SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORK AWARE DATA REPLICATION

• US 20150112933A1
• Filed: 10/18/2013
• Published: 04/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Satapathy, Soumendu
• Granted Patent: US 9,330,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/634
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

An example method is provided in one example embodiment and includes establishing software defined network (SDN) awareness for a data replication application; establishing data replication awareness for a SDN controller; managing a plurality of logical networks in a wide area network (WAN) between each of a plurality of source filers and each of a plurality of destination filers for each of a plurality of data types by the SDN controller having data replication awareness, wherein each logical network is associated with a replication policy for a corresponding source filer and is connected to the corresponding source filer through a logical interface; and transmitting replication data between each of the plurality of source filers and each of the plurality of destination filers using each of the plurality of logical networks.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

establishing software defined network (SDN) awareness for a data replication application;

establishing data replication awareness for a SDN controller;

managing a plurality of logical networks in a wide area network (WAN) between each of a plurality of source filers and each of a plurality of destination filers for each of a plurality of data types by the SDN controller having data replication awareness, wherein each logical network is associated with a replication policy for a corresponding source filer and is connected to the corresponding source filer through a logical interface; and

transmitting replication data between each of the plurality of source filers and each of the plurality of destination filers using each of the plurality of logical networks.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing SDN awareness for the data replication application further comprises:

creating each of the plurality of source filers, wherein each source filer is associated with a particular data type;

assigning an Internet Protocol (IP) address to each source filer;

creating one or more replication relationships for each source filer, wherein each replication relationship includes a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and wherein the SLA includes a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO); and

publishing the replication policy for each source filer, wherein the replication policy includes a total number of replication relationships on the source filer, a total number of volumes to be replicated, a total latency requirement, a compression type, a bandwidth requirement, the RPO, and the RTO.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the establishing data replication awareness for the SDN controller further comprises:

collecting each replication policy for each of the plurality of source filers;

creating one or more network rules for each replication policy; and

creating a logical network instance using the one or more network rules for each replication policy for each source filer, wherein each logical network instance comprises forwarding plane information for each of a plurality of switches for each of the plurality of logical networks.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the SDN controller to determine available bandwidth in the WAN for transmitting replication data for a replication relationship for a particular data type, wherein the query includes a service level agreement (SLA) for the replication relationship;

determining a minimum bandwidth for the replication data from the SLA;

determining available bandwidth in the WAN for transmitting the replication data for the particular data type by slicing bandwidth for the WAN across data replication traffic and non-data replication traffic;

comparing the minimum bandwidth for the replication data to the available bandwidth in the WAN to determine whether bandwidth is available in the WAN for transmitting the replication data;

if bandwidth is available in the WAN, disabling compression for the replication data to be transmitted using a particular logical network; and

if bandwidth is not available in the WAN, enabling compression for the replication data to be transmitted using the particular logical network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of source filers and the plurality of destination filers are at least one of:

a virtual filer; and

a physical filer.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

controlling a forwarding plane for each of a plurality of switches in the WAN for each of the plurality of logical networks between a particular source filer and a particular destination filer.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating logical networks based on a plurality of replication operating modes defined by the data replication application.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of replication operating modes include at least one of:

a synchronous mode, wherein the synchronous mode includes a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) defined at less than a minute;

a semi-synchronous mode, wherein the semi-synchronous mode includes an RPO defined in one or more minutes; and

an asynchronous mode, wherein the asynchronous mode includes an RPO defined in at least one of;

less than a minute; and

one or more minutes.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the managing the plurality of logical networks further comprises:

monitoring the plurality of logical networks according to the replication policies for each logical network;

ranking the logical networks based on whether each network meets its corresponding replication policies; and

sorting the plurality of logical networks based on the ranking.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the SDN controller includes an application selected from a group consisting of:

rules manager, bandwidth manager, logical network manager, and logical network server.

