SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR HIGH VOLUME LOGGING AND SYNCHRONIZATION FOR LARGE SCALE NETWORK ADDRESS TRANSLATION

• US 20160057031A1
• Filed: 08/19/2014
• Published: 02/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Gedam, Dhiraj
• Granted Patent: US 10,476,764 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2514 between local and global IP addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2517 using port numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2535 Multiple local networks, e.g. resolving potential IP address conflicts
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• 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

The present invention is related to a method for high volume logging for large scale network address translation. A first device intermediary to a plurality of clients and a plurality of database servers allocates a portion of memory to each packet engine in a plurality of packet engines executing on a respective core of a plurality of cores of the first device. The first device establishes large scale network address translation (LSN) for the plurality of clients, the first device logging LSN information of sessions to a corresponding logging buffer established in a respective packet engine'"'"'s portion of memory. The first device identifies, for a LSN session, a packet engine from the plurality of packet engines to log the information for the LSN session and stores information of the LSN session to the logging buffer in the packet engine'"'"'s portion of memory.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

(a) allocating, by a first device intermediary to a plurality of clients and a plurality of servers for large scale network address translation (LSN) session information logging, a portion of memory to each packet engine in a plurality of packet engines executing on a respective core of a plurality of cores of the first device;

(b) establishing, by the first device, large scale network address translation (LSN) for the plurality of clients, the first device logging LSN information of sessions to a corresponding logging buffer established in a respective packet engine'"'"'s portion of memory;

(c) identifying, by the first device, for a LSN session a packet engine from the plurality of packet engines to log the information for the LSN session; and

(d) storing, by the first device, information of the LSN session to the logging buffer in the packet engine'"'"'s portion of memory.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein (a) further comprises allocating, by the first device, the portion of memory from 32-bit memory of each respective core, the LSN session created in 64-bit memory of the device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

establishing, by the each of the packet engines, a connection to a logging server, the logging server to store aggregated LSN information of LSN sessions from the plurality of packet engines; and

transmitting, by each of the packet engines to the logging server, LSN session information from the packet engine'"'"'s logging buffer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning, by the first device, a range of ports of the first device to a network address translation (NAT) internet protocol (IP) address.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

establishing, by the first device, the LSN session, for a first time for the NAT IP address and a port falling within the range of ports assigned to the NAT IP;

storing, by the first device, a single log message that represents a mapping of the NAT IP address for any LSN session established for the NAT IP address with ports falling within the range of ports;

establishing, by the first device, a second LSN session for the NAT IP address with a second port falling within the range of ports; and

skipping, by the first device, storing a separate log message for the second LSN session.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

disabling, by the first device, logging of session information in the single log message for any LSN session established for the NAT IP address with ports falling within the range of ports; and

storing, by the first device, mapping information in the single log message for any LSN session established for the NAT IP address with ports falling within the range of ports.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allocating, by first device, a predetermined amount of memory on each packet engine for synchronization of LSN session information with a second device;

creating, by the first device, a record of a first session, the record comprising a condensed version of session information for the LSN session, the second device configured to obtain an uncondensed version of session information from local configuration information; and

storing, by the first device, the record to the memory of the packet engine allocated for synchronization.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

establishing, by the first device, a connection with a second device intermediary to the plurality of clients and the plurality of servers; and

transmitting, by the first device, the record of the first session to the second device to synchronize the LSN session information between the first device and the second device.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

retrieving, by the second device, via the record of the first session, the uncondensed version of session information from local configuration information; and

establishing, by the second device, a second session using the uncondensed version of session information.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, by the first device to a second device intermediary to the plurality of clients and the plurality of servers, a hash key of a flow distributor of the first device;

assigning, by the second device, connections to cores of the second device based on the hash key of the flow distributor of the first device;

transmitting, by a first packet engine of a first core of the first device, a request to the second device to establish a transport layer connection, the first packet engine to synchronize LSN session information via the transport layer connection with a corresponding packet engine of the second device; and

establishing, by the second device responsive to the request and based on the hash key of the flow distributor of the first device, the transport layer connection on a same core of the second device as the core of the first packet engine on the first device.

11. A system comprising:

a first device intermediary to a plurality of clients and a plurality of servers for large scale network translation (LSN) session information logging, the first device configured to;

allocate a portion of memory to each packet engine in a plurality of packet engines executing on a respective core of a plurality of cores of the first device;

establish large scale network address translation (LSN) for the plurality of clients, the first device logging LSN information of sessions to a corresponding logging buffer established in a respective packet engine'"'"'s portion of memory;

identify for a LSN session a packet engine from the plurality of packet engines to log the information for the LSN session; and

store information of the LSN session to the logging buffer in the packet engine'"'"'s portion of memory.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first device is further configured to allocate the portion of memory from 32-bit memory of each respective core, the LSN session created in 64-bit memory of the device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein each of the packet engines is configured to:

establish a connection to a logging server, the logging server to store aggregated LSN information of sessions from the plurality of packet engines; and

transmit to the logging server, LSN session information from to the packet engine'"'"'s logging buffer.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first device is further configured to assign a range of ports of the first device to a network address translation (NAT) internet protocol (IP) address.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first device is further configured to:

establish the LSN session, for a first time for the NAT IP address and a port falling within the range of ports assigned to the NAT IP;

store, a single log message that represents a mapping of the NAT IP address for any LSN session established for the NAT IP address with ports falling within the range of ports;

establish a second LSN session for the NAT IP address with a second port falling within the range of ports; and

skip storing a separate log message for the second LSN session.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first device is further configured to:

disable logging of session information in the single log message for any LSN session established for the NAT IP address with ports falling within the range of ports; and

store mapping information in the single log message for any LSN session established for the NAT IP address with ports falling within the range of ports.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the first device is further configured to:

allocate a predetermined amount of memory on each packet engine for synchronization of LSN session information with a second device;

create a record of a first session, the record comprising a condensed version of session information for the LSN session, the second device configured to obtain uncondensed version of session information from local configuration information; and

store the record to the memory of the packet engine allocated for synchronization.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first device is further configured to:

establish a connection with a second device intermediary to the plurality of clients and the plurality of servers; and

transmit the record of the first session to the second device to synchronize the LSN session information between the first device and the second device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the second device s further configured to:

retrieve via the record of the first session, the uncondensed version of session information from local configuration information; and

establish a second session using the uncondensed version of session information.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the first device is further configured to:

provide to a second device intermediary to the plurality of clients and the plurality of servers, a hash key of a flow distributor of the first device; and

wherein a first packet engine of a first core of the first device is configured to;

transmit a request to the second device to establish a transport layer connection, the first packet engine to synchronize LSN session information via the transport layer connection with a corresponding packet engine of the second device;

wherein the second device is configured to;

assign connections to cores of the second device based on the hash key of the flow distributor of the first device; and

establish, responsive to the request and based on the hash key of the flow distributor of the first device, the transport layer connection on a same core of the second device as the core of the first packet engine on the first device.