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.. _architecture-label:
Policy Framework Architecture
#############################
Abstract
This document describes the ONAP Policy Framework. It lays out the architecture of the framework and shows the APIs
provided to other components that interwork with the framework. It describes the implementation of the framework,
mapping out the components, software structure, and execution ecosystem of the framework.
.. contents::
:depth: 6
1. Overview
===========
The ONAP Policy Framework is a comprehensive policy design, deployment, and execution environment. The Policy Framework
is the decision making component in `an ONAP system
<https://www.onap.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/11/ONAP_CaseSolution_Architecture_112918FNL.pdf>`__.
It allows you to specify, deploy, and execute the governance of the features and functions in your ONAP system, be they
closed loop, orchestration, or more traditional open loop use case implementations. The Policy Framework is the
component that is the source of truth for all policy decisions.
One of the most important goals of the Policy Framework is to support Policy Driven Operational Management during the
execution of ONAP control loops at run time. In addition, use case implementations such as orchestration and control
benefit from the ONAP policy Framework because they can use the capabilities of the framework to manage and execute
their policies rather than embedding the decision making in their applications.
The Policy Framework is deployment agnostic, it manages Policy Execution (in PDPs) and Enforcement (in PEPs) regardless
of how the PDPs and PEPs are deployed. This allows policy execution and enforcement can be deployed in a manner that
meets the performance requirements of a given application or use case. In one deployment, policy execution could be
deployed in a separate executing entity in a Docker container. In another, policy execution could be co-deployed with
an application to increase performance. An example of co-deployment is the Drools PDP Control Loop image, which is a
Docker image that combines the ONAP Drools use case application and dependencies with the Drools PDP engine.
The ONAP Policy Framework architecture separates policies from the platform that is supporting them. The framework
supports development, deployment, and execution of any type of policy in ONAP. The Policy Framework is metadata (model)
driven so that policy development, deployment, and execution is as flexible as possible and can support modern rapid
development ways of working such as DevOps. A metadata driven approach also allows the amount of programmed support
required for policies to be reduced or ideally eliminated.
We have identified five capabilities as being essential for the framework:
1. Most obviously, the framework must be capable of being triggered by an event or invoked, and making decisions at run
time.
2. It must be deployment agnostic; capable of managing policies for various Policy Decision Points (PDPs) or policy
engines.
3. It must be metadata driven, allowing policies to be deployed, modified, upgraded, and removed as the system executes.
4. It must provide a flexible model driven policy design approach for policy type programming and specification of
policies.
5. It must be extensible, allowing straightforward integration of new PDPs, policy formats, and policy development
environments.
Another important aim of the architecture of a model driven policy framework is that it enables much more flexible
policy specification. The ONAP Policy Framework complies with the `TOSCA
<http://docs.oasis-open.org/tosca/TOSCA-Simple-Profile-YAML/v1.1/TOSCA-Simple-Profile-YAML-v1.1.pdf>`__ modelling
approach for policies, see the :ref:`TOSCA Policy Primer <tosca-label>` for more information on how policies are modeled
in TOSCA.
1. A Policy Type is a general implementation of a policy for a feature. For example, a Policy Type could be written to
manage Service Level Agreements for VPNs. The Policy Type is designed by a domain expert, who specifies the
parameters, triggers, and actions that the Policy Type will have. The implementation (the logic, rules, and tasks of
the Policy Type) is implemented by a skilled policy developer in consultation with domain experts.
a. For example, the VPN Policy Type is used to create VPN policies for a bank network, a car dealership network, or a
university with many campuses.
b. In ONAP, specific ONAP Policy Types are used to create specific policies that drive the ONAP Platform and
Components.
2. A Policy is created by configuring a Policy Type with parameters. For example, the SLA values in the car dealership
VPN policy for a particular dealership are configured with values appropriate for the expected level of activity in
that dealership.
For more detailed information on designing Policy Types and developing an implementation for that policy type, see
:ref:`Policy Design and Development <design-label>`.
