SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TOPOLOGY DISCOVERY AND APPLICATION IN A BORDER GATEWAY PROTOCOL BASED DATA CENTER

• US 20140181292A1
• Filed: 12/20/2012
• Published: 06/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Bhikkaji, Bhargav, Venkataswami, Balaji Venkat, Perumal, Narayana Swamy
• Granted Patent: US 9,225,624 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/462 LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/20 the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/033 by updating distance vector protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/72 Routing based on the source address
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/748 using longest matching prefix
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 : Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/103 : across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]

Abstract

An information handling system is provided. The information handling system includes a network orchestration service running on a computer processor. The network orchestration service provides a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) listener module and a topology builder module. The BGP listener module is configured to receive information from a plurality of spine devices configured as an autonomous system and the topology builder module is configured to use the information received by the BGP listener module to create a topology of a data center that includes the plurality of spine devices. Additionally, the network orchestration service is in communication with a memory that is used to store information received by the BGP listener module and the topology of the data center. Applications of the information handling system for better operating the data center are also provided.

Claims

1. An information handling system comprising:

a network orchestration service running on a computer processor, the network orchestration service providing;

a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) listener module, the BGP listener module configured to receive information from a plurality of spine devices configured as an autonomous system; and

a topology builder module, the topology builder module configured to use the information received by the BGP listener module to create a topology of a data center that includes the plurality of spine devices,

wherein the network orchestration service is in communication with a memory, the memory being used to store information received by the BGP listener module and the topology of the data center.

2. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the information from the plurality of spine devices includes a plurality of path information strands, each path information strand including a representation of a path through the data center.

3. The information handling system of claim 2, wherein each path information strand includes a sequence of graph nodes, each graph node including a BGP router identifier and an autonomous system number.

4. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the network orchestration service further provides a graphical user interface (GUI) to a user, the GUI comprising:

a visual depiction of the topology of the data center;

a tool bar including a plurality of buttons allowing a user to access and control network orchestration tools.

5. The information handling system of claim 4, wherein the GUI further comprises:

a visual indicator representing a failure of a link or a node;

a reroute indicator, the reroute indicator representing an alternate path to be used in response to the failure of the link or the node.

6. The information handling system of claim 4, wherein the network orchestration tools include at least one of:

a first tool to pre-program alternate paths through the data center; and

a second tool to set usage thresholds for certain nodes or links in the data center.

7. An information handling system comprising:

a network orchestration service running on a computer processor, the network orchestration service providing a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) listener module and a topology builder module;

a plurality of spine devices configured as an autonomous system, the BGP listener module being able to listen to BGP information received by the plurality of spine devices; and

a plurality of leaf devices coupled to the plurality of spine devices and to a plurality of switches, the plurality of switches also being coupled to a plurality of servers.

8. The information handling system of claim 7, wherein half of the plurality of leaf devices is distributed in a first leaf autonomous system and the other half of the plurality of leaf devices is distributed in a second leaf autonomous system and each of the plurality of switches is a separate autonomous system, and each autonomous system is assigned an autonomous system number.

9. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein at least some of the autonomous system numbers are public autonomous system numbers.

10. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein two of the separate autonomous systems are assigned an identical private autonomous system number.

11. The information handling system of claim 7, wherein the BGP information includes a plurality of path information strands, each path information strand including a path through the data center, the path being represented by a sequence of graph nodes, each graph node including a BGP router identifier and an autonomous system number.

12. The information handling system of claim 7, further comprising a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by the network orchestration service, the GUI configured to:

present a visual representation of the topology to a user;

depict a type and a location of a failure; and

receive commands from the user to configure network traffic through the plurality of switches, the plurality of leaf devices, and the plurality of spine devices to mitigate the failure.

13. The information handling system of claim 12, wherein the GUI is further configured to allow the user to:

input a plurality of backup routes through the topology; and

designate a usage threshold for a device in the topology such that when a level of usage of the device exceeds the designated usage threshold, one of the plurality of backup routes is employed by the network orchestration service to route traffic away from the device.

14. The information handling system of claim 12, wherein the failure is a failure of a link between one of the plurality of switches and one of the plurality of leaf devices.

15. The information handling system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of spine devices, the plurality of leaf devices, the plurality of switches, and a plurality of servers are configured in a Clos topology.

16. A method for providing topology discovery and associated services in a plurality of networked devices running a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) in a data center, the method comprising:

detecting a plurality of BGP update packets being exchanged by a plurality of networked devices configured as a plurality of autonomous systems within the data center;

extracting information from the plurality of BGP update packets; and

computing the extracted information to create a topology of the plurality of networked devices in the data center.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein extracting information from the plurality of BGP update packets comprises extracting at least one path information strand, the path information strand including a sequence of graph nodes, each graph node including a BGP router identifier and an autonomous system number.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the autonomous system number comprises a private autonomous system number.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

displaying a representation of the topology to a user in a graphical user interface (GUI);

receiving threshold settings for a node in the topology from the user;

detecting a traffic handling problem in the data center;

displaying a representation in the GUI of the traffic handling problem at a location corresponding to a site of the traffic handling problem in the representation of the topology; and

directing traffic around the site of the traffic handling problem.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein:

the traffic handling problem comprises one of a failure of a link, a failure of a node, a level of traffic exceeding a set threshold on a link, a level of traffic exceeding a set threshold on a node, and a combination thereof; and

directing traffic around the site of the traffic handling problem comprises implementing an alternate data path set by the user.