Patent Application
20130155846
In some data center networks, customers may desire a feature such as active standby virtual port channels. While prior systems allowed for Link Aggregation Control Protocol (“LACP”) hot standby ports, these solutions may fail if there is no spanning tree operational on the virtual port channels. Such prior systems may also be insufficient when the ports are used to connect to a Multiprotocol Label Switching (“MPLS”) cloud, where only one port channel should normally be accepting and forwarding traffic with the standby port channel ready to take over. It is desired that the convergence loss is minimal when an active port channel fails and a standby port channel takes over.
These problems cannot be solved by simply applying the LACP protocol, as LACP requires the end points of any member interface to be between the same two switches. These two ports connecting the L2 layer to the MPLS cloud may commonly be between two different pairs of switches. As such there is a need for the creation of active standby virtual port channels. Specifically, there is a need to achieve a fast failover, with the semantics of a hot standby protocol (such as LACP) for a port-channel crossing two different switches.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this disclosure, illustrate various embodiments. In the drawings:
Consistent with embodiments of the present disclosure, systems and methods are disclosed for active-standby virtual port channel mechanism, where at any point only one virtual port channel link is active. Upon failover of the active, a fast failover mechanism is employed to move active traffic to a standby port channel link.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are examples and explanatory only, and should not be considered to restrict the application's scope, as described and claimed. Further, features and/or variations may be provided in addition to those set forth herein. For example, embodiments of the present disclosure may be directed to various feature combinations and sub-combinations described in the detailed description.
The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar elements. While embodiments of this disclosure may be described, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For example, substitutions, additions, or modifications may be made to the elements illustrated in the drawings, and the methods described herein may be modified by substituting, reordering, or adding stages to the disclosed methods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limit the disclosure. Instead, the proper scope of the disclosure is defined by the appended claims.
Prior art systems have been applied to achieve single-control plane virtual port channels, meant for a single-chassis. The active link and the standby links have to be within the gamut of a single control plane. Embodiments of the present disclosure achieve active-standby vPC by 2 distinct chassis. Specifically, embodiments of the present disclosure employ distributed control planes, with active and standby links across 2 different chassis.
Furthermore, prior art systems required the configuration of each access switch to achieve an active-standby virtual port channel. In embodiments of the present disclosure, the only configuration needed on the access switch is to make all uplinks correspond to a port-channel. The active-standby property needs only to be configured only on the two virtual port channel switches.
Embodiments of the present disclosure reduce the effect of convergence impact. In prior art systems, a MAC address Move update (“MMU”) message was needed to be generated upon each failure. Furthermore, the upstream switch is required to handle the MMU. Only then it can failover be handled. So, all switches need to source/sink such control plane packets in such prior art systems. In present embodiments, for virtual port channels, no such additional control plane packet overhead is needed. Only the two virtual port channel switches communicate link failure from one chassis to other chassis. The remaining switches have no need to source/sink any other control plane packets.
In the topology depicted by
In embodiments of the present disclosure, when virtual port channel 225 is acting as the standby port channel, virtual port channel 225 should not accept or forward out any packet, even if the port is up. When a port is configured as a standby virtual port channel from a command-line interface (“CLI”), all of the VLANs associated with peer link 205 may be blocked through color blocking logic (“CBL”).
If the active leg (virtual port channel 215) goes down, the standby leg (virtual port channel 225) may immediately take over forwarding and accepting packets on the associated VLANs. This approach may help to minimize convergence loss.
The ports may be forwarding from both core 210 and core 220's perspective. As such, it is the designated standby virtual port channel which may be filtering multi-destination packets. Since the standby virtual port channel 225 sends out no traffic, core 220 may never learn any of the associated MAC address information of the multi-destination packets travelling through it. Similarly, core 220 will not forward any unicast traffic on it.
Embodiments of the present disclosure may require MAC synchronization on the virtual port channel peers and local target logic (“LTL”) redirection over peer-link 225 for correct forwarding as well as fast convergence. MAC synchronization may be accomplished when an address is learned by virtual port channel 215 for one of the peer network devices. Layer-2 Forwarding Messages (“L2FM”) may be employed to synchronize across the chassis, and attach the address to a virtual port channel on a remote peer network device.
When a virtual port channel is on standby, the LTL for the virtual port channel may be made to point to the peer-link members instead of the member links of the virtual port channel. This may help to ensure that all packets meant to be forwarded over the virtual port channel on standby will be redirected to the peer link.
Referring back to
When the active leg of the virtual port channel goes down, the standby leg should take over with minimal convergence loss. The MAC synchronization and LTL redirection serve to help reduce this loss. As soon as the active link fails, MCECM on the standby leg should disassociate the virtual port channel from the peer link 205. As such, the packets destined for the virtual port channel will no longer be redirected over peer link 205. Furthermore, all the CBL blocked VLANs should be made available for forwarding. The MAC addresses in the core must be updated at this point using an appropriate mechanism, such as a MAC resolver update.
While the virtual port channel is tracking peer-link 205 on the standby leg (traffic is getting redirected over the peer-link), Private Internet Exchange (“PIXM”) support may be required to cache a PCM network device's request for a modification of the local target logic (“modify member ltl”). On the standby, while the virtual port channel is tracking the peer-link (i.e. traffic is getting redirected over peer-link 205), PIXM support may be required to cache the PCM network device's request for “modify member ltl”. Moreover, PIXM may reject the CBL request on a tracked port-channel. PIXM also may need to cache the state from the STP, since this is a tracked port-channel. Upon failover, PIXM may need to apply the “modify member ltl” and the CBL state, when the virtual port channel is dissociated by MCECM on failover conditions.
Similarly, method 300 may advance to step 330. At step 330 the second leg may be configured as a standby leg. The designated standby leg may not accept or forward transmitted packets. As part of the configuration process, all VLANs that are part of a peer link connecting the first leg and the second leg may be blocked. In some embodiments, this may be accomplished through CBL blocking.
Method 300 may then proceed to step 340. At step 340, it may be detected that the first leg has failed. The active leg could fail for a number of reasons and detection may be achieved by any suitable approach. When it is detected that the active leg has failed, method 300 may proceed to step 350. At step 350, the second leg may be immediately configured to be the active leg. MAC synchronization messages may then be sent to a plurality of peer network devices to provide address information for the modified virtual port channel.
As such, when subsequent traffic is received the packets may be accepted and forwarded to the second leg, which is now acting as the active leg of the virtual port channel. The MAC address of a switch device associated with the active leg may be learned and employed to ensure proper traffic forwarding. As part of the transition from active to standby and vice versa, the local target logic should be configured for the switch device associated with the active leg and the switch device associated with the standby leg.
Method 400 may proceed to step 420 where traffic may be received for a destination located behind one of the plurality of core networks. All traffic destined for the first switch device may be redirected across the peer link to the second switch device. In some embodiments, the traffic may be egressed to the active virtual port channel leg when received at a standby virtual port channel leg.
At step 430, a failure of the active virtual port channel may be detected. The detected failure may advance method 400 to step 440. At step 440 the active virtual port channel leg may be disassociated with the first switch device. To that effect, all hosts learned by a first network device may be added to the switch devices such that associating the active port channel leg with the second switch device
With reference to
Network device 500 may have additional features or functionality. For example, network device 500 may also include additional data storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in
Network device 500 may also contain a communication connection 516 that may allow device 500 to communicate with other network devices 518, such as over a network in a distributed network environment, for example, an intranet or the Internet. Communication connection 516 is one example of communication media. Communication media may typically be embodied by computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” may describe a signal that has one or more characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media may include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared, and other wireless media. The term computer readable media as used herein may include both storage media and communication media.
As stated above, a number of program modules and data files may be stored in system memory 504, including operating system 505. While executing on processing unit 502 or secure processing unit for decryption 520, programming modules 506 may perform processes including, for example, one or more method 200, 300, and 400's stages as described above. The aforementioned process is an example; processing unit 502 and secure processing unit for decryption 520 may perform other processes.
Generally, consistent with per-subscriber stream management according to embodiments of this invention, program modules may include routines, programs, components, data structures, and other types of structures that may perform particular tasks or that may implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, embodiments may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments of the present disclosure may also be practiced in distributed network environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed network environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
Furthermore, embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced in an electrical circuit comprising discrete electronic elements, packaged or integrated electronic chips containing logic gates, a circuit utilizing a microprocessor, or on a single chip containing electronic elements or microprocessors. Embodiments may also be practiced using other technologies capable of performing logical operations such as, for example, AND, OR, and NOT, including but not limited to mechanical, optical, fluidic, and quantum technologies. In addition, embodiments of the invention may be practiced within a general purpose computer or in any other circuits or systems.
Embodiments of the present disclosure, for example, may be implemented as a computer process (method), a network system, or as an article of manufacture, such as a computer program product or computer readable media. The computer program product may be a computer storage media readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process. The computer program product may also be a propagated signal on a carrier readable by a network system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process. Accordingly, aspects may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.). In other words, embodiments of the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. A computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific computer-readable medium examples (a non-exhaustive list), the computer-readable medium may include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.
Embodiments of the present disclosure, for example, are described above with reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations of methods, systems, and computer program products according to embodiments of per-subscriber stream management. The functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order as shown in any flowchart. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.
While certain embodiments of the present disclosure have been described, other embodiments may exist. Furthermore, although embodiments have been described as being associated with data stored in memory and other storage mediums, data can also be stored on or read from other types of computer-readable media, such as secondary storage devices, like hard disks, floppy disks, or a CD-ROM, a carrier wave from the Internet, or other forms of RAM or ROM. Further, the disclosed methods' stages may be modified in any manner, including by reordering stages and/or inserting or deleting stages, without departing from the invention.
While the specification includes examples, the invention's scope is indicated by the following claims. Furthermore, while the specification has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, the claims are not limited to the features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example for embodiments of the present disclosure.