The ONAP Policy Framework for building, configuring and deploying PDPs is extendable. It allows the use of ONAP PDPs as
is, the extension of ONAP PDPs, and lastly provides the capability for users to create and deploy their own PDPs. The
ONAP Policy Framework provides distributed policy management for **all** policies in ONAP at run time. Not only does
this provide unified policy access and version control, it provides life cycle control for policies and allows detection
of conflicts across all policies running in an ONAP installation.
2. Architecture
===============
The diagram below shows the architecture of the ONAP Policy Framework at its highest level.
.. image:: images/PFHighestLevel.svg
The *PolicyDevelopment* component implements the functionality for development of policy types and policies.
*PolicyAdministration* is responsible for the deployment life cycle of policies as well as interworking with the
mechanisms required to orchestrate the nodes and containers on which policies run. *PolicyAdministration* is also
responsible for the administration of policies at run time; ensuring that policies are available to users, that policies
are executing correctly, and that the state and status of policies is monitored. *PolicyExecution* is the set of PDPs
running in the ONAP system and is responsible for making policy decisions and for managing the administrative state of
the PDPs as directed by \ *PolicyAdministration.*
*PolicyDevelopment* creates policy artifacts and supporting information in the policy database. \ *PolicyAdministration*
reads those artifacts and the supporting information from the policy database whilst deploying policy artifacts. Once
the policy artifacts are deployed, *PolicyAdministration* handles the run-time management of the PDPs on which the
policies are running. *PolicyDevelopment* interacts with ONAP design time components, and has no programmatic interface
with *PolicyAdministration*, *PolicyExecution* or any other run-time ONAP components.
The diagram below shows a more detailed view of the architecture, as inspired by
`RFC-2753 <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2753>`__ and `RFC-3198 <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3198>`__.
.. image:: images/PFDesignAndAdmin.svg
*PolicyDevelopment* provides a `CRUD <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Create,_read,_update_and_delete>`__ API for policy
types and policies. The policy types and policy artifacts and their metadata (Information about policies, policy types,
and their interrelations) are stored in the *PolicyDB*. The *PolicyDevGUI*, PolicyDistribution, and other applications
such as *CLAMP* can use the *PolicyDevelopment* API to create, update, and delete policy types and policies.
*PolicyAdministration* has two important functions:
- Management of the life cycle of PDPs in an ONAP installation. PDPs register with *PolicyAdministration* when they come
up. *PolicyAdministration* handles the allocation of PDPs to a PDP Groups and PDP Subgroups, so that they can be
managed as microservices in Kubernetes.
- Management of the deployment of policies to PDPs in an ONAP installation. *PolicyAdministration* gives each PDP group
a set of domain policies to execute.
*PolicyAdministration* handles PDPs and policy allocation to PDPs using asynchronous messaging over DMaaP. It provides
three APIs:
- a CRUD API for policy groups and subgroups
- an API that allows the allocation of policies PDP groups and subgroups to be controlled
- an API allows policy execution to be managed, showing the status of policy execution on PDP Groups, subgroups, and
individual PDPs as well as the life cycle state of PDPs
*PolicyExecution* is the set of running PDPs that are executing policies, logically partitioned into PDP groups and
subgroups.
.. image:: images/PolicyExecution.svg
The figure above shows how *PolicyExecution* looks at run time with PDPs running in Kubernetes. A *PDPGroup* is a purely
logical construct that collects all the PDPs that are running policies for a particular domain together. A *PDPSubGroup*
is a group of PDPs of the same type that are running the same policies. *A PDPSubGroup* is deployed as a Kubernetes
`Deployment <https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/deployment/>`__. PDPs are defined as Kubernetes
`Pods <https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/pod/>`__. At run time, the actual number of PDPs in each
*PDPSubGroup* is specified in the configuration of the *Deployment* of that *PDPSubGroup* in Kubernetes. This
structuring of PDPs is required because, in order to simplify deployment and scaling of PDPs in Kubernetes, we gather
all the PDPs of the same type that are running the same policies together for deployment.
