Validate the SHCD & Create JSON topology file

Use the CSM Automatic Network Utility (CANU) to validate the Shasta Cabling Diagram (SHCD). SHCD validation is required to ensure that Plan of Record (PoR) network configurations are generated. This is an iterative process to create a model of the entire network topology connection by connection. Once the validation is complete, a machine readable JSON file should be produced.

Topics

Prerequisites

  • Up-to-date SHCD.
  • CANU must be installed.

Validation steps

  1. Validate the 10G_25G_40G_100G tab.

    Select the upper left corner and lower right corner of the spreadsheet with the Source Rack Location Slot Port Destination Rack Location Port information.

    This is a block of data on the right hand of the worksheet and is not the calculated values used for cable labels on the left-hand side.

    SHCD example

    In this example above, the 10G_25G_40G_100G worksheet has the upper left and lower right corners of I37 and T107 respectively. Note, the above screenshot is trimmed and only the first full 68 rows are shown.

  2. (pit#) Generate the HMN paddle file.

    NOTE -a defines the architecture, this will be:

    • v1 if the HPE Cray EX system is composed of Mellanox and Dell switches, typically with Gigabyte or Intel server hardware.
    • tds if the HPE Cray EX system has Aruba switches with HPE servers and NCNs are connected to the Aruba Spine switches.
    • full if the HPE Cray EX system has Aruba switches with HPE servers and NCNs are connected to the Aruba Leaf switches.
    ARCH=v1

    NOTE The canu command below will start interactive mode for defining --corners. If the --corners are already known, then append --corners with the desired corners to bypass interactive mode.

    canu validate shcd --json --out "${SYSTEM_NAME}-hmn-paddle.json" --tabs HMN -a "${ARCH}" --shcd <shcd_file.xlsx>

Retrieve JSON paddle file

  1. (pit#) Generate the full paddle file.

    NOTE The canu command below will start interactive mode for defining --corners. If the --corners are already known, then append --corners with the desired corners to bypass interactive mode.

    canu validate shcd --json --out "${SYSTEM_NAME}-full-paddle.json" -a "${ARCH}" --shcd <shcd_file>.xlsx

    NOTE CANU will ensure that each cell has valid data and that the connections between devices are allowed. Errors will stop processing and must be fixed in the spreadsheet before moving on. A “clean run” through a worksheet will include the model, a port-map of each node and may include warnings. See a list of typical errors at the end of this document to help in fixing the worksheet data.

Under the hood

A worksheet that runs cleanly will have checked that:

  • Nodes are architecturally allowed to connect to each other.
  • No overlapping ports specified.
  • Node connections can be made at the appropriate speeds.

In addition, a clean run will have the following sections:

  • SHCD Node Connections – A high level list of all node connections on the system.
  • SHCD Port Usage – A Port-by-port detailed listing of all node connections on the system.
  • Warnings:

    • A list of nodes found that are not categorized on the system.

      NOTE This list is important as it could include misspellings of nodes that should be included!

    • A list of cell-by-cell warnings of misspellings and other nit-picking items that CANU has autocorrected on the system.

Check warnings

Critical: The Warnings output will contain a section headed Node type could not be determined for the following. This needs to be carefully reviewed because it may contain site uplinks that are not tracked by CANU, and may also contain misspelled or miscategorized nodes.

For example:

Node type could not be determined for the following.

These nodes are not currently included in the model.

(This may be a missing architectural definition/lookup or a spelling error)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheet: 10G_25G_40G_100G
Cell: I96      Name: CAN switch
Cell: I97      Name: CAN switch
Cell: O87      Name: CAN switch
Cell: O90      Name: CAN switch
Cell: O93      Name: CAN switch
Cell: O100     Name: CAN switch
Cell: O103     Name: CAN switch
Cell: I38      Name: sw-spinx-002

Sheet: HMN
Cell: R36      Name: SITE

Sheet: NMN
Cell: P16      Name: SITE

From the above example, two important observations can be made:

  1. CAN and SITE uplinks are not in the “clean run” model. This means that these ports will not be configured.

  2. Critically, cell I38 has a name of sw-spinx-002. This should be noted as a misspelling of sw-spine-002 and corrected.

Check SHCD port usage

Today CANU validates many things, but a future feature is full cable specification checking of nodes (e.g. which NCN ports go to which switches to properly form bonds). A manual review of the SHCD Port Usage connections list is vital. Specifically, verify the following things:

Logging and updates

Once the SHCD has run cleanly through CANU and CANU output has been manually validated, changes to the SHCD should be committed so that work is not lost, and other users can take advantage of the CANU changes.

  1. Add an entry to the changelog on the first worksheet (Summary).

    The changelog should include:

    • The CANU command line used to validate the spreadsheet
    • The CANU version being used to validate the spreadsheet
    • An overview of changes made to the spreadsheet

  2. Upload the SHCD to an official storage location after it has been validated.

    Either of the following options can be used:

    • customer communication (CAST ticket for customers)
    • SharePoint (internal systems and sometimes customer systems)