Fabric management devices

• US 10,270,663 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2016
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Mellquist, Peter Erik, Stiekes, Bryan
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Peter
• Application Number:
  US15/337,077
• Publication Number:
  US 20180123892A1
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0823 characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/344 Out-of-band transfers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters

Abstract

Examples include fabric management devices. Some examples include a fabric management device to manage a network fabric. The fabric management device comprises a serial interface to connect to a network device of the network fabric that provides power and data to the fabric management device, a processing resource, and a machine-readable storage medium with instructions executable by the processing resource. The machine-readable storage medium comprises instructions establish communication across the serial interface with the network device via a fabric management device driver, discover a topology of the network fabric, wherein the network fabric comprises a plurality of network devices, and monitor a set of network performance metrics of the plurality of network devices. The machine-readable storage medium further comprises instructions to dynamically configure the network fabric based on the set of network performance metrics.

Claims

1. A fabric management device to manage a network fabric, the fabric management device comprising:

a serial interface to connect to a network device of the network fabric, wherein the serial interface provides power and data to the fabric management device from the network device;

a processing resource including at least one processor; and

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by the processing resource, the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to;

establish communication across the serial interface with the network device via a fabric management device driver that is installed on the network device, wherein the fabric management device manages the network fabric through the network device;

discover a topology of the network fabric, wherein the network fabric comprises a plurality of network devices;

monitor a set of network performance metrics of the plurality of network devices;

determine if the network fabric is faulty by issuing a set of application program interface (API) calls to the network device, wherein the API calls invoke a set of routines and protocols to deactivate the network device of the plurality of network devices associated with the faulty network fabric; and

based on the set of network performance metrics, dynamically configure the network fabric.

2. The fabric management device of claim 1, wherein establishing communication with the network device further comprises instructions to:

present a fabric management device digital certificate to the network device;

receive, from the network device, a network device digital certificate based on a verification of the fabric management device digital certificate;

verify the network device digital certificate; and

establish a secure tunnel between the fabric management device and the network device.

3. The fabric management device of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium further comprises instructions to:

statically configure the network device; and

based on the set of network performance metrics, determine fabric performance, detect a fabric fault, and provide application visibility.

4. The fabric management device of claim 1, wherein dynamically configuring the network fabric further comprises instructions to:

issue an application program interface (API) call to the network device.

5. The fabric management device of claim 1, further comprising:

a wireless interface to interface with an out-of-band wireless management network.

6. The fabric management device of claim 5, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium further comprises instructions to:

support a network system;

receive a request to manage the network fabric from a graphical user interface of the network system via the out-of-band wireless management network; and

based on the request, dynamically configure the network fabric.

7. The fabric management device of claim 6, wherein the network system is a cloud and orchestration system or a container-based system.

8. The fabric management device of claim 1, further comprising:

a wired local area network interface to interface with an out-of-band wired management network.

9. The fabric management device of claim 1, wherein the serial interface is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface or a FireWire interface.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a processing resource of a fabric management device to manage a network fabric, the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to:

establish communication between the fabric management device and a network device of the network fabric via a fabric management device driver that is installed on the network device wherein a serial interface connected to the network device provides power and data to the fabric management device from the network device;

discover a topology of the network fabric, wherein the network fabric comprises a plurality of network devices;

statically configure the network device;

monitor a set of network performance metrics of the plurality of network devices;

determine if the network fabric is faulty by issuing a set of application program interface (API) calls to the network device, wherein the API calls invoke a set of routines and protocols to deactivate the network device of the plurality of network devices associated with the faulty network fabric; and

based on the set of network performance metrics, dynamically configure the network fabric.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10 further comprising instructions to:

interface with an out-of-band wireless management network via a wireless interface;

receive a request to manage the network fabric from a graphical user interface of a network system via the out-of-band wireless management network; and

based on the request, dynamically configure the network fabric.

12. A system comprising:

a fabric management device driver for a network device of a network fabric; and

a fabric management device to manage the network fabric, the fabric management device comprising;

a serial interface to connect to the network device, wherein the serial interface provides power and data to the fabric management device from the network device;

a processing resource including at least one processor; and

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by the processing resource, the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to;

establish a secure tunnel between the fabric management device and the network device across the serial interface and via the fabric management device driver that is installed on the network device wherein the fabric management device manages the network fabric through the network device;

monitor a set of network performance metrics of a plurality of network devices, wherein the network fabric comprises a plurality of network devices;

determine if the network fabric is faulty by issuing a set of application program interface (API) calls to the network device, wherein the API calls invoke a set of routines and protocols to deactivate the network device of the plurality of network devices associated with the faulty network fabric; and

based on the set of network performance metrics, dynamically configure the network fabric.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein establishing the secure tunnel further comprises instructions to:

present a fabric management device digital certificate to the network device;

receive, from the network device, a network device digital certificate based on a verification of the fabric management device digital certificate; and

verify the network device digital certificate.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium further comprises instructions to:

discover a topology of the network fabric; and

based on the set of network performance metrics, troubleshoot the network fabric.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the fabric management device further comprises:

a wireless interface to interface with an out-of-band wireless management network.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium further comprises instructions to:

support a network system;

receive a request from the network system via the out-of-band wireless management network; and

based on the request, dynamically configure the network fabric.

17. A method of managing a network fabric, the method comprising:

establishing a secure tunnel between a fabric management device and a network device of a network fabric, the secure tunnel being established via a fabric management device driver that is installed on the network device and across a serial interface through which the fabric management device;

connects to the network device and receives power and data from the network device; and

manages the network fabric through the network device;

discovering, by the fabric management device, a topology of the network fabric, wherein the network fabric comprises a plurality of network devices;

monitoring, by the fabric management device, a set of network performance metrics of the plurality of network devices;

determining if the network fabric is faulty by issuing a set of application program interface (API) calls to the network device, wherein the API calls invoke a set of routines and protocols to deactivate the network device of the plurality of network devices associated with the faulty network fabric; and

based on the set of network performance metrics, dynamically configuring the network fabric by the fabric management device.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

based on the set of network performance metrics, determining fabric performance, detecting a fabric fault, and providing application visibility.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving a request to manage the network fabric at the fabric management device from a network system supported by the fabric management device, the request being received via an out-of-band wireless management network;

based on the request, dynamically configuring the network fabric by the fabric management device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein dynamically configuring the network fabric includes issuing an application program interface (API) call from the fabric management device to the network device.