EDA installation overview

This chapter describes the Nokia Event Driven Automation (EDA) components, the requirements for these components, and provides an overview of the installation process.

Deployment models

Nokia EDA is deployed on one, three, or more nodes (validated for up to six nodes). Nokia EDA is deployed as an application on virtual machine servers.

The nodes (VMs) run a Kubernetes cluster with the following composition:

  • One or three Kubernetes master nodes that also function as worker nodes: one, in case a single-VM deployment is used; otherwise, three Kubernetes master nodes.
  • Any remaining nodes (in a four or more node deployment) function as worker nodes.
  • One, two or more nodes must also be designated as storage nodes. For redundancy, two is the minimum in a three or more node deployment. These nodes still function as worker (and potentially master) nodes as well. Rook-Ceph is used to create a storage cluster across the nodes indicated as storage nodes.

Networking for EDA nodes

This guide describes the deployment of EDA on a Kubernetes cluster with two networks, where access from users and orchestrators to the UI and API, and access from EDA to the fabric (for example, SR Linux devices) will use different interfaces.

It is possible to use two separate networks for the EDA nodes:
  • OAM network

    This interface is used to access the UI and the API of Nokia EDA. It is also through this network that the deployment tool reaches the nodes.

  • Fabric management network

    This interface is used to communicate with the management interfaces of the fabric (for example, SR Linux devices). This interface is where Nokia EDA exposes its DHCP and ZTP services.

EDA nodes

The Nokia EDA nodes are the VMware vSphere-based or KVM-based virtual machines (VMs) that host the Kubernetes environment on which the Nokia EDA application and Digital Sandbox are run.

These nodes run a hardened Talos Kubernetes environment. Talos is a secure, up-to-date and hardened platform for running Kubernetes.

EDA supports the following deployment models:

  • an environment with one node, which hosts only the Nokia EDA application for small scale deployments

  • an environment with three nodes or more nodes, which hosts only the Nokia EDA application

Installation options

This document provides the provides procedures for the following installation scenarios:
  • Internet-based installations

    In this type of installation, Internet connectivity is available throughout the installation procedures and the lifecycle of the EDA deployment. For instructions see, Internet-based installations.

  • Air-gapped installations

    In an air-gapped environment, during most of the procedures, the system on which EDA is installed is isolated, that is, without Internet connectivity. An Assets VM is deployed with the services to provide the container images, git repositories and artifacts used during installation of the EDA Talos Kubernetes cluster and EDA itself. For instructions, see Air-gapped installations