Maintenance intent deployment

Deploying a maintenance intent causes the system to deploy configuration files to the affected nodes, which ultimately results in the fabric changes embodied in the intent.

Before you can deploy your maintenance intent, you must have saved the maintenance intent and generated its configuration.

Deploying the maintenance intent involves two procedures:

  • You must add the maintenance intent to the deployment pipeline, so the intent can take its place in the list of planned deployments of fabric, workload, and maintenance intents for the current region.

    Adding a maintenance intent to the pipeline triggers preparatory actions that the system performs behind the scenes. These actions must finish before the system allows you to proceed with deployment.

    For example, if your maintenance intent is replacing a node, adding the intent to the deployment pipeline causes the system to stop the DHCP client application on the existing node to release its current IP address. Only after this is complete can you deploy the maintenance intent from the deployment pipeline.

  • From the deployment pipeline, you must then manually deploy the intent. This signals to the system that it can proceed with the deployment of configuration files to all participating nodes. This deployment may not occur immediately; the system resolves each active deployment in sequence, waiting until one is complete before proceeding to the next.

Adding a maintenance intent to the deployment pipeline

To add the maintenance intent to the region's deployment pipeline, do the following:
  1. Open the list of maintenance intents.
  2. Use the Region Selector at the top of the page to select the region containing the maintenance intent.
  3. Select the maintenance intent you want to deploy from the displayed list.
  4. Click the More actions icon ( ) at the right edge of the maintenance intent's row, and select Open from the drop-down list.
  5. Click the Add Intent to Deployment Pipeline icon ( ).
  6. Click the ADD TO PIPELINE button.

Progress of a deployed maintenance intent

When a deployed maintenance intent is in progress, whether for a software update or node replacement, the system locks the affected fabric maintenance. No other operations can be carried out on the locked fabric until the maintenance activity is finished.

The deployed maintenance intent progresses through a series of steps, depending on the type of maintenance being performed. When a step completes successfully, the system automatically proceeds to the next steps. These steps are shown in the deployment pipeline under the Source Name column.

A software update progresses through the following steps:
  • Deploy drain policies: Step 1/4

    The system starts the traffic drain timer and drains traffic (that is, diverts traffic away from the node) for the duration of the timer. When the traffic drain timer expires, the system reboots the node.

    If the maintenance intent fails at this stage, you must discard the fabric intent changes manually.

  • ZTP: Step 2/4

    After the maintenance intent's configuration change has been made on the node, the system rediscovers the updated node using Zero-touch Provisioning (ZTP). At the end of this step, the post-maintenance node returns to the Ready state.

  • Deploy drain policies post update: Step 3/4

    The system applies SR Linux drain policies on the node again for the duration of the convergence timer. The system waits for BGP convergence to complete at this step.

  • Deploy undrain policies: Step 4/4

    The traffic previously diverted away from the node is restored.

    If the maintenance intent fails at this stage, you must re-deploy the affected fabric intent manually.

A node replacement goes through the following steps:
  • Deploy drain policies (1/4):

    The system diverts traffic away from the node in anticipation of the hardware replacement.

    If this step is successful, the system automatically proceeds to step 2/3.

  • Releasing DHCP IP (2/4):

    The node’s previous IP address is released from DHCP. If this step is successful, the system automatically proceeds to step 3/3.

  • Deploy drain policies post update: Step 3/4

    The system applies SR Linux drain policies on the node again for the duration of the convergence timer. The system waits for BGP convergence to complete at this step.

  • Deploy undrain policies (4/4):

    The traffic previously diverted away from the node is restored.

    If the maintenance intent fails at this stage, you must redeploy the affected fabric intent manually.

The details of any failure can be found in the Maintenance Error/Event log.

If issues arise during deployment, they appear as alerts in the alert panel at the right side of the page. In the Maintenance Design view, the system also highlights them as deployment issues in the status bar by adding a red circle to the fabrics affected by the deployment error and with entries in the Events Log.

Deploying a maintenance intent from the deployment pipeline

The maintenance intent remains in the deployment pipeline until you tell the system to proceed with the deployment.

Adding a maintenance intent to the pipeline triggers preparatory actions that the system performs behind the scenes. These actions must finish before the system allows you to proceed with deployment.

When you are ready to proceed with deployment, do the following:

  1. Click to open the main menu, then select Maintenance Intents.
  2. Use the Region Selector at the top of the page to select the region containing the maintenance intent.
  3. Find the maintenance intent you want to deploy, then click at the end of its row.
  4. Click Deployment Pipeline from the actions list.
  5. Find the maintenance intent in the deployment pipeline list, then click at the end of its row.
  6. From the resulting actions list, select Deploy.
    You can view the progress of the software update deployment from the Deployment Pipeline page.
At the end of a successful deployment, the software version is incremented by 1.