Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Infrastructure Software Data Sheet
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Cisco® Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software is a lightweight virtualization platform that integrates full VM lifecycle management, monitoring, device programmability, and service chaining in a single, installable package.
Product overview
NFV Infrastructure Software extends Linux by packaging additional functions for Virtual Network Functions (VNF) that support lifecycle management, monitoring, device programmability, service chaining, and hardware acceleration. The components and functionality delivered by NFV Infrastructure Software are:
● OS kernel: Drives the underlying hardware platforms (for example, Cisco UCS® servers, Cisco UCS E-Series Servers, or x86 enhanced network elements) and hosts the virtualization layer for VNFs, virtual switching APIs, and management.
● Virtualization support: The hypervisor for virtualization is based on a Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), and includes Quick Emulator (QEMU), Libvirt, and other associated processes.
● Virtual switching: Enables multiple VNFs to share physical interface resources and allows for traffic to be passed within the x86 host between VNFs.
● VM lifecycle management: Supports bringing up VNFs dynamically, as well as controlling their liveliness (ESC-lite).
● Plug and Play (PnP) client: Automates the bringing up of any NFV Infrastructure Software-based host. The PnP client can then communicate with a PnP server running in the Cisco Digital Network Architecture controller, and be loaded with the right host configuration.
● Orchestration API: Supports various open APIs in the controller and orchestration systems. Representational State Transfer (REST), Command-Line Interface (CLI), and NETCONF/YANG are supported.
● Web server: Enables connectivity into NFV Infrastructure Software through HTTPS, which is particularly used to support local management tools and orchestration APIs.
● Device management: Includes a resource manager and other tools to support device management.
● Statistics: Includes syslogd, snmpd, collectd, and other tools to assist in statistics collection and reporting.
NFV Infrastructure Software also supports a web-based management device portal. From this portal, the user can upload VNF packages, implement full lifecycle management, turn services up and down, connect to VNF consoles, and monitor critical parameters. Figure 1 shows the device portal homepage. The homepage contains dashboards that show the platform resource utilization and VNF service status.
| Features and benefits Table 1 lists the features and benefits of NFV Infrastructure Software. Table 1. Features and benefits
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Platform support/compatibility
Table 2 lists platforms supported by NFV Infrastructure Software.
Table 2. Platform support
| Product Family | Platforms Supported (by SKU numbers) |
| Cisco UCS E-Series | Cisco UCS-E140S-M2/K9 Cisco UCS-E160D-M2/K9 Cisco UCS-E180D-M2/K9 Cisco UCS-E160S-M3/K9 Cisco UCS-E180D-M3/K9 Cisco UCS-E1120D-M3/K9 |
| Cisco UCS C-Series | Cisco UCS-C220 M4 |
| Cisco 5400 Enterprise Network Computer System | ENCS5406/K9 ENCS5408/K9 and ENCS5408P/K9 ENCS5412/K9 and ENCS5412P/K9 |
Product specifications
Table 3 lists product specifications for NFV Infrastructure Software, and Table 4 lists system requirements.
Table 3. Specifications
| NFV Infrastructure Software components | Version 3.5.1 |
| Linux distribution | CentOS 7.1 |
| Kernel version | 3.10.0-327.el7.x86_64 |
| LibVirt version | 1.2.17 |
| OVS version | 2.3.2 |
| QEMU version | 1.5.3 |
System requirements
Table 4. System requirements
| CPU | 1 vCPU |
| Memory | 4 GB |
| Disk space | 10 GB |
Ordering information
NFV Infrastructure Software is the primary operating system for the Enterprise Network Computer System. It is a mandatory solution component that must be selected.
Table 5 lists the part numbers for NFV Infrastructure Software images.
Table 5. Ordering information
| Part Number | Product Description |
| SW-NFVIS-3.0-K9 | C1 Enterprise NFV Infrastructure Software License |
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For more information
For more information on Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), visit https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/enterprise-networks/enterprise-network-functions-virtualization-nfv/index.html.
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