11. One or more non-transitory tangible media encoding logic that include instructions for execution that, when executed by a processor, is operable to perform operations comprising:

establishing software defined network (SDN) awareness for data replication application;

establishing data replication awareness for a SDN controller;

managing a plurality of logical networks in a wide area network (WAN) between each of a plurality of source filers and each of a plurality of destination filers for each of a plurality of data types by the SDN controller having data replication awareness, wherein each logical network is associated with a replication policy for a corresponding source filer and is connected to the corresponding source filer through a logical interface; and

transmitting replication data between each of the plurality of source filers and each of the plurality of destination filers using each of the plurality of logical networks.

12. The media of claim 11, wherein the establishing SDN awareness for the data replication application further comprises:

creating each of the plurality of source filers, wherein each source filer is associated with a particular data type;

assigning an Internet Protocol (IP) address to each source filer;

creating one or more replication relationships for each source filer, wherein each replication relationship includes a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and wherein the SLA includes a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO); and

publishing the replication policy for each source filer, wherein the replication policy includes a total number of replication relationships on the source filer, a total number of volumes to be replicated, a total latency requirement, a compression type, a bandwidth requirement, the RPO, and the RTO.

13. The media of claim 12, wherein the establishing data replication awareness for the SDN controller further comprises:

collecting each replication policy for each of the plurality of source filers;

creating one or more network rules for each replication policy; and

creating a logical network instance using the one or more network rules for each replication policy for each source filer, wherein each logical network instance comprises forwarding plane information for each of a plurality of switches for each of the plurality of logical networks.

14. The media of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

querying the SDN controller to determine available bandwidth in the WAN for transmitting replication data for a replication relationship for a particular data type, wherein the query includes a service level agreement (SLA) for the replication relationship;

determining a minimum bandwidth for the replication data from the SLA;

determining available bandwidth in the WAN for transmitting the replication data for the particular data type by slicing bandwidth for the WAN across data replication traffic and non-data replication traffic;

comparing the minimum bandwidth for the replication data to the available bandwidth in the WAN to determine whether bandwidth is available in the WAN for transmitting the replication data;

if bandwidth is available in the WAN, disabling compression for the replication data to be transmitted using a particular logical network; and

if bandwidth is not available in the WAN, enabling compression for the replication data to be transmitted using the particular logical network.

15. The media of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

controlling a forwarding plane for each of a plurality of switches in the WAN for each of the plurality of logical networks between a particular source filer and a particular destination filer.

16. The media of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

monitoring the plurality of logical networks according to the replication policies for each logical network;

ranking the logical networks based on whether each network meets its corresponding replication policies; and

sorting the plurality of logical networks based on the ranking.

17. The media of claim 11, wherein the SDN controller includes an application selected from a group consisting of:

rules manager, bandwidth manager, logical network manager, and logical network server.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory element for storing data; and

a processor that executes instructions associated with the data, wherein the processor and the memory element cooperate such that the apparatus is configured for;

establishing software defined network (SDN) awareness for data replication application;

establishing data replication awareness for a SDN controller;

managing a plurality of logical networks in a wide area network (WAN) between each of a plurality of source filers and each of a plurality of destination filers for each of a plurality of data types by the SDN controller having data replication awareness, wherein each logical network is associated with a replication policy for a corresponding source filer and is connected to the corresponding source filer through a logical interface; and

transmitting replication data between each of the plurality of source filers and each of the plurality of destination filers using each of the plurality of logical networks.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the establishing SDN awareness for the data replication application includes:

creating each of the plurality of source filers, wherein each source filer is associated with a particular data type;

assigning an Internet Protocol (IP) address to each source filer;

creating one or more replication relationships for each source filer, wherein each replication relationship includes a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and wherein the SLA includes a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO); and

publishing the replication policy for each source filer, wherein the replication policy includes a total number of replication relationships on the source filer, a total number of volumes to be replicated, a total latency requirement, a compression type, a bandwidth requirement, the RPO, and the RTO.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the establishing data replication awareness for the SDN controller includes:

collecting each replication policy for each of the plurality of source filers;

creating one or more network rules for each replication policy; and

creating a logical network instance using the one or more network rules for each replication policy for each source filer, wherein each logical network instance comprises forwarding plane information for each of a plurality of switches for each of the plurality of logical networks.