For example, assume we have policies for the SON (Self Organizing Network) and ACPE (Advanced Customer Premises Service)
domains. For SON,we have XACML, Drools, and APEX policies, and for ACPE we have XACML and Drools policies. The table
below shows the resulting \ *PDPGroup*, *PDPSubGroup*, and PDP allocations:
============= ================ ========================= ======================================== ================
**PDP Group** **PDP Subgroup** **Kubernetes Deployment** **Kubernetes Deployment Strategy** **PDPs in Pods**
============= ================ ========================= ======================================== ================
SON SON-XACML SON-XACML-Dep Always 2, be geo redundant 2 PDP-X
\ SON-Drools SON-Drools-Dep At Least 4, scale up on 70% load, >= 4 PDP-D
scale down on 40% load, be geo-redundant
\ SON-APEX SON-APEX-Dep At Least 3, scale up on 70% load, scale >= 3 PDP-A
down on 40% load, be geo-redundant
ACPE ACPE-XACML ACPE-XACML-Dep Always 2 2 PDP-X
\ ACPE-Drools ACPE-Drools-Dep At Least 2, scale up on 80% load, scale >=2 PDP-D
down on 50% load
============= ================ ========================= ======================================== ================
For more details on *PolicyAdministration* APIs and management of *PDPGroup* and *PDPSubGroup*, see the documentation
for :ref:`Policy Administration Point (PAP) Architecture <pap-label>`.
2.1 Policy Framework Object Model
---------------------------------
This section describes the structure of and relations between the main concepts in the Policy Framework. This model is
implemented as a common model and is used by *PolicyDevelopment*, *PolicyDeployment,* and *PolicyExecution.*
.. image:: images/ClassStructure.svg
The UML class diagram above shows the portion of the Policy Framework Object Model that applies to *PolicyDeployment*
and *PolicyExecution.*
.. image:: images/DesignTimeComponents.svg
The UML class diagram above shows the portion of the Policy Framework Object Model that applies to *PolicyDevelopment*
and *PolicyDeployment.*
2.2 Policy Design Architecture
------------------------------
This section describes the architecture of the model driven system used to develop policy types and to create concrete
policies using policy types. The output of Policy Design is deployment-ready artifacts and Policy metadata in the Policy
Framework database.
Policies that are expressed via natural language or a model require some development work ahead of time for them to be
translated into concrete runtime policies. Some Policy Domains will be set up and available in the platform during
startup such as Control Loop Operational Policy Models, OOF placement Models, DCAE microservice models. Policy type
implementation development is done by an experienced developer.
2.2.1 Policy Type Design
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Policy Type Design is the task of creating policy types that capture the generic and vendor independent aspects of a
policy for a particular domain use case. The policy type implementation specifies the model information, rules, and
tasks that a policy type requires to generate concrete policies.
All policy types must implement the ONAP Policy Framework *PolicyType* interface. This interface allows
*PolicyDevelopment* to manage policy types and to generate policies from these policy types in a uniform way regardless
of the domain that the policy type is addressing or the PDP technology that will execute the policy. The interface is
used by *PolicyDevelopment* to determine the PDP technology of the policy type, the structure, type, and definition of
the model information that must be supplied to the policy type to generate a concrete policy.
A *PolicyTypeImpl* is developed for a certain type of PDP (for example XACML oriented for decision policies or Drools
rules oriented for ECA policies). The design environment and tool chain for a policy type is specific for the type of
policy being designed.
The *PolicyTypeImpl* implementation (or raw policy) is the specification of the specific rules or tasks, the flow of
the policy, its internal states and data structures and other relevant information. A *PolicyTypeImpl* is specific to a
PDP technology, that is XACML, Drools, or APEX. *A PolicyTypeImpl* can be specific to a particular policy type, it can
be more general, providing the implementation of a class of policy types, or the same policy type may have many
implementations.
*PolicyDevelopment* provides the RESTful :ref:`Policy Design API <design-label>` which allows other components to query
policy types and policy type implementations, to determine the model information, rules, or tasks that they require, to
specialize policy flow, and to generate policies from policy types. This API is used by the ONAP Policy Framework and
other components such as \ *PolicyDistribution* to create policies from policy types.
Consider a policy type created for managing faults on vCPE equipment in a vendor independent way. The policy type
captures the generic logic required to manage the faults and specifies the vendor specific information that must be
supplied to the type for specific vendor vCPE VFs. The actual vCPE policy that is used for managing particular vCPE
equipment is created by setting the parameters specified in the policy type together with the specific modeled
information, rules and tasks in the policy type implementation for that vendor model of vCPE.
