General Feature Support

Warning

Please note, while this document is still being maintained, this is slowly being updated to re-group and classify features using the definitions described in here: Introduction.

This document covers the maturity and support of the Neutron API and its API extensions. Details about the API can be found at Networking API v2.0.

When considering which capabilities should be marked as mature the following general guiding principles were applied:

  • Inclusivity - people have shown ability to make effective use of a wide range of network plugins and drivers with broadly varying feature sets. Aiming to keep the requirements as inclusive as possible, avoids second-guessing how a user wants to use their networks.

  • Bootstrapping - a practical use case test is to consider that starting point for the network deploy is an empty data center with new machines and network connectivity. Then look at what are the minimum features required of the network service, in order to get user instances running and connected over the network.

  • Reality - there are many networking drivers and plugins compatible with neutron. Each with their own supported feature set.

Summary

Feature Status Linux Bridge Networking MidoNet Networking ODL Networking OVN Open vSwitch
Networks required ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Subnets required ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Ports required ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Routers required ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Security Groups mature ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
External Networks mature ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Distributed Virtual Routers immature ✖ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
L3 High Availability immature ✔ ✖ ✔ ✔ ✔
Quality of Service mature ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Border Gateway Protocol immature ? ✔ ? ? ✔
DNS mature ✔ ✖ ✔ ✔ ✔
Trunk Ports mature ✔ ✖ ✖ ✔ ✔
Metering mature ✔ ✖ ✖ ? ✔
Routed Provider Networks immature ✔ ✖ ✖ ✔ ✔

Details

  • Networks

    Status: required

    API Alias: core

    CLI commands:

    • openstack network *

    Notes: The ability to create, modify and delete networks. https://docs.openstack.org/api-ref/network/v2/#networks

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: complete
    • Networking ODL: complete
    • Networking MidoNet: complete
    • Networking OVN: complete

  • Subnets

    Status: required

    API Alias: core

    CLI commands:

    • openstack subnet *

    Notes: The ability to create and manipulate subnets and subnet pools. https://docs.openstack.org/api-ref/network/v2/#subnets

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: complete
    • Networking ODL: complete
    • Networking MidoNet: complete
    • Networking OVN: complete

  • Ports

    Status: required

    API Alias: core

    CLI commands:

    • openstack port *

    Notes: The ability to create and manipulate ports. https://docs.openstack.org/api-ref/network/v2/#ports

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: complete
    • Networking ODL: complete
    • Networking MidoNet: complete
    • Networking OVN: complete

  • Routers

    Status: required

    API Alias: router

    CLI commands:

    • openstack router *

    Notes: The ability to create and manipulate routers. https://docs.openstack.org/api-ref/network/v2/#routers-routers

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: complete
    • Networking ODL: complete
    • Networking MidoNet: complete
    • Networking OVN: complete

  • Security Groups

    Status: mature

    API Alias: security-group

    CLI commands:

    • openstack security group *

    Notes: Security groups are set by default, and can be modified to control ingress & egress traffic. https://docs.openstack.org/api-ref/network/v2/#security-groups-security-groups

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: complete
    • Networking ODL: complete
    • Networking MidoNet: complete
    • Networking OVN: complete

  • External Networks

    Status: mature

    API Alias: external-net

    Notes: The ability to create an external network to provide internet access to and from instances using floating IP addresses and security group rules.

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: complete
    • Networking ODL: complete
    • Networking MidoNet: complete
    • Networking OVN: complete

  • Distributed Virtual Routers

    Status: immature

    API Alias: dvr

    Notes: The ability to support the distributed virtual routers. https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Neutron/DVR

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: incomplete
    • Networking ODL: partial
    • Networking MidoNet: complete
    • Networking OVN: partial

  • L3 High Availability

    Status: immature

    API Alias: l3-ha

    Notes: The ability to support the High Availability features and extensions. https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Neutron/L3_High_Availability_VRRP.

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: complete
    • Networking ODL: partial
    • Networking MidoNet: incomplete
    • Networking OVN: partial

  • Quality of Service

    Status: mature

    API Alias: qos

    Notes: Support for Neutron Quality of Service policies and API. https://docs.openstack.org/api-ref/network/v2/#qos-policies-qos

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: partial
    • Networking ODL: partial
    • Networking MidoNet: complete
    • Networking OVN: complete

  • Border Gateway Protocol

    Status: immature

    Notes: https://docs.openstack.org/api-ref/network/v2/#bgp-mpls-vpn-interconnection

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: unknown
    • Networking ODL: unknown
    • Networking MidoNet: complete
    • Networking OVN: unknown

  • DNS

    Status: mature

    API Alias: dns-integration

    Notes: The ability to integrate with an external DNS as a Service. https://docs.openstack.org/neutron/latest/admin/config-dns-int.html

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: complete
    • Networking ODL: complete
    • Networking MidoNet: incomplete
    • Networking OVN: complete

  • Trunk Ports

    Status: mature

    API Alias: trunk

    Notes: Neutron extension to access lots of neutron networks over a single vNIC as tagged/encapsulated traffic. https://docs.openstack.org/api-ref/network/v2/#trunk-networking

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: complete
    • Networking ODL: incomplete
    • Networking MidoNet: incomplete
    • Networking OVN: complete

  • Metering

    Status: mature

    API Alias: metering

    Notes: Meter traffic at the L3 router levels. https://docs.openstack.org/api-ref/network/v2/#metering-labels-and-rules-metering-labels-metering-label-rules

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: complete
    • Linux Bridge: complete
    • Networking ODL: incomplete
    • Networking MidoNet: incomplete
    • Networking OVN: unknown

  • Routed Provider Networks

    Status: immature

    Notes: The ability to present a multi-segment layer-3 network as a single entity. https://docs.openstack.org/neutron/latest/admin/config-routed-networks.html

    Driver Support:

    • Open vSwitch: partial
    • Linux Bridge: partial
    • Networking ODL: incomplete
    • Networking MidoNet: incomplete
    • Networking OVN: partial

Notes:

  • This document is a continuous work in progress