https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent
⚡️ Control plane management agent for FD.io's VPP
https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent
cloud-native control-plane management-agent vnf vpp
Last synced: 5 months ago
JSON representation
⚡️ Control plane management agent for FD.io's VPP
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent
- Owner: ligato
- License: apache-2.0
- Created: 2017-07-14T11:45:38.000Z (almost 9 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2025-04-08T20:44:46.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-11-03T15:34:10.852Z (7 months ago)
- Topics: cloud-native, control-plane, management-agent, vnf, vpp
- Language: Go
- Homepage: https://docs.ligato.io/
- Size: 171 MB
- Stars: 270
- Watchers: 25
- Forks: 128
- Open Issues: 64
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
- awesome-telco - Ligato - Controlplane agent for FD.io VPP (Protocols / Dataplane acceleration)
README
VPP Agent
The VPP Agent is a Go implementation of a control/management plane for [VPP][vpp] based
cloud-native [Virtual Network Functions][vnf] (VNFs). The VPP Agent is built on top of
[CN Infra][cn-infra], a framework for developing cloud-native VNFs (CNFs).
The VPP Agent can be used as-is as a management/control agent for VNFs based on off-the-shelf
VPP (e.g. a VPP-based vswitch), or as a framework for developing management agents for VPP-based
CNFs. An example of a custom VPP-based CNF is the [Contiv-VPP][contiv-vpp] vswitch.
> Please note that the content of this repository is currently **WORK IN PROGRESS**!
## Status
[](https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent/actions?query=workflow%3A%22CI%22)
[](https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent/actions?query=workflow%3A%22Docker%22)
[](https://coveralls.io/github/ligato/vpp-agent?branch=master)
### Releases
|Release|Release Date|Info|
|---|:---:|---|
|[](https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent/releases/latest)||latest release|
Have a look at the [release notes](CHANGELOG.md) for a complete list of changes.
### Branches
|Branch|Info|Last Commit|
|---|---|:---:|
|[](https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent/tree/master)| **has switched to [v3](https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v300)** :warning:||
|[](https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent/tree/dev)| has been **DEPRECATED** ||
|[](https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent/tree/v2)| provides **legacy v2** ||
All development is done against **master** branch.
### Images
|Image|Image Size/Layers||Info|
|---|:---:|:---:|---|
|[](https://cloud.docker.com/u/ligato/repository/docker/ligato/vpp-agent)| ||with minimal footprint|
|[](https://cloud.docker.com/u/ligato/repository/docker/ligato/dev-vpp-agent)| ||prepared for developers|
## Quickstart
For a quick start with the VPP Agent, you can use the pre-built Docker images on DockerHub
that contain the VPP Agent and VPP: [ligato/vpp-agent][vpp-agent] (or for ARM64: [ligato/vpp-agent-arm64][vpp-agent-arm64]).
0. Start ETCD on your host (e.g. in Docker as described [here][etcd-local]).
Note: for ARM64 see the information for [etcd][etcd-arm64].
1. Run VPP + VPP Agent in a Docker container:
```
docker run -it --rm --name agent1 --privileged ligato/vpp-agent
```
2. Manage VPP agent using agentctl:
```
docker exec -it agent1 agentctl --help
docker exec -it agent1 agentctl status
```
3. Check the configuration (via agentctl or in VPP console):
```
docker exec -it agent1 agentctl dump all
docker exec -it agent1 vppctl show interface
```
**Next Steps**
See [README][docker-image] of development docker image for more details.
## Documentation
[](https://pkg.go.dev/go.ligato.io/vpp-agent/v3)
Extensive documentation for the VPP Agent can be found at [docs.ligato.io](https://docs.ligato.io).
## Architecture
The VPP Agent is basically a set of VPP-specific plugins that use the
CN-Infra framework to interact with other services/microservices in the
cloud (e.g. a KV data store, messaging, log warehouse, etc.). The VPP Agent
exposes VPP functionality to client apps via a higher-level model-driven
API. Clients that consume this API may be either external (connecting to
the VPP Agent via REST, gRPC API, Etcd or message bus transport), or local
Apps and/or Extension plugins running on the same CN-Infra framework in the
same Linux process.
The VNF Agent architecture is shown in the following figure:
Each (northbound) VPP API - L2, L3, ACL, ... - is implemented by a specific
VNF Agent plugin, which translates northbound API calls/operations into
(southbound) low level VPP Binary API calls. Northbound APIs are defined
using [protobufs][protobufs], which allow for the same functionality to be accessible
over multiple transport protocols (HTTP, gRPC, Etcd, ...). Plugins use the
[GoVPP library][govpp] to interact with the VPP.
The following figure shows the VPP Agent in context of a cloud-native VNF,
where the VNF's data plane is implemented using VPP/DPDK and
its management/control planes are implemented using the VNF agent:
## Contributing
If you are interested in contributing, please see the [contribution guidelines][contribution].
## License
[](https://github.com/ligato/vpp-agent/blob/master/LICENSE)
## Modified 3rd party tools included
- [protoc-gen-jsonschema][tool-included-jsonchema] ([code location in this repository][local-place-for-jsonchema])
[agentctl]: cmd/agentctl
[cn-infra]: https://github.com/ligato/cn-infra
[contiv-vpp]: https://github.com/contiv/vpp
[contribution]: CONTRIBUTING.md
[docker]: docker
[docker-image]: https://docs.ligato.io/en/latest/user-guide/get-vpp-agent/#local-image-build
[etcd-arm64]: https://docs.ligato.io/en/latest/user-guide/arm64/#arm64-and-etcd-server
[etcd-local]: https://docs.ligato.io/en/latest/user-guide/get-vpp-agent/#connect-vpp-agent-to-the-key-value-data-store
[govpp]: https://wiki.fd.io/view/GoVPP
[ligato-docs]: http://docs.ligato.io/
[protobufs]: https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/
[vnf]: https://docs.ligato.io/en/latest/intro/glossary/#cnf
[vpp]: https://fd.io/vppproject/vpptech/
[vpp-agent]: https://hub.docker.com/r/ligato/vpp-agent
[vpp-agent-arm64]: https://hub.docker.com/r/ligato/vpp-agent-arm64
[tool-included-jsonchema]: https://github.com/chrusty/protoc-gen-jsonschema/tree/de75f1b59c4e0f5d5edf7be2a18d1c8e4d81b17a
[local-place-for-jsonchema]: plugins/restapi/jsonschema