2.2.1.1 Generating Policy Types
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
It is possible to generate policy types using MDD (Model Driven Development) techniques. Policy types are expressed
using a DSL (Domain Specific Language) or a policy specification environment for a particular application domain. For
example, policy types for specifying SLAs could be expressed in a SLA DSL and policy types for managing SON features
could be generated from a visual SON management tool. The ONAP Policy framework provides an API that allows tool chains
to create policy types. SDC uses this approach for generating Policy Types in the Policy Framework, see the
:ref:`Policy Design and Development <design-label>` page.
The SDC GUI supports several types of policies that can be captured at design time. DCAE micro service configuration
policies can be onboarded via the DCAE-DS (DCAE Design Studio).
.. image:: images/PolicyTypeDesign.svg
The GUI implementation in another ONAP component such as SDC DCAE-DS uses the *API_User* API to create and edit ONAP
policy types.
2.2.1.2 Programming Policy Type Implementations
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
For skilled developers, the most straightforward way to create a policy type is to program it. Programming a policy type
might simply mean creating and editing text files, thus manually creating the TOSCA Policy Type YAML file and the policy
type implementation for the policy type.
A more formal approach is preferred. For policy type implementations, programmers use a specific Eclipse project type
for developing each type of implementation, a Policy Type Implementation SDK. The project is under source control in
git. This Eclipse project is structured correctly for creating implementations for a specific type of PDP. It includes
the correct POM files for generating the policy type implementation and has editors and perspectives that aid
programmers in their work
2.2.2 Policy Design
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The *PolicyCreation* function of *PolicyDevelopment* creates policies from a policy type. The information expressed
during policy type design is used to parameterize a policy type to create an executable policy. A service designer
and/or operations team can use tooling that reads the TOSCA Policy Type specifications to express and capture a policy
at its highest abstraction level. Alternatively, the parameter for the policy can be expressed in a raw JSON or YAML
file and posted over the policy design API described on the :ref:`Policy Design and Development <design-label>` page.
A number of mechanisms for policy creation are supported in ONAP. The process in *PolicyDevelopment* for creating a
policy is the same for all mechanisms. The most general mechanism for creating a policy is using the RESTful
*Policy Design API*, which provides a full interface to the policy creation support of *PolicyDevelopment*. This API may
be exercised directly using utilities such as *curl*. *PolicyDevelopment* provides a command line tool that is a loose
wrapper around the API. It also provides a general purpose Policy GUI in the ONAP Portal for policy creation, which
again is a general purpose wrapper around the policy creation API. The Policy GUI can interpret any TOSCA Model that has
been loaded into it and flexibly presents a GUI for a user to create policies from. The development of these mechanisms
will be phased over a number of ONAP releases.
A number of ONAP components use policy in manners which are specific to their particular needs. The manner in which the
policy creation process is triggered and the way in which information required to create a policy is specified and
accessed is specialized for these ONAP components.
The following subsections outline the mechanisms for policy creation and modification supported by the ONAP Policy
Framework.
2.2.2.1 Policy Design in the ONAP Policy Framework
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Policy creation in *PolicyDevelopment* follows the general sequence shown in the sequence diagram below. An *API_USER*
is any component that wants to create a policy from a policy type. *PolicyDevelopment* supplies a REST interface that
exposes the API and also provides a command line tool and general purpose client that wraps the API.
.. image:: images/PolicyDesign.svg
An *API_User* first gets a reference to and the metadata for the Policy type for the policy they want to work on from
*PolicyDevelopment*. *PolicyDevelopment* reads the metadata and artifact for the policy type from the database. The
*API_User* then asks for a reference and the metadata for the policy. *PolicyDevelopment* looks up the policy in the
database. If the policy already exists, *PolicyDevelopment* reads the artifact and returns the reference of the existing
policy to the *API_User* with the metadata for the existing policy. If the policy does not exist, *PolicyDevelopment*
creates and new reference and metadata and returns that to the *API_User*.
The *API_User* may now proceed with a policy specification session, where the parameters are set for the policy using
the policy type specification. Once the *API_User* is happy that the policy is completely and correctly specified, it
requests *PolicyDevelopment* to create the policy. *PolicyDevelopment* creates the policy, stores the created policy
artifact and its metadata in the database.
