Graceful scaling in software driven networks

• US 10,516,577 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2017
• Issued: 12/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: A10 Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: A10 Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Sankar, Swaminathan, Gupta, Rahul, Kamat, Gurudeep, Jalan, Rajkumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Nicholas R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim, Chong G
• Application Number:
  US15/838,119
• Publication Number:
  US 20180102945A1
• Time in Patent Office: 743 Days
• Field of Search: 709224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1031 Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests

Abstract

Provided are methods and systems for graceful scaling of data networks. In one example, an indication of removal of a node from a plurality of nodes of the data network is received. A service policy is generated to reassign service requests associated with the node to another node in the plurality of nodes. The service policy is then sent to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network. To scale out a data network, an indication of presence of a further node in the data network is received, and a further node service policy is generated and sent to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network and to the further node. Additional actions can be taken in order to prevent interruption of an existing heavy-duty connection while scaling the data network.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for graceful scaling of a data network, the method comprising:

receiving, by a cluster master, a first indication of a removal of a first node from a plurality of nodes of the data network;

receiving, by the cluster master, a second indication of a presence of at least one old connection associated with the first node, the at least one old connection including at least one unfinished connection currently served by the first node;

in response to receiving the first indication and the second indication, generating, by the cluster master, a service policy, the service policy being operable to reassign service requests associated with the first node to a second node selected from the plurality of nodes of the data network, the service policy indicating that one or more of the service requests associated with the at least one old connection are to be redirected by the second node to the first node, the service requests including requests sent by one or more clients for services provided by one or more of the plurality of nodes;

sending, by the cluster master, the service policy to one or more of the plurality of nodes of the data network;

receiving, by the cluster master, from the first node, an indication of a completion of the at least one old connection associated with the first node; and

removing the first node from the data network upon the completion of the at least one old connection associated with the first node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of nodes of the data network include a virtual machine and a physical device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of nodes include a plurality of cluster devices, the cluster master, a traffic classification engine, service nodes, and an orchestrator.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the traffic classification engine is configured to distribute the service requests processed by the data network to the service nodes in accordance with the service policy.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indication is generated based on one or more of the following:

first node health, a first node service policy, analysis of a first node data, and absence of the first node data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first node data includes a number of total connections, destination server address, destination server capacity, and destination server network connectivity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the service policy includes a traffic map table, wherein classes of the service requests are assigned to nodes in the plurality of nodes of the data network.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the classes of the services requests are obtained by classification of the service request based on one of the following:

a source address of the service request and a destination address of the service request.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, before sending the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network:

creating, by the cluster master, a redirection node in the data network;

generating, by the cluster master, a redirection policy, the redirection policy indicating that service requests associated with the old connections are to be sent from the second node to the first node via the redirection node; and

sending, by the cluster master, the redirection policy to the redirection node and the second node; and

after sending the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network;

waiting for an indication of finishing the old connections and upon receiving the indication of finishing the old connections;

removing, by the cluster master, the redirection policy from the second node; and

removing, by the cluster master, the redirection node from the data network.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the cluster master, an indication of presence of a further node in the data network;

generating, by the cluster master, a further node service policy, the further node service policy reassigning one or more of the service requests associated with any of the plurality of nodes of the data network to the further node; and

sending, by the cluster master, the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network and to the further node.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising before sending the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network:

receiving, by the cluster master, an indication of presence of old connections, the old connections being associated with an old node from the plurality of nodes of the data network;

creating, by the cluster master, a redirection node in the data network;

generating, by the cluster master, a redirection policy, the redirection policy indicating that service requests associated with the old connections be sent from the further node via the redirection node to the old node; and

sending, by the cluster master, the redirection policy to the redirection node and the further node; and

after sending the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network and to the further node;

waiting for an indication of finishing the old connections and upon receiving the indication of finishing the old connections;

removing, by the cluster master, the redirection policy from the further node; and

removing, by the cluster master, the redirection node from the data network.

