System and method for virtual router failover in a network routing system

• US 7,278,055 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2006
• Issued: 10/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Inventors: Aaronson, Itai, Chin, Bill, Subramaniam, Sridhar, Talaugon, Wilson M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US11/466,098
• Publication Number:
  US 20070162783A1
• Time in Patent Office: 407 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 714/21
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2046 where the redundant components share persistent storage G06F11/2043 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0661 by reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/354 for supporting virtual local area networks [VLAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/557 Error correction, e.g. fault recovery or fault tolerance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• 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

In a network routing system,a control blade provides for redundancy and failover of virtual routers (VRs) instantiated by objects running on processing engines of the several virtual routing engines (VREs). When the control blade detects a failure of one processing engines, it may identify the virtual private networks (VPNs) and/or VRs operating on the failed processing engine. The control blade identifies a set of command lines corresponding with the identified VPNs and VRs, and replays the set of command lines with an identity of a new processing engine to recreate the identified VPNs and VRs on the new processing engine.

Claims

1. A virtual router (VR) system comprising:

a plurality of virtual routers (VRs) instantiated by objects running on one or more processing engines;

a fault manager communicatively coupled to the one or more processing engines and configured to detect a failure of any of the one or more processing engines;

an object manager communicatively coupled to the fault manager and configured to identify one or more VRs of the plurality of VRs operating on a failed processing engine;

a command line interface engine configured to identify a set of command lines of a configuration file corresponding with the identified VRs and to recreate the identified VRs on a new processing engine based on the identified set of command lines.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the fault manager monitors keep-alive messages from the processing engines to detect the failure of any of the one or more processing engines.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the command line interface engine recreates the identifies VRs on the new processing engine by replaying the identified set of command lines with the identity of the new processing engine.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the object manager updates an object manager database to identify the VRs as operating on the new processor engine after the identified VRs have been recreated on the new processing engine.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the fault manager selects the new processing engine and provides a slot ID and PE ID of the new processing engine to the command line interface engine, wherein the fault manager and object manager are comprised of objects running on a control blade of the VR system.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising a switching fabric coupling the one or more processing engines and the control blade, and wherein the one or more processing engines are configured to communicate keep-alive messages in a peer-to-peer networking technique through the switching fabric.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the object manager provides a list of VPNs and VRs instantiated on the failed processing engine in response to a request by the fault manager.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the request by the fault manager includes a slot ID and a processing engine ID of the failed processing engine, the slot ID identifying a particular one of a plurality of virtual routing engines (VREs) located at a particular chassis slot, the processing engine ID identifying a particular one of the processing engines of the identified VRE.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein in response to detection of a failure of a processing engine of the one or more processing engines, the fault manager queries the object manager for a list of VRs that were associated with the failed processing engine, the fault manager providing the object manager with a slot ID and a processor engine ID to identify the failed processor engine to the object manager.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the object manager further identifies one or more virtual private networks (VPNs) associated with the failed processing engine, and wherein the command line interface engine identifies a set of command line corresponding with the identified VPNs, and replays the set of command lines with an identity of the new processing engines to recreate the identified VPNs on the new processing engine.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a configuration manager to create the VPNs and VRs, wherein each VR has an IP address.

12. A method of operating a virtual router system comprising:

detecting a failure of a processing engine of a plurality of processing engines by monitoring keep-alive messages from the plurality of processing engines;

identifying a plurality of virtual routers (VRs) associated with the failed processing engines; and

programmatically recreating the identifies VRs on a new processing engine based on a set of command lines associated with the identified VRs.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of VRs is instantiated by objects running on one of the plurality of processing engines, and wherein said recreating the identified VRs comprises replaying the set of command lines to re-instantiate objects associated with the identified VRs on the new processing engine.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising selecting the new processing engine and providing a slot ID and PE ID of the new processing engine to a command line interface engine to replay the set of command lines.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising creating a plurality of VRs to operate on the processing engines, each VR being defined by a asset of objects to operate on one of the processing engines.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising communicating the keep-alive messages from the plurality of processing engines to a control blade of the VR system through a switching fabric using a peer-to-peer networking technique.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing a list of VPNs and the VRs instantiated on the failed processing engine in response to a request by a fault manager, the request including a slot ID and a processing engine ID of the failed processing engine, the slot ID identifying a particular one of a plurality of virtual routing engines (VREs) located at a particular chassis slot, the processing engine DI identifying a particular one of the processing engines of the identified VRE.

18. A virtual routing system comprising:

a plurality of virtual routing engine (VRE) blades each having at least one processing engine to operate a plurality of virtual private networks (VPNs) and corresponding virtual routers (VRs);

a control blade to detect a failure of one of the processing engines; and

a switching fabric coupling the control blade and the plurality of VRE blades, wherein the control blade identifies VPNs and VRs associated with a failed processing engine, identifies a set of command lines corresponding with the identified VPNs and VRs, and recreates the identified VPNs and VRs on a new processing engine based on the set of command lines and an identify of the new processing engine.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the control blade includes a fault manager to detect the failure of one of the processing engines, an object manager to identify the VPNs and VRs associated with the failed processing engine, and a command line interface engine to identify the set of command lines and to recreate the identified VPNs and VRs on the new processing engine by replaying the set of command lines with the identity of the new processing engine.

20. A method comprising:

creating a plurality of virtual private networks (VPNs) and associated virtual routers (VRs) on one or more processing engines of a network routing system by executing a set of command lines of a configuration file;

a fault manager detecting a failed processing engine of the one or more processing engines by performing a processor engine failure detection process;

identifying those of the VPNs of the plurality of VPNs and those of the associated VRs that are affected by the failed processing engine; and

a failover process recreating the affected VPNs and associated VRs on a new processing engine of the network routing system based on the set of command lines.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the failure detection process includes the fault manager monitoring keep-alive messages from the plurality of processing engines.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein said recreating the affected VPNs and associated VRs comprises replaying the set of command lines with the identity of the new processing engine.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein said recreating the affected VPNs and associated VRs comprises the fault manager selecting the new processing engine and provides a slot ID and processing engine ID of the new processing engine to a command line interface engine which replays the sets of command lines with the identity of the new processing engine.

24. A system comprising:

a means for creating a plurality of virtual private networks (VPNs) and associated virtual routers (VRs) on one or more processing engines of a network routing system by executing a set of command lines of a configuration file;

a fault manager means for detecting a failed processing engine of the one or more processing engines by performing a processor engine failure detection process;

a means for identifying those of the VPNs of the plurality of VPNs and those of the associated VRs that are affected by the failed processing engine; and

a failover means for recreating the affected VPNs and associated VRs on a new processing engine of the network routing system based on the set of command lines.