Including the NFM-P in an NSP deployment

NFM-P deployment types

Figure 1-5, Collocated standalone NFM-P deployment is an example of a standalone NFM-P deployment in which the NFM-P main server and main database are collocated on one station.

Figure 1-5: Collocated standalone NFM-P deployment
Collocated standalone NFM-P deployment

Figure 1-6, Distributed standalone NFM-P deployment is an example of a standalone NFM-P deployment in which the NFM-P main server and main database are hosted on separate stations.

Figure 1-6: Distributed standalone NFM-P deployment
Distributed standalone NFM-P deployment

The following illustrates a typical deployment of NFM-P in standalone mode when the NFM-P server and NFM-P database functions are in a distributed configuration and NFM-P auxiliary servers are used. In this configuration there can be up to three active NFM-P auxiliary statistics servers or it could be configured redundant.

Figure 1-7: NFM-P standalone deployment - distributed NFM-P server and NFM-P database configuration and NFM-P auxiliary servers
NFM-P standalone deployment - distributed NFM-P server and NFM-P database configuration and NFM-P auxiliary servers

The following illustrates a deployment of NFM-P in standalone mode when the NFM-P server and NFM-P database functions are in a distributed deployment and NFM-P auxiliary servers are installed with statistics collection using the NFM-P auxiliary database. In this configuration, there can be up to three preferred NFM-P auxiliary statistics servers. The NFM-P auxiliary database cluster comprises of either a single instance or a cluster of at least three instances.

Figure 1-8: NFM-P standalone deployment - distributed NFM-P server and NFM-P database configuration and NFM-P auxiliary servers with statistics collection using the NFM-P auxiliary database
NFM-P standalone deployment - distributed NFM-P server and NFM-P database configuration and NFM-P auxiliary servers with statistics collection using the NFM-P auxiliary database

For bare metal installations, the NFM-P server, NFM-P auxiliary server, NSP Flow server, NSP Flow Collector Controller, NFM-P auxiliary database, NSP analytics server, and NFM-P database are supported on specific Intel x86 based HP and Nokia AirFrame stations.

The NFM-P client and client delegate server software may be installed on stations running different operating systems from the NFM-P server, NFM-P auxiliary, NFM-P auxiliary database, NSP Flow Collector, NSP Flow Collector Controller, NSP analytics server, and NFM-P database. The NFM-P client can be installed on RHEL 8 server x86-64, Windows, or Mac OS where the NFM-P client delegate server can be installed on RHEL 8 server x86-64, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, or Windows Server 2022. See Third party software for NFM-P single-user client or client delegate server for Operating System specifics.

All NFM-P stations in the NFM-P management complex must maintain consistent and accurate time. The RHEL chronyd service is strongly recommended as the time-synchronization mechanism.

NFM-P system redundancy

NFM-P supports redundancy of the NFM-P server, NFM-P database, NFM-P auxiliary server, and NSP analytics server stations. The NFM-P auxiliary statistics server supports 3+1 redundancy.

Redundancy between NFM-P server and database applications is used to ensure visibility of the managed network is maintained when one of the following failure scenarios occur:

NFM-P supports redundancy of the NFM-P server and NFM-P database components in the following configurations:

The following illustrates an NFM-P redundant installation when the NFM-P server and NFM-P database components are installed in a collocated configuration.

Figure 1-9: NFM-P collocated server/database redundancy deployment
NFM-P collocated server/database redundancy deployment

The following illustrates an NFM-P redundant installation when the NFM-P server and NFM-P database components are located on different stations in a distributed configuration.

Figure 1-10: NFM-P distributed server/database redundancy deployment in a geographically redundant setup.
NFM-P distributed server/database redundancy deployment in a geographically redundant setup.
Redundancy and NFM-P auxiliaries and NSP Flow Collectors

In customer networks, where the statistics collection requirements exceed the scalability capabilities of an NFM-P server, the NFM-P auxiliary statistics server can be used. As with other HA components, the NFM-P auxiliary statistics server can be configured to be redundant. When collecting statistics using the NFM-P database, each NFM-P server can be configured to have one preferred and one reserved NFM-P auxiliary statistics server. When collecting statistics using the NFM-P auxiliary database or using logToFile only, each NFM-P server can be configured with up to three preferred and one reserved NFM-P auxiliary statistics server.

In customer networks where cflowd data is to be collected from network elements, an NSP Flow Collector must be used. The NSP Flow Collector can only be installed in a standalone configuration. To achieve data redundancy, network elements can be configured to forward cflowd data to multiple NSP Flow Collectors. The NSP Flow Collector Controller can be installed in a standalone or redundant configuration.

In Figure 1-11, NFM-P distributed server/database redundant deployment with redundant NFM-P auxiliaries that crosses geographic boundaries there are NFM-P auxiliary servers configured. In the example where redundancy is geographic, there can be up to four NFM-P auxiliary statistics servers configured in each geographic location. The Preferred/Reserved/Remote role of the NFM-P auxiliary statistics server is dependent upon and configured, based on the NFM-P server that is active. When there are more than one active auxiliary statistics server, local redundancy (Preferred/Reserved) of the auxiliary statistics server must be used in conjunction with geographic redundancy, where the same number of auxiliary statistics servers will be deployed in each geographic site. The NFM-P auxiliary statistics servers in the opposite geographic location are configured to be Remote. In this scenario, if one of the NFM-P auxiliary statistics servers for the active NFM-P server were no longer available, the active NFM-P server would use the reserved NFM-P auxiliary statistics server in the same geographic location to collect statistics. Figure 1-12, NFM-P distributed server/database redundant deployment with redundant NFM-P auxiliaries using the NFM-P auxiliary database for statistics collection shows the same redundant configuration but with statistics collection using a geographically redundant NFM-P auxiliary database. Latency between geographic sites must be less than 200 ms.

Figure 1-11: NFM-P distributed server/database redundant deployment with redundant NFM-P auxiliaries that crosses geographic boundaries
NFM-P distributed server/database redundant deployment with redundant NFM-P auxiliaries that crosses geographic boundaries
Figure 1-12: NFM-P distributed server/database redundant deployment with redundant NFM-P auxiliaries using the NFM-P auxiliary database for statistics collection
NFM-P distributed server/database redundant deployment with redundant NFM-P auxiliaries using the NFM-P auxiliary database for statistics collection

Further information about NFM-P redundancy can be found in the NSP NFM-P User Guide.

Redundancy deployment considerations for NFM-P

When deploying NFM-P in a redundant configuration, the following items must be considered.

It is a best practice to keep the NFM-P server, NFM-P database, and NFM-P auxiliary servers in the same geographic site to avoid the impact of network latency. When the NFM-P database or NFM-P server switches sites, the NFM-P auto-align functionality will ensure the NFM-P server, and NFM-P auxiliary servers are all aligned in the same geographic location. If the auto-align functionality is not enabled, a manual switch of the stations is desirable.

Redundancy with collocated NFM-P server/database

Requirements:

Redundancy with distributed NFM-P server and NFM-P database

Requirements:

Redundancy with distributed NFM-P server and NFM-P database and NFM-P auxiliary servers

In addition to the rules stated above for distributed NFM-P server and NFM-P database, the following rules apply: