System and methods for providing server virtualization assistance

• US 20080205377A1
• Filed: 02/21/2008
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Pandey, Vijoy, Chao, Tienwei, Yao, Wang
• Granted Patent: US 9,661,112 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/351
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/557 Error correction, e.g. fault recovery or fault tolerance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1027 Persistence of sessions during load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

An improved system and method for network switching that provides the ability to automatically and seamlessly migrate policies for network hosts under certain conditions to local or remote switch ports. The improved switch automatically migrates switch policies for virtual and physical hosts from a source port to a destination port when hosts have been physically moved or replaced. For elements that have failed, the improved switch also migrates host network policies for both physical hosts and virtual machines when the old host network policy will maintain serviceability of the element when applied to the new port.

Claims

1. A system for providing network switch capabilities for switching and routing digital packets from a source to a second predetermined second physical location, said network switch comprising:

at least one source port for receiving an incoming packet from a source;

at least one destination port as a destination for the packet; and

at least one processing unit coupled to a memory storage device

wherein said processing unit and coupled memory storage device contains program code modules that

detect that a host computer is removed from a first predetermined physical location of a circuit;

detect that a host computer is installed into a second predetermined physical location of a circuit; and

that migrate switch policy information for the host located in the second predetermined physical location.

2. A system for providing network switch capabilities for switching and routing digital packets from a source to a second predetermined second physical location, said network switch comprising:

at least one source port for receiving an incoming packet from a source;

at least one destination port which contains a path to a destination for the packet; and

at least one processing unit coupled to a memory storage device

wherein said processing unit and coupled memory storage device contains program code modules that

detect that a host computer in a first predetermined physical location has stopped functioning;

migrate a switch policy to a second host located in a second predetermined physical location; and

that migrate a host network policy to a second host located in a second predetermined physical location.

3. A method for operating a computer network communications device comprising the following steps in any order:

detecting a host computer is removed from a first predetermined physical location of a circuit;

detecting the host computer is installed into a second predetermined physical location of a circuit;

detecting that a host computer in a first predetermined physical location has stopped functioning;

migrating switch policy information to the host located in the second predetermined physical location; and

migrating a host network policy to a second host located in a second predetermined physical location

wherein the network communications device routes packets to the second predetermined second physical location.

4. A method of connecting a plurality of computers connected among each other, comprising the steps of:

providing at least one network switch,

adaptively changing at least one switch configuration and capability using a network switch; and

providing an integral networking environment for computers in response to external or internal events.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the network switch performing the steps to adaptively change the switch configuration and capability is the local switch.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the network switch performing the steps to adaptively change the switch configuration and capability is a remote switch.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein a switch provides the adaptive change of migrating switch policies and host network policies from a first predetermined physical location of a circuit to a second predetermined physical location of a circuit in at least one switch.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein a switch provides the adaptive change of modifying the configuration of a second predetermined physical location of a circuit, referring to the configuration of the first predetermined physical location of a circuit.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein a switch provides the adaptive change of migrating switch policies and host network policies from a first predetermined physical location of a circuit to a second predetermined physical location of a circuit, in multiple switches.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the external events are signals from devices other than the switch itself.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the internal events are recordable system information data of a switch, and are recorded on a storage media therein.

12. A method for providing persistency of network configurations of computers in association with DHCP servers, comprising the following steps in any order:

persisting the IP address of the computer;

persisting the IP address of the Domain Name Server of computers;

persisting the IP address of the TFTP server which computers can download program from; and

persisting the network configuration of computers using a plurality of files in the switch and the DHCP server.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said certain data can include the port number of the switch.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said certain data can include the MAC address of the computer.

15. A method of adaptively changing the configuration and capability system information of at least one network-connected switch, providing an integral networking environment for computers in response to internal and external events in a system of computers, wherein said computers are connected among each other with at least one network switch.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein a switch migrates a switch policy from a first predetermined physical location of a circuit to a second predetermined physical location of a circuit in one switch.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein a switch migrates a host network policy from a first predetermined physical location of a circuit to a second host located in a second predetermined physical location of a circuit in one switch.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein a switch modifies the configuration of a second predetermined physical location of a circuit, referring to the configuration of the first predetermined physical location of a circuit.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein a switch migrates switch policies and host network policies from a first predetermined physical location of a circuit to a second predetermined physical location of a circuit, in multiple switches.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the external events are signals from devices other than the switch itself.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the internal events of a switch are system information kept by a switch.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the system information of a switch includes statistics items, temperature, time, SNMP MIB, SNMP trap and any other information kept by the switch.

23. The system of claim 15 wherein said network can be comprised of several host computers connected to a respective slot;

said slots each connected to a respective port on a switch further comprising additional ports designed for receiving electronic signals from said network and through the use of the switch policy, directing the electronic signals to the appropriate host computer through the respective slots from their associated ports.

24. A method for keeping an old host network policy while migrating the switch policy from the old port to the new port comprising the following steps:

beginning a Dynamic Switch Policy with either an internal trigger event generated through a means to detect when a network element fails to function as intended or alternatively an external trigger event generated by another network element;

indicating said trigger events on the data plane and communicating to a control plane, embodied either in the switch or embodied externally to the switch, through a network Element Management System for triggering execution of the Dynamic Switch Policy;

testing for loss of an element and addition of a new element;

identifying the element as a replacement element and verifying against the known switch configuration; and

setting the switch policy for the new element by migrating the policy for the element or creating a new policy for the particular port currently associated with the element.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the Dynamic Switch Policy operates as designated Host #1 moves from designated Slot #1 to designated Slot #3;

designated Port #3 detects that it is now resident in designated Slot #3;

designated Port #3 next indicating to said switch control plane that designated Host #1 has moved;

the switch policy from designated Port #1 is next migrated to become the new switch policy of designated Port #3 wherein all associated information, including ACLs, QOS and VLANs, are transferred.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the host computer is removed from a first slot of a switch and plugged into a second slot of the switch;

the port information automatically shifted to the second slot (port) where the host computer is located.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein after designated Host #1 is moved via a Host ID Move from designated Slot #1 to designated Slot #3, a DHCP request is created on designated Port #3 by the newly placed designated Host # 1 that has just moved from designated Port #1 to designated Port #3;

the request is next passed to the DHCP Relay, inserting information such as the Chassis and Slot ID into Option;

the request is then moved to the DHCP Server, which sets its information on the IP address and DNS and TFTP servers for the host based on the information in an Option page view;

the request is then sent back to the DHCP Relay, which passes it back to designated Host #1 in designated Slot #3 connected to designated Port #3.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein said host policy entails the additional steps of verifying the network host policy wherein the host policy is configured on the switch element;

set for the host computer.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein said triggering event is a failed host computer.

30. A method of using certain data by both Switch and DHCP server to assign the network configuration to computers.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein said network configurations can be IP address of the computer, IP address of the Domain Name Server, IP address of the TFTP server which computers can download program from, IP address of the Default Gateway of the computer and many other items that DHCP server supports.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein said certain data can be port number of the switch, MAC address of the computer, and others.