Identifier assignment to a new switch in a switch group

• US 10,038,592 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2015
• Issued: 07/31/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Brocade Communications Systems, LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Guntaka, Vidyasagara R., Vobbilisetty, Suresh, Gowda, Manjunath A. G., Duraiswamy, Pasupathi, Varshney, Himanshu
• Primary Examiner(s): Pancholi, Rina C
• Application Number:
  US14/660,803
• Publication Number:
  US 20160277318A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,232 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a switch group module, a persistent storage module, and an allocation module. The switch group module maintains a membership in a switch group. The switch group includes a plurality of switches and operates as a single switch. The persistent storage module stores configuration information associated with the switch group in a data structure in a local persistent storage. The allocation module determines that a second switch is in a default mode and obtains a switch identifier from the persistent storage based on a switch media access control (MAC) address of the second switch. The allocation module then constructs a control message, which is destined for the second switch and includes the switch identifier and a switch group identifier of the switch group.

Claims

1. A switch, comprising:

fabric circuitry configured to maintain a membership in a network of interconnected switches identified by a fabric identifier, which is assigned to the switch;

persistent storage circuitry configured to store configuration information associated with the network of interconnected switches in a database table of an object relational database constructed based on an object-oriented language and stored in a persistent storage of the switch, wherein a respective database table of the object relational database corresponds to a class, which is defined in the object-oriented language and associated with the switch; and

allocation circuitry configured to;

determine that a second switch is in a default mode indicating that the second switch is not a part of the network of interconnected switches;

in response to determining that the second switch is in the default mode, obtain a switch identifier by looking up in the database table

in the object relational database using a media access control (MAC) address of the second switch, wherein the switch identifier is for identifying the second switch in the network of interconnected switches;

construct, prior to the second switch joining the network of interconnected switches, a control message that comprises the switch identifier and the fabric identifier, and is destined to the second switch; and

determine, for the control message, an egress port of the switch corresponding to the second switch.

2. The switch of claim 1, further comprising identifier management circuitry configured to maintain a first mapping between the MAC address and the switch identifier in the database table of the object relational database.

3. The switch of claim 2, wherein the identifier management circuitry is further configured to generate the first mapping in the database table based on one or more of:

a user input, and a notification message from another member switch of the network of interconnected switches.

4. The switch of claim 2, wherein the identifier management circuitry is further configured to maintain a second mapping between the MAC address and the fabric identifier in a second database table in the object relational database.

5. The switch of claim 1, wherein the allocation circuitry is further configured to determine that the second switch is in the default mode by identifying the MAC address from a notification message from the second switch, wherein the notification message comprises an indicator indicating that the second switch is in the default mode.

6. The switch of claim 5, wherein the indicator is one or more of:

a default value of a fabric identifier, a default value of a switch identifier, a default MAC address, and an indicator variable.

7. The switch of claim 1, wherein the control message further comprises a virtual local area network (VLAN) configuration.

8. The switch of claim 1, wherein the switch identifier is one or more of:

a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) routing bridge (RBridge) identifier, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, and a MAC address.

9. The switch of claim 1, wherein values can be retrieved from the persistent storage in response to a power cycle of the switch without runtime structuring in a memory of the switch.

10. The switch of claim 1, wherein the fabric identifier is assigned to a respective member of the network of interconnected switches.

11. A method, comprising:

maintaining a membership of a first switch in a network of interconnected switches identified by a fabric identifier, which is assigned to the first switch;

storing configuration information associated with the network of interconnected switches in a database table of an object relational database constructed based on an object-oriented language and stored in a persistent storage of the first switch, wherein a respective database table of the object relational database corresponds to a class, which is defined in the object-oriented language and associated with the first switch;

determining that a second switch is in a default mode indicating that the second switch is not a part of the network of interconnected switches;

in response to determining that the second switch is in the default mode, obtaining a switch identifier by looking up in the database table in the object relational database using a media access control (MAC) address of the second switch, wherein the switch identifier is for identifying the second switch in the network of interconnected switches;

constructing, prior to the second switch joining the network of interconnected switches, a control message that comprises the switch identifier and the fabric identifier, and is destined to the second switch; and

determining, for the control message, an egress port of the first switch corresponding to the second switch.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising maintaining a first mapping between the MAC address and the switch identifier in the database table of the object relational database.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating the first mapping in the database table based on one or more of:

a user input and a notification message from another member switch of the network of interconnected switches.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising maintaining a second mapping between the MAC address and the fabric identifier in a second database table of the object relational database.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein determining that the second switch is in the default mode comprises identifying the MAC address from a notification message from the second switch, wherein the notification message comprises an indicator indicating that the second switch is in the default mode.

16. The method claim 15, wherein the indicator is one or more of:

a default value of a fabric identifier, a default value of a switch identifier, a default MAC address, and an indicator variable.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the control message further comprises a virtual local area network (VLAN) configuration.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the switch identifier is one or more of:

a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) routing bridge (RBridge) identifier, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, and a MAC address.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein values can be retrieved from the persistent storage in response to a power cycle of the first switch without runtime structuring in a memory of the first switch.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the fabric identifier is assigned to a respective member of the network of interconnected switches.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computing system cause the computing system to perform a method for assigning a switch identifier to a new switch, the method comprising:

maintaining a membership of a first switch in a network of interconnected switches identified by a fabric identifier, which is assigned to the first switch;

storing configuration information associated with the network of interconnected switches in a database table of an object relational database constructed based on an object-oriented language and stored in a persistent storage of the first switch, wherein a respective database table of the object relational database corresponds to a class, which is defined in the object-oriented language and associated with the first switch;

determining that a second switch is in a default mode indicating that the second switch is not part of the network of interconnected switches;

in response to determining that the second switch is in the default mode, obtaining a switch identifier by looking up in the database table in the object relational database using a media access control (MAC) address of the second switch, wherein the switch identifier is for identifying the second switch in the network of interconnected switches;

constructing, prior to the second switch joining the network of interconnected switches, a control message that comprises the switch identifier and the fabric identifier, and is destined to the second switch; and

determining, for the control message, an egress port of the first switch corresponding to the second switch.