Fabric membership monitoring

• US 20040153540A1
• Filed: 01/31/2003
• Published: 08/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stimac, Michael D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,334,033 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0253 using browsers or web-pages for accessing management information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0866 Checking the configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

Systems and methods for monitoring network fabric memberships. In one embodiment, the method comprises: 1) determining a polling list of switches; and 2) processing each switch in the polling list. The processing may include: a) obtaining a list of sister switches from the current switch; b) associating the current switch with a new kith if the current switch is not already associated with a kith; c) identifying any of the sister switches associated with different kiths and merging said different kiths with the kith of the current switch; and d) associating each of the sister switches with the kith of the current switch. (A kith is an inclusive collection of switches constructed by combining lists of sister switches from each switch in the polling list.) The method may further comprise performing a matching operation between the kiths and a set of fabrics in a model of the network.

Claims

1. A fabric membership monitoring method that comprises:

determining a polling list of switches; and

for each switch (hereafter “

the current switch”

) in the polling list of switches;

obtaining a list of sister switches from the current switch;

associating the current switch with a new kith if the current switch is not already associated with a kith;

identifying any of the sister switches associated with different kiths and merging said different kiths with the kith of the current switch; and

associating each of the sister switches with the kith of the current switch.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding sister switches absent from the polling list of switches to the polling list of switches.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each fabric in a list of fabrics;

determining a kith that best matches said fabric if one or more unmatched kiths overlap said fabric.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

for each fabric in the list of fabrics;

deleting said fabric from the list of fabrics if no unmatched kiths overlap said fabric.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

for each fabric in the list of fabrics;

ghosting said fabric if no unmatched kiths overlap said fabric and said fabric is a checked fabric.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

for each unmatched kith after operating on each fabric in the list of fabrics;

adding said kith as a fabric to the list of fabrics.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said merging includes:

associating with the kith of the current switch every switch identified as associated with said different kiths.

8. A network management system that comprises:

a network interface module that couples the network management system to switches one or more networks;

a storage module configured to store software; and

a processing module coupled to the storage module and to the network interface module, wherein the processing module retrieves and executes the software,

wherein the software configures the processing module to;

process a polling list, and for each switch in the polling list, to;

obtain a list of sister switches from said switch;

associate said switch with a new kith if said switch is not already associated with a kith;

identify any of the sister switches associated with different kiths and to merge the different kiths with the kith of said switch; and

to associate each of the sister switches with the kith of said switch.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the software further configures the processing module to add to the polling list any sister switches found to be absent.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the software further configures the processing module to determine, for each model fabric having one or more unmatched overlapping kiths, a kith that best matches said fabric.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the software further configures the processing module to delete each model fabric not having any unmatched overlapping kiths unless said model fabric is a checked fabric.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the software further configures the processing module to ghost each checked fabric not having any unmatched overlapping kiths.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the software further configures the processing module to create a new model fabric for each unmatched kith remaining after all model fabrics have been operated on.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the network interface module is coupled to the switches via an Ethernet connection.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the switches are Fibre Channel switches.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the network interface module is coupled to one of the switches via a Fibre Channel link.

17. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing module is coupled to an input module to receive input from a user, and wherein the processing module is coupled to a display module to display the report to the user.

18. An information storage medium operable to provide a programmable system with software that configures the system to:

process a polling list, and for each switch in the polling list, to;

obtain a list of sister switches from said switch;

associate said switch with a new kith if said switch is not already associated with a kith;

identify any of the sister switches associated with different kiths and to merge the different kiths with the kith of said switch; and

to associate each of the sister switches with the kith of said switch.

19. The medium of claim 18, wherein the software further configures the processing module to add to the polling list any sister switches found to be absent.

20. The medium of claim 18, wherein the software further configures the processing module to determine, for each model fabric having one or more unmatched overlapping kiths, a kith that best matches said fabric.

21. The medium of claim 20, wherein the software further configures the processing module to delete each model fabric not having any unmatched overlapping kiths unless said model fabric is a checked fabric.

22. The medium of claim 20, wherein the software further configures the processing module to ghost each checked fabric not having any unmatched overlapping kiths.

23. The medium of claim 20, wherein the software further configures the processing module to create a new model fabric for each unmatched kith remaining after all model fabrics have been operated on.