REDUNDANT APPLICATION NETWORK APPLIANCES USING A LOW LATENCY LOSSLESS INTERCONNECT LINK
First Claim
1. A method performed by a network element, the method comprising:
- in response to receiving at a first network element a packet of a network transaction from a client over a first network for accessing a server of a datacenter having a plurality of servers over a second network, performing a layer 2 network process on the packet and generating a data stream within the first network element;
performing a layer-3 handshaking with a second network element via a lossless interconnect link coupling the first and second network elements; and
replicating the data stream to the second network element via the lossless interconnect link to synchronize layer-4 states between the first and second network elements and to enable the second network element to perform higher layer processes on the data stream with respect to the network transaction to obtain connection states of the network transaction, wherein the second network element is configured to operate as a redundant peer to the first network element, and wherein in response to a failure of the first network element, the second network element is configured to take over processes of the network transaction from the first network element using the obtained connection states without user interaction of the client.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Redundant application network appliances using a low latency lossless interconnect link are described herein. According to one embodiment, in response to receiving at a first network element a packet of a network transaction from a client over a first network for accessing a server of a datacenter, a layer 2 network process is performed on the packet and a data stream is generated. The data stream is then replicated to a second network element via a layer 2 interconnect link to enable the second network element to perform higher layer processes on the data stream to obtain connection states of the network transaction. In response to a failure of the first network element, the second network element is configured to take over processes of the network transaction from the first network element using the obtained connection states without user interaction of the client. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method performed by a network element, the method comprising:
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in response to receiving at a first network element a packet of a network transaction from a client over a first network for accessing a server of a datacenter having a plurality of servers over a second network, performing a layer 2 network process on the packet and generating a data stream within the first network element; performing a layer-3 handshaking with a second network element via a lossless interconnect link coupling the first and second network elements; and replicating the data stream to the second network element via the lossless interconnect link to synchronize layer-4 states between the first and second network elements and to enable the second network element to perform higher layer processes on the data stream with respect to the network transaction to obtain connection states of the network transaction, wherein the second network element is configured to operate as a redundant peer to the first network element, and wherein in response to a failure of the first network element, the second network element is configured to take over processes of the network transaction from the first network element using the obtained connection states without user interaction of the client. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method, the method comprising:
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in response to receiving at a first network element a packet of a network transaction from a client over a first network for accessing a server of a datacenter having a plurality of servers over a second network, performing a layer 2 network process on the packet and generating a data stream within the first network element; performing a layer-3 handshaking with a second network element via a lossless interconnect link coupling the first and second network elements; and replicating the data stream to the second network element via the lossless interconnect link to synchronize layer-4 states between the first and second network elements and to enable the second network element to perform higher layer processes on the data stream with respect to the network transaction to obtain connection states of the network transaction, wherein the second network element is configured to operate as a redundant peer to the first network element, and wherein in response to a failure of the first network element, the second network element is configured to take over processes of the network transaction from the first network element using the obtained connection states without user interaction of the client. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A network element, comprising:
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a network service module; and an application service module coupled to the network service module over a switch fabric, wherein in response to receiving a packet of a network transaction from a client over a first network for accessing a server of a datacenter having a plurality of servers over a second network, the network service module is configured to perform a layer 2 process on the packet which generates a data stream, wherein a layer 3 handshaking process is performed over a lossless interconnect coupling the network element with a second network element, wherein the data stream is replicated via the lossless interconnect link to the second network element as a redundant peer to synchronize layer-4 states with the redundant peer and to enable the redundant peer to perform higher layer processes on the data stream to obtain connection states of the network transaction, and wherein in response to a failure of the network element, the redundant peer is configured to take over network processes of the network transaction using the obtained connection states without user interaction from the client. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification