS VPNs
Ad

Viewers also liked (20)

PDF
Webinar- Tea for the Tillerman
PDF
How deep is your buffer – Demystifying buffers and application performance
PPTX
July NYC Open Networking Meeup
PDF
Ifupdown2: Network Interface Manager
PDF
Operationalizing BGP in the SDDC
PPTX
Webinar: Network Automation [Tips & Tricks]
PPTX
Operationalizing VRF in the Data Center
PPTX
Network Architecture for Containers
PPTX
Microservices Network Architecture 101
PPTX
Building Scalable Data Center Networks
PPTX
Demystifying Networking: Data Center Networking Trends 2017
PDF
Modern Data Center Network Architecture - The house that Clos built
PDF
OpenStack Icehouse Over IPv6
PDF
Unleash the Power of Open Networking
PDF
OpenStack Havana over IPv6
PDF
Big data, better networks
PDF
NFD9 - JR Rivers, Cumulus Networks Overview
PPTX
Big Data, Better Networks
PDF
NFD9 - David Sinn, Real World Examples
PDF
Using linux to manage the entire rack
Webinar- Tea for the Tillerman
How deep is your buffer – Demystifying buffers and application performance
July NYC Open Networking Meeup
Ifupdown2: Network Interface Manager
Operationalizing BGP in the SDDC
Webinar: Network Automation [Tips & Tricks]
Operationalizing VRF in the Data Center
Network Architecture for Containers
Microservices Network Architecture 101
Building Scalable Data Center Networks
Demystifying Networking: Data Center Networking Trends 2017
Modern Data Center Network Architecture - The house that Clos built
OpenStack Icehouse Over IPv6
Unleash the Power of Open Networking
OpenStack Havana over IPv6
Big data, better networks
NFD9 - JR Rivers, Cumulus Networks Overview
Big Data, Better Networks
NFD9 - David Sinn, Real World Examples
Using linux to manage the entire rack
Ad

Similar to Dreamhost deploying dreamcompute at scale (20)

PPTX
7 - Introduction to OpenStack & SDN by Ady Saputra
PPTX
Openstack Cactus Survey
PPTX
OpenStack Networking and Automation
PDF
[OpenStack Day in Korea 2015] Track 3-6 - Archiectural Overview of the Open S...
PPTX
DevOops - Lessons Learned from an OpenStack Network Architect
PPTX
Networking in Openstack - Neutron 101
PPTX
Midokura OpenStack Day Korea Talk: MidoNet Open Source Network Virtualization...
PDF
OpenStack Networks the Web-Scale Way - Scott Laffer, Cumulus Networks
PPTX
Midokura OpenStack Meetup Taipei
PPTX
Openstack Overview
PPTX
Secure Your Containers: What Network Admins Should Know When Moving Into Prod...
PPTX
Cloud computing and OpenStack
PPTX
Openstack meetup-pune-aug22-overview
PPTX
Getting Started with Apache CloudStack
PPTX
PSOCLD-1006 Cisco Cloud Architectures on OpenStack - Cisco Live! US 2015 San ...
PDF
CloudStack In Production
PPTX
Network and Service Virtualization tutorial at ONUG Spring 2015
PDF
CloudStack Networking Overview - Jan 28, 2014
PDF
Open stack networking_101_update_2014-os-meetups
PDF
ONUG Tutorial: Bridges and Tunnels Drive Through OpenStack Networking
7 - Introduction to OpenStack & SDN by Ady Saputra
Openstack Cactus Survey
OpenStack Networking and Automation
[OpenStack Day in Korea 2015] Track 3-6 - Archiectural Overview of the Open S...
DevOops - Lessons Learned from an OpenStack Network Architect
Networking in Openstack - Neutron 101
Midokura OpenStack Day Korea Talk: MidoNet Open Source Network Virtualization...
OpenStack Networks the Web-Scale Way - Scott Laffer, Cumulus Networks
Midokura OpenStack Meetup Taipei
Openstack Overview
Secure Your Containers: What Network Admins Should Know When Moving Into Prod...
Cloud computing and OpenStack
Openstack meetup-pune-aug22-overview
Getting Started with Apache CloudStack
PSOCLD-1006 Cisco Cloud Architectures on OpenStack - Cisco Live! US 2015 San ...
CloudStack In Production
Network and Service Virtualization tutorial at ONUG Spring 2015
CloudStack Networking Overview - Jan 28, 2014
Open stack networking_101_update_2014-os-meetups
ONUG Tutorial: Bridges and Tunnels Drive Through OpenStack Networking

More from Cumulus Networks (8)