2.2.2.2 Model Driven VF (Virtual Function) Policy Design via VNF SDK Packaging
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
VF vendors express policies such as SLA, Licenses, hardware placement, run-time metric suggestions, etc. These details
are captured within the VNF SDK and uploaded into the SDC Catalog. The `SDC Distribution APIs
<https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/SDC+Distribution+client+AID>`__ are used to interact with SDC. For example, SLA and
placement policies may be captured via TOSCA specification. License policies can be captured via TOSCA or an XACML
specification. Run-time metric vendor recommendations can be captured via the VES Standard specification.
The sequence diagram below is a high level view of SDC-triggered concrete policy generation for some arbitrary entity
*EntityA*. The parameters to create a policy are read from a TOSCA Policy specification read from a CSAR received from
SDC.
.. image:: images/ModelDrivenPolicyDesign.svg
*PolicyDesign* uses the *PolicyDistribution* component for managing SDC-triggered policy creation and update requests.
*PolicyDistribution* is an *API_User*, it uses the Policy Design API for policy creation and update. It reads the
information it needs to populate the policy type from a TOSCA specification in a CSAR received from SDC and then uses
this information to automatically generate a policy.
Note that SDC provides a wrapper for the SDC API as a Java Client and also provides a TOSCA parser. See the
documentation for the `Policy Distribution Component
<https://docs.onap.org/en/latest/submodules/policy/distribution.git/docs/index.html>`__.
In Step 4 above, the \ *PolicyDesign* must download the CSAR file. If the policy is to be composed from the TOSCA
definition, it must also parse the TOSCA definition.
In Step 11 above, the \ *PolicyDesign* must send back/publish status events to SDC such as DOWNLOAD_OK, DOWNLOAD_ERROR,
DEPLOY_OK, DEPLOY_ERROR, NOTIFIED.
2.2.2.3 Scripted Model Driven Policy Design
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Service policies such as optimization and placement policies can be specified as a TOSCA Policy at design time. These
policies use a TOSCA Policy Type specification as their schemas. Therefore, scripts can be used to create TOSCA policies
using TOSCA Policy Types.
.. image:: images/ScriptedPolicyDesign.svg
One straightforward way of generating policies from Policy types is to use directives specified in a script file. The
command line utility is an *API_User*. The script reads directives from a file. For each directive, it reads the policy
type using the Policy Type API, and uses the parameters of the directive to prepare a TOSCA Policy. It then uses the
Policy API to create the policy.
2.2.3 Policy Design Process
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All policy types must be certified as being fit for deployment prior to run time deployment. Where design is executed
using the SDC application, it is assumed the life cycle being implemented by SDC certifies any policy types that
are declared within the ONAP Service CSAR. For other policy types and policy type implementations, the life cycle
associated with the applied software development process suffices. Since policy types and their implementations are
designed and implemented using software development best practices, they can be utilized and configured for various
environments (eg. development, testing, production) as desired.
2.3 Policy Runtime Architecture
-------------------------------
The Policy Framework Platform components are themselves designed as microservices that are easy to configure and deploy
via Docker images and K8S both supporting resiliency and scalability if required. PAPs and PDPs are deployed by the
underlying ONAP management infrastructure and are designed to comply with the ONAP interfaces for deploying containers.
The PAPs keep track of PDPs, support the deployment of PDP groups and the deployment of a *policy set* across those PDP
groups. A PAP is stateless in a RESTful sense. Therefore, if there is more than one PAP deployed, it does not matter
which PAP a user contacts to handle a request. The PAP uses the database (persistent storage) to keep track of ongoing
sessions with clients. Policy management on PDPs is the responsibility of PAPs; management of policy sets or policies by
any other manner is not permitted.
In the ONAP Policy Framework, the interfaces to the PDP are designed to be as streamlined as possible. Because the PDP
is the main unit of scalability in the Policy Framework, the framework is designed to allow PDPs in a PDP group to
arbitrarily appear and disappear and for policy consistency across all PDPs in a PDP group to be easily maintained.