12. A system for graceful scaling a data network, the system comprising:

a plurality of nodes; and

a cluster master, the cluster master operable to;

receive a first indication of removing a first node from the plurality of nodes of the data network;

receive a second indication of a presence of at least one old connection associated with the first node, the at least one old connection including at least one unfinished connection currently served by the first node;

in response to the first indication and the second indication, generate a service policy, the service policy reassigning any service requests associated with the first node to a second node from the plurality of nodes of the data network, the service policy indicating that one or more of the service requests associated with the at least one old connection are to be redirected by the second node to the first node, the service requests including requests sent by one or more clients for services provided by one or more of the plurality of nodes;

send the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network;

receive from the first node, an indication of a completion of the at least one old connection associated with the first node; and

remove the first node from the data network upon the completion of the at least one old connection associated with the first node.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of nodes of the data network include a virtual machine and a physical device.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of nodes include a plurality of cluster devices, a traffic classification engine, service nodes, and an orchestrator.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the first indication is generated based on one or more of the following:

a first node health, a first node service policy, an analysis of the first node data, and an absence of the first node data.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first node data includes a number of total connections, destination server address, destination server capacity, and destination server network connectivity.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the service policy is a traffic map table, wherein classes of the services requests are assigned to nodes in the plurality of nodes of the data network.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the classes of the service requests are obtained by classification of the service requests based on one of the following:

a source address of the service request and a destination address of the service request.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein before sending the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network, the cluster master is further operable to:

receive an indication of presence of old connections, the old connections being associated with the first node;

generate an instruction to create a redirection node in the data network;

generate a redirection policy, the redirection policy indicating that service requests associated with the old connections be sent from the second node to the first node via the redirection node; and

send the redirection policy to the redirection node and the second node; and

after sending the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network, the cluster master is further operable to;

wait for an indication of finishing the old connections and upon receiving the indication of finishing the old connections;

remove the redirection policy from the second node; and

generate an instruction to remove the redirection node from the data network.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the cluster master is further operable to:

receive an indication of presence of a further node in the data network;

generate a further node service policy, the further node service policy reassigning one or more of the service requests associated with any of the plurality of nodes of the data network to the further node; and

send the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network and to the further node.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein before sending the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network, the cluster master is further operable to:

receive an indication of presence of old connections, the old connections being associated with an old node from the plurality of nodes of the data network;

generate an instruction to create a redirection node in the data network;

generate a redirection policy, the redirection policy indicating that service requests associated with the old connections be sent from the further node via the redirection node to the old node; and

send the redirection policy to the redirection node and the further node; and

after sending the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network and to the further node, the cluster master is further operable to;

wait for an indication of finishing the old connections and upon receiving the indication of finishing the old connections;

remove the redirection policy from the further node; and

generate an instruction to remove the redirection node from the data network.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for graceful scaling of a data network, the method comprising:

receiving, by a cluster master, a first indication of removing a first node from a plurality of nodes of the data network;

receiving, by the cluster master, a second indication of a presence of old connections, the old connections being associated with the first node, the at least one old connection including at least one unfinished connection currently served by the first node;

in response to receiving the first indication and the second indication, generating, by the cluster master, a service policy, the service policy reassigning any service requests associated with the first node to a second node from the plurality of nodes of the data network, the service policy indicating that one or more of the service requests associated with the at least one old connection are to be redirected by the second node to the first node, the service requests including requests sent by one or more clients for services provided by one or more of the plurality of nodes;

sending the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network;

receiving, by the cluster master, from the first node, an indication of a completion of the at least one old connection associated with the first node; and

removing the first node from the data network upon the completion of the at least one old connection associated with the first node.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the method for graceful scaling of the data network further comprises before sending the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network:

creating, by the cluster master, a redirection node in the data network;

generating, by the cluster master, a redirection policy, the redirection policy indicating that service requests associated with the old connections be sent from the second node to the first node via the redirection node; and

sending, by the cluster master, the redirection policy to the redirection node and the second node; and

after sending the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network;

waiting for an indication of finishing the old connections and upon receiving the indication of finishing the old connections;

removing, by the cluster master, the redirection policy from the second node; and

removing, by the cluster master, the redirection node from the data network.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the method for graceful scaling of the data network further comprises:

receiving, by the cluster master, an indication of presence of a further node in the data network;

generating, by the cluster master, a further node service policy, the further node service policy reassigning one or more of the service requests associated with any of the plurality of nodes of the data network to the further node; and

sending, by the cluster master, the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network and to the further node.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein the method for graceful scaling of the data network further comprises before sending the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network:

receiving, by a cluster master, an indication of presence of old connections, the old connections being associated with an old node from the plurality of nodes of the data network;

creating, by the cluster master, a redirection node in the data network;

generating, by the cluster master, a redirection policy, the redirection policy indicating that service requests associated with the old connections be sent from the further node via the redirection node to the old node; and

sending, by the cluster master, the redirection policy to the redirection node and the further node; and

after sending the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network and to the further node;

waiting for an indication of finishing the old connections and upon receiving the indication of finishing the old connections;

removing, by the cluster master, the redirection policy from the further node; and

removing, by the cluster master, the redirection node from the data network.