PPTX
Building a Layer 3 network with Cumulus Linux
PDF
Operationalizing EVPN in the Data Center: Part 2
PDF
Demystifying EVPN in the data center: Part 1 in 2 episode series
PPTX
Best practices for network troubleshooting
PDF
NetDevOps 202: Life After Configuration
PPTX
Cumulus Networks: Automating Network Configuration
PDF
Mlag invisibile layer 2 redundancy
PDF
Open Hardware for All - Webinar March 25, 2015
Building a Layer 3 network with Cumulus Linux
Operationalizing EVPN in the Data Center: Part 2
Demystifying EVPN in the data center: Part 1 in 2 episode series
Best practices for network troubleshooting
NetDevOps 202: Life After Configuration
Cumulus Networks: Automating Network Configuration
Mlag invisibile layer 2 redundancy
Open Hardware for All - Webinar March 25, 2015

Recently uploaded (20)

PDF
Chapter 3 Spatial Domain Image Processing.pdf
PDF
Encapsulation_ Review paper, used for researhc scholars
PDF
Machine learning based COVID-19 study performance prediction
PDF
Dropbox Q2 2025 Financial Results & Investor Presentation
PDF
Electronic commerce courselecture one. Pdf
PPTX
VMware vSphere Foundation How to Sell Presentation-Ver1.4-2-14-2024.pptx
PPTX
Programs and apps: productivity, graphics, security and other tools
PPTX
sap open course for s4hana steps from ECC to s4
PPTX
Detection-First SIEM: Rule Types, Dashboards, and Threat-Informed Strategy
PDF
NewMind AI Weekly Chronicles - August'25 Week I
PDF
7 ChatGPT Prompts to Help You Define Your Ideal Customer Profile.pdf
PDF
Optimiser vos workloads AI/ML sur Amazon EC2 et AWS Graviton
DOCX
The AUB Centre for AI in Media Proposal.docx
PDF
The Rise and Fall of 3GPP – Time for a Sabbatical?
PPTX
Spectroscopy.pptx food analysis technology
PDF
Building Integrated photovoltaic BIPV_UPV.pdf
PDF
How UI/UX Design Impacts User Retention in Mobile Apps.pdf
PDF
cuic standard and advanced reporting.pdf
PPTX
KOM of Painting work and Equipment Insulation REV00 update 25-dec.pptx
PPTX
Digital-Transformation-Roadmap-for-Companies.pptx
Chapter 3 Spatial Domain Image Processing.pdf
Encapsulation_ Review paper, used for researhc scholars
Machine learning based COVID-19 study performance prediction
Dropbox Q2 2025 Financial Results & Investor Presentation
Electronic commerce courselecture one. Pdf
VMware vSphere Foundation How to Sell Presentation-Ver1.4-2-14-2024.pptx
Programs and apps: productivity, graphics, security and other tools
sap open course for s4hana steps from ECC to s4
Detection-First SIEM: Rule Types, Dashboards, and Threat-Informed Strategy
NewMind AI Weekly Chronicles - August'25 Week I
7 ChatGPT Prompts to Help You Define Your Ideal Customer Profile.pdf
Optimiser vos workloads AI/ML sur Amazon EC2 et AWS Graviton
The AUB Centre for AI in Media Proposal.docx
The Rise and Fall of 3GPP – Time for a Sabbatical?
Spectroscopy.pptx food analysis technology
Building Integrated photovoltaic BIPV_UPV.pdf
How UI/UX Design Impacts User Retention in Mobile Apps.pdf
cuic standard and advanced reporting.pdf
KOM of Painting work and Equipment Insulation REV00 update 25-dec.pptx
Digital-Transformation-Roadmap-for-Companies.pptx