Therefore, PDPs have just two interfaces; an interface that users can use to execute policies and interface to the PAP
for administration, life cycle management and monitoring. The PAP is responsible for controlling the state across the
PDPs in a PDP group. The PAP interacts with the Policy database and transfers policy sets to PDPs, and may cache the
policy sets for PDP groups.
See also Section 2 of the :ref:`Policy Design and Development <design-label>` page, where the mechanisms for PDP
Deployment and Registration with PAP are explained.
2.3.1 Policy Framework Services
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The ONAP Policy Framework follows the architectural approach for microservices recommended by the `ONAP Architecture
Subcommittee <https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Architecture+Subcommittee>`__.
The ONAP Policy Framework defines `Kubernetes Services
<https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/service/>`__ to manage the life cycle of Policy Framework
executable components at runtime. A Kubernetes service allows, among other parameters, the number of instances (*pods*
in Kubernetes terminology) that should be deployed for a particular service to be specified and a common endpoint for
that service to be defined. Once the service is started in Kubernetes, Kubernetes ensures that the specified number of
instances is always kept running. As requests are received on the common endpoint, they are distributed across the
service instances. More complex call distribution and instance deployment strategies may be used; please see the
`Kubernetes Services <https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/service/>`__ documentation for those
details.
If, for example, a service called *policy-pdpd-control-loop* is defined that runs 5 PDP-D instances. The service has the
end point *https://policy-pdpd-control-loop.onap/<service-specific-path>*. When the service is started, Kubernetes spins
up 5 PDP-Ds. Calls to the end point *https://policy-pdpd-control-loop.onap/<service-specific-path>* are distributed
across the 5 PDP-D instances. Note that the *.onap* part of the service endpoint is the namespace being used and is
specified for the full ONAP Kubernetes installation.
The following services will be required for the ONAP Policy Framework:
================ ============================== =======================================================================
**Service** **Endpoint** **Description**
================ ============================== =======================================================================
PAP https://policy-pap The PAP service, used for policy administration and deployment. See
:ref:`Policy Design and Development <design-label>` for details of the
API for this service
PDP-X-\ *domain* https://policy-pdpx-\ *domain* A PDP service is defined for each PDP group. A PDP group is identified
by the domain on which it operates.
For example, there could be two PDP-X domains, one for admission
policies for ONAP proper and another for admission policies for VNFs of
operator *Supacom*. Two PDP-X services are defined:
| https://policy-pdpx-onap
| https://policy-pdpx-\ *supacom*
PDP-D-\ *domain* https://policy-pdpd-\ *domain*
PDP-A-\ *domain* https://policy-pdpa-\ *domain*
================ ============================== =======================================================================
There is one and only one PAP service, which handles policy deployment, administration, and monitoring for all policies
in all PDPs and PDP groups in the system. There are multiple PDP services, one PDP service for each domain for which
there are policies.
2.3.2 The Policy Framework Information Structure
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The following diagram captures the relationship between Policy Framework concepts at run time.
.. image:: images/RuntimeRelationships.svg
There is a one to one relationship between a PDP SubGroup, a Kubernetes PDP service, and the set of policies assigned to
run in the PDP subgroup. Each PDP service runs a single PDP subgroup with multiple PDPs, which executes a specific
Policy Set containing a number of policies that have been assigned to that PDP subgroup. Having and maintaining this
principle makes policy deployment and administration much more straightforward than it would be if complex relationships
between PDP services, PDP subgroups, and policy sets.
The topology of the PDPs and their policy sets is held in the Policy Framework database and is administered by the PAP service.
.. image:: images/PolicyDatabase.svg
The diagram above gives an indicative structure of the run time topology information in the Policy Framework database.
Note that the *PDP_SUBGROUP_STATE* and *PDP_STATE* fields hold state information for life cycle management of PDP groups
and PDPs.
2.3.3 Startup, Shutdown and Restart
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This section describes the interactions between Policy Framework components themselves and with other ONAP components at
startup, shutdown and restart.
2.3.3.1 PAP Startup and Shutdown
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The sequence diagram below shows the actions of the PAP at startup.
.. image:: images/PAPStartStop.svg
The PAP is the run time point of coordination for the ONAP Policy Framework. When it is started, it initializes itself
using data from the database. It then waits for periodic PDP status updates and for administration requests.
