self-healing-sig/use-cases/nic-failure-affects-instance-and-app.rst
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==============================================
NIC failure affects instances and applications
==============================================
As a cloud operator, whenever one of my cloud's compute nodes has a NIC
failure, I want to be notified of all affected resources including instances
and applications. Moreover, I want the failed instances to be migrated away to
another hardware so my applications will continue to function.
Problem description
===================
A NIC failure may cause the host, as well as all instances running on it, to
become unreachable. This may also affect applications that are using these
instances and lose their high-availability.
Fault class
===========
Network failure
OpenStack projects used
=======================
* Zabbix (or any other 3rd party monitor)
* Vitrage
* Mistral
Remediation class
=================
Reactive
Fault detection
===============
There is no OpenStack component that detects a NIC failure, so it has to be
done using a 3rd party monitor like Zabbix.
Inputs and decision-making
==========================
Based on the NIC failure detection, the cloud operator should understand which
resources and applications are affected.
Remediation
===========
Instances that became unreachable due the the network failure should be
migrated to another host, so the applications should continue to function.
Existing implementation(s)
==========================
To identify the failed resources, the cloud operator can use Vitrage. Vitrage
will be notified by the external monitor (such as Zabbix) about the failed NIC.
Based on its cloud topology awareness, Vitrage will raise additional alarms on
the host, instances and affected applications.
An affected application will most likely be running in HA mode, so it will
perform a fail-over to the standby instance. However, it will lose its
high-availability.
The cloud operator can see this information in Vitrage Entity Graph, locate
a failed instance that affects an application, and ask to execute a
VM-migration Mistral workflow on that instance.
Alternatively, Vitrage can **automatically** execute a Mistral workflow that
will migrate the failed instance to a different host, so the application will
get back to a fully-operational state.
.. figure:: ./vitrage_and_mistral.png
:scale: 100 %
:align: center
:alt: alternate text
Future work
===========
None (supported from OpenStack Queens and on)
Dependencies
============
None