Dreamhost deploying dreamcompute at scale

  • 1. Cumulus and Akanda at DreamHost Driving Scale, Efficiency, and Cost Reduction Presenters: Jonathan LaCour (DreamHost), Nolan Leake (Cumulus Networks) & Mark McClain (Akanda)
  • 3. ▪ Founded in 1997 ▪ Managed, mass-market web hosting ▪ ~400,000 customers ▪ Why Cloud? ▪ The rise of AWS ▪ The world needs a viable, open alternative • Ceph and OpenStack lead the way!
  • 4. • Public cloud compute service • Built on OpenStack and Ceph • Core networking requirements • L2 tenant isolation • IPv6 • 10G+ everywhere
  • 5. Network: Gen 1 ▪ Physical: White Box switches running Cumulus Linux ▪ L2 isolation: virtualized with Nicira NVP ▪ L3+ ▪ Nicira lacks L3 ▪ Software routing vendors don’t understand cloud ▪ Astara is born!
  • 6. ▪ Nicira / VMWare adds L3 ▪ Time for a bake-off! ▪ Astara wins the battle, but gets some enhancements ▪ Move from OpenBSD and PF to Linux and iptables ▪ Significant optimizations to orchestration platform ▪ Gen 2 allows us to scale to 1,000+ customers, thousands of VMs Network: Gen 2
  • 7. DreamCompute Network: Generation 3 ▪ VMWare NSX problems ▪ Scale: maxes out around 1,250 tenants ▪ Performance: OVS is slow and unstable ▪ Magic: difficult to debug and operate ▪ Gen 3 is built on open ▪ Physical: Cumulus Linux ▪ L2 isolation: hardware accelerated VXLAN in switch and hypervisor ▪ L3+: Astara Network: Gen 3
  • 8. DreamCompute Network: Generation 3 ▪ Simple, open architecture ▪ Operational ease ▪ Proven technology: VXLAN, iptables, Linux networking stack ▪ Astara simplifies Neutron deployment ▪ Performance and scale ▪ Hardware accelerated VXLAN pervasive on switches / NICs ▪ VXLAN tunnels scale up massively ▪ Astara model of virtual network appliances scales easily Gen 3 Benefits
  • 9. ● Created to fill in gaps in Neutron ● L3-L7 Service Orchestration for OpenStack ○ Dynamic Routing ○ IPv6 ● Simplified Operations ○ Using standard APIs ● Astara Project ○ Open Source ○ OpenStack Foundation top-level project
  • 10. Reference Neutron Message QueueNeutron Server L2 Agent L3 Agent DHCP Agent Adv ServicesDatabase
  • 11. Astara + OpenStack Neutron Message QueueNeutron Server L2 Agent Astara Database
  • 12. Astara + OpenStack Neutron Astara Physical Network (L2) Nova Neutron Open: OVS/LinuxBridge Proprietary Astara OTT Platform (L2 Agnostic) Astara Network Services: Routing/LB/FW/VPN OpenStack APIs
  • 14. Traditional L2-centric Design Falls Short ▪ Bottleneck! ▪ Core/Agg limits scale ▪ Dead Agg switch is a Big Deal ▪ Complex, Proprietary ▪ MLAG/vPC/Stacking ▪ HSRP/GLBP/NSRP ▪ Alphabet soup ▪ Complex Failure Modes ▪ Loops ▪ MAC flapping ▪ Large blast radius ▪ Scalability ▪ Limited total network size ▪ Limited number of VLANs
  • 16. IP Fabric: CLOS/Fat-tree ▪ No Bottleneck! ▪ Full bandwidth across racks ▪ Crucial for network virtualization ▪ Simple, Open ▪ IP ▪ BGP ▪ Fine-grained failures ▪ BGP runs the Internet ▪ Scales up to any size ▪ Just add more layers!
  • 17. Open Networking: Bare-Metal Ecosystem ONIE (Open Network Install Environment)
  • 18. Automation and Monitoring ▪ Only way to effectively manage large numbers of switches! ▪ Choice of Automation Tools ▪ DreamHost was already using Chef ▪ But you can use any tool that works on Linux! ▪ Choice of Monitoring Tools ▪ DreamHost was already using collectd+Graphite ▪ SNMP still there for legacy monitoring systems ▪ Other Options ▪ Elastic Search/LogStash/Kibana ▪ Sensu ▪ Even good old MRTG!
  • 20. VXLAN: L2 Virtualization over L3 IP Fabrics ▪ UDP tunnels between vswitches ▪ Guest L2 traffic is safely encapsulated in L3 packets on the physical network ▪ No L2 required in the physical network ▪ What about BUM Packets: Broadcast, Multicast, Unknown Unicast? ▪ “Official” RFC7348 answer: Multicast ▪ Multicast is complex and scales poorly: disabled on most networks ▪ Replicator ▪ Cumulus authored, Open Source daemon: https://github.com/CumulusNetworks/vxfld ▪ Replicates BUM packets to multiple unicast receivers ▪ Can run on Linux switches, or Linux servers/hypervisor ▪ Hardware-accelerated when run on Cumulus Linux
  • 21. VXLAN: HW VTEP ▪ VTEP: “VXLAN Tunnel Encapsulation/Decapsulation Point” ▪ Thing that encapsulates virtual network L2 traffic in L3 UDP packets for physical transport ▪ Neutron-managed software VTEPs on hypervisors ▪ Encapsulations/Decapsulates packets for VMs ▪ Cumulus-managed hardware VTEP to connect to non-virtual networks ▪ Encapsulates/Decapsulates packets from VMs to routers, appliances, etc ▪ 100% in hardware, line rate.