PAP shutdown is trivial. On receipt or a shutdown request, the PAP completes or aborts any ongoing operations and shuts
down gracefully.
2.3.3.2 PDP Startup and Shutdown
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The sequence diagram below shows the actions of the PDP at startup. See also Section 4 of the
:ref:`Policy Design and Development <design-label>` page for the API used to implement this sequence.
.. image:: images/PDPStartStop.svg
At startup, the PDP initializes itself. At this point it is in PASSIVE mode. The PDP begins sending periodic Status
messages to the PAP. The first Status message initializes the process of loading the correct Policy Set on the PDP in
the PAP.
On receipt or a shutdown request, the PDP completes or aborts any ongoing policy executions and shuts down gracefully.
2.3.4 Policy Execution
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Policy execution is the execution of a policy in a PDP. Policy enforcement occurs in the component that receives a
policy decision.
.. image:: images/PolicyExecutionFlow.svg
Policy execution can be *synchronous* or *asynchronous*. In *synchronous* policy execution, the component requesting a
policy decision requests a policy decision and waits for the result. The PDP-X and PDP-A implement synchronous policy
execution. In *asynchronous* policy execution, the component that requests a policy decision does not wait for the
decision. Indeed, the decision may be passed to another component. The PDP-D and PDP-A implement asynchronous polic
execution.
Policy execution is carried out using the current life cycle mode of operation of the PDP. While the actual
implementation of the mode may vary somewhat between PDPs of different types, the principles below hold true for all
PDP types:
================== =====================================================================================================
**Lifecycle Mode** **Behaviour**
================== =====================================================================================================
PASSIVE MODE Policy execution is always rejected irrespective of PDP type.
ACTIVE MODE Policy execution is executed in the live environment by the PDP.
SAFE MODE Policy execution proceeds, but changes to domain state or context are not carried out. The PDP
returns an indication that it is running in SAFE mode together with the action it would have
performed if it was operating in ACTIVE mode. The PDP type and the policy types it is running must
support SAFE mode operation.
TEST MODE Policy execution proceeds and changes to domain and state are carried out in a test or sandbox
environment. The PDP returns an indication it is running in TEST mode together with the action it has
performed on the test environment. The PDP type and the policy types it is running must support TEST
mode operation.
================== =====================================================================================================
2.3.5 Policy Lifecycle Management
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Policy lifecycle management manages the deployment and life cycle of policies in PDP groups at run time. Policy sets can
be deployed at run time without restarting PDPs or stopping policy execution. PDPs preserve state for minor/patch
version upgrades and rollbacks.
2.3.5.1 Load/Update Policies on PDP
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The sequence diagram below shows how policies are loaded or updated on a PDP.
.. image:: images/DownloadPoliciesToPDP.svg
This sequence can be initiated in two ways; from the PDP or from a user action.
1. A PDP sends regular status update messages to the PAP. If this message indicates that the PDP has no policies or
outdated policies loaded, then this sequence is initiated
2. A user may explicitly trigger this sequence to load policies on a PDP
The PAP controls the entire process. The PAP reads the current PDP metadata and the required policy and policy set
artifacts from the database. It then builds the policy set for the PDP. Once the policies are ready, the PAP sets the
mode of the PDP to PASSIVE. The Policy Set is transparently passed to the PDP by the PAP. The PDP loads all the policies
in the policy set including any models, rules, tasks, or flows in the policy set in the policy implementations.
Once the Policy Set is loaded, the PAP orders the PDP to enter the life cycle mode that has been specified for it
(ACTIVE/SAFE/TEST). The PDP begins to execute policies in the specified mode (see section 2.3.4).
.. _policy-rollout:
2.3.5.2 Policy Rollout
""""""""""""""""""""""
A policy set steps through a number of life cycle modes when it is rolled out.
.. image:: images/PolicyRollout.svg
The user defines the set of policies for a PDP group. It is deployed to a PDP group and is initially in PASSIVE mode.
The user sets the PDP Group into TEST mode. The policies are run in a test or sandboxed environment for a period of
time. The test results are passed back to the user. The user may revert the policy set to PASSIVE mode a number of times
and upgrade the policy set during test operation.
