SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ACCELERATED SOFTWARE UPGRADES

• US 20160048386A1
• Filed: 08/18/2015
• Published: 02/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arista Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Arista Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: Capper, Simon Francis
• Granted Patent: US 10,789,059 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A method and apparatus of a device that updates a software image for a network element is described. In an exemplary embodiment, a device receives a signal to update the network element with the new software image, where the network element includes a plurality of hardware forwarding engines and a control plane. The device further boots the control plane with the new software image, where the booting is accomplished without restarting the control plane. In one embodiment, the device boots the control plane by chain booting from a current software image to the new software image. The device additionally restarts and reconfigures the plurality of hardware forwarding engines. In a further embodiment, the device additionally prefills one or more queues in the hardware forwarding engines with keep-alive messages. These keep-alive messages are transmitted during the time that the control plane is being restarted. In a further embodiment, the hardware forwarding engines are reconfigured without restarting them.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method to update a network element with a new software image, the method comprising:

receiving a signal to update the network element with the new software image, wherein the network element includes a plurality of hardware forwarding engines, a data plane, and a control plane;

booting the control plane with the new software image, wherein the booting is accomplished without restarting the plurality of hardware forwarding engines; and

updating the plurality of hardware forwarding engines, wherein the updating occurs without an interruption to a network processing function of the data plane.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the updating of the plurality of hardware forwarding engines comprises:

analyzing a hardware table of one of the hardware forwarding engines; and

re-programming the hardware table using the new software image based on the analysis.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the analyzing of the hardware table comprises:

analyzing the hardware table for content and structure of the hardware table.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the analyzing of the hardware table comprises:

determining an order of the entries of the hardware table.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the re-programming of the hardware table using the new software image comprises:

re-programing the entries of the hardware table using the determined order of the hardware table.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the re-programming of the hardware table using the new software image comprises:

re-programing the entries of the hardware table in a reverse order of the hardware table.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

assuming control of the plurality of hardware forwarding engines.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the new software image is a different version of the current software image.

9. A method to update a network element with a new software image, the method comprising:

receiving a signal to update the network element with the new software image, wherein the network element includes a plurality of hardware forwarding engines, a data plane, and a control plane;

booting the control plane with the new software image, wherein the booting is accomplished without restarting the plurality of hardware forwarding engines; and

updating the plurality of hardware forwarding engines, wherein the updating occurs without an interruption to a network processing function of the data plane.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the updating of the plurality of hardware forwarding engines comprises:

analyzing a hardware table of one of the hardware forwarding engines; and

re-programming the hardware table using the new software image based on the analysis.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the analyzing of the hardware table comprises:

analyzing the hardware table for content and structure of the hardware table.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the analyzing of the hardware table comprises:

determining an order of the entries of the hardware table.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the re-programming of the hardware table using the new software image comprises:

re-programing the entries of the hardware table using the determined order of the hardware table.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the re-programming of the hardware table using the new software image comprises:

re-programing the entries of the hardware table in a reverse order of the hardware table.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

assuming control of the plurality of hardware forwarding engines.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the new software image is a different version of the current software image.

17. A network element comprising:

a new software image;

a data plane;

a plurality of hardware forwarding engines, coupled to the data plane; and

a control plane, coupled to the plurality of hardware forwarding engines, that updates the network element with the new software image, the control plane including,

a receive signal module, wherein the receive signal module receives a signal to update the network element with the new software image,

a boot module, coupled to the receive signal module, wherein boot module boots the control plane with the new software image and the booting is accomplished without restarting the plurality of hardware forwarding engines, and

a rebuild image hardware forwarding engine module, coupled to the boot module, wherein the rebuild image hardware forwarding engine module updates the plurality of hardware forwarding engines and the updating occurs without an interruption to a network processing function of the data plane.

18. The network element of claim 17, wherein the rebuild image hardware forwarding engine module updates the plurality of hardware forwarding engines by analyzing a hardware table of one of the hardware forwarding engines and re-programming the hardware table using the new software image based on the analysis.

19. The network element of claim 18, wherein the rebuild image hardware forwarding engine module analyzes the hardware table by analyzing the hardware table for content and structure of the hardware table.

20. The network element of claim 18, wherein the rebuild image hardware forwarding engine module analyzes the hardware table by determining an order of the entries of the hardware table.