When the user is satisfied with policy set execution and when quality criteria have been reached for the policy set, the
PDP group is set to run in SAFE mode. In this mode, the policies run on the target environment but do not actually
exercise any actions or change any context in the target environment. Again, as in TEST mode, the operator may decide to
revert back to TEST mode or even PASSIVE mode if issues arise with a policy set.
Finally, when the user is satisfied with policy set execution and when quality criteria have been reached, the PDP group
is set into ACTIVE state and the policy set executes on the target environment. The results of target operation are
reported. The PDP group can be reverted to SAFE, TEST, or even PASSIVE mode at any time if problems arise.
2.3.5.3 Policy Upgrade and Rollback
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
There are a number of approaches for managing policy upgrade and rollback.
The most straightforward approach is to use the approach described in section :ref:`policy-rollout` for upgrading and
rolling back policy sets. In order to upgrade a policy set, one follows the process in :ref:`policy-rollout` with the
new policy set version. For rollback, one follows the process in :ref:`policy-rollout` with the older policy set, most
probably setting the old policy set into ACTIVE mode immediately. The advantage of this approach is that the approach is
straightforward. The obvious disadvantage is that the PDP group is not executing on the target environment while the new
policy set is in PASSIVE, TEST, and SAFE mode.
A second manner to tackle upgrade and rollback is to use a spare-wheel approach. An special upgrade PDP group service is
set up as a K8S service in parallel with the active one during the upgrade procedure. The spare wheel service is used to
execute the process described in :ref:`policy-rollout`. When the time comes to activate the policy set, the references
for the active and spare wheel services are simply swapped. The advantage of this approach is that the down time during
upgrade is minimized, the spare wheel PDP group can be abandoned at any time without affecting the in service PDP group,
and the upgrade can be rolled back easily for a period simply by preserving the old service for a time. The disadvantage
is that this approach is more complex and uses more resources than the first approach.
A third approach is to have two policy sets running in each PDP, an active set and a standby set. However such an
approach would increase the complexity of implementation in PDPs significantly.
2.3.6 Policy Monitoring
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
PDPs provide a periodic report of their status to the PAP. All PDPs report using a standard reporting format that is
extended to provide information for specific PDP types. PDPs provide at least the information below:
===================== ===============================================================================
**Field** **Description**
===================== ===============================================================================
State Lifecycle State (PASSIVE/TEST/SAFE/ACTIVE)
Timestamp Time the report record was generated
InvocationCount The number of execution invocations the PDP has processed since the last report
LastInvocationTime The time taken to process the last execution invocation
AverageInvocationTime The average time taken to process an invocation since the last report
StartTime The start time of the PDP
UpTime The length of time the PDP has been executing
RealTimeInfo Real time information on running policies.
===================== ===============================================================================
2.3.7 PEP Registration and Enforcement Guidelines
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In ONAP there are several applications outside the Policy Framework that enforce policy decisions based on models
provided to the Policy Framework. These applications are considered Policy Enforcement Engines (PEP) and roles will be
provided to those applications using AAF/CADI to ensure only those applications can make calls to the Policy Decision
APIs. Some example PEPs are: DCAE, OOF, and SDNC.
See Section 3.4 of the :ref:`Policy Design and Development <design-label>`
for more information on the Decision APIs.
3. APIs Provided by the Policy Framework
========================================
See the :ref:`Policy Design and Development <design-label>` page.
4. Terminology
==============
================================= ==================================================================================
PAP (Policy Administration Point) A component that administers and manages policies
================================= ==================================================================================
PDP (Policy Deployment Point) A component that executes a policy artifact (One or many?)
PDP_<> A specific type of PDP
PDP Group A group of PDPs that execute the same set of policies
Policy Development The development environment for policies
Policy Type A generic prototype definition of a type of policy in TOSCA, see the
:ref:`TOSCA Policy Primer <tosca-label>`
Policy An executable policy defined in TOSCA and created using a Policy Type, see the
:ref:`TOSCA Policy Primer <tosca-label>`
Policy Set A set of policies that are deployed on a PDP group. One and only one Policy Set is
deployed on a PDP group
================================= ==================================================================================
End of Document