System and method of assigning admin partition membership based on switch connectivity in a high-performance computing environment

A system for assigning admin partition membership based on switch connectivity comprising:

• an admin partition for use in a subnet of a network fabric, wherein the admin partition represents a logical group membership, wherein members of the admin partition comprise nodes connected to the subnet via a respective host channel adapter, wherein members of the admin partition are granted access rights to a plurality of subnet resources, and wherein the admin partition is defined by a partition key (P_Key) that is unique within the subnet;
• a subnet manager that executes on a node within the subnet;
• and
• an admin partition registry, wherein the admin partition registry comprises a centralized database of the subnet, and wherein the admin partition registry is accessible by the subnet manager;
• wherein the subnet manager operates to:
• obtain, from a subnet switch, information indicating that the subnet switch is a member of the admin partition, said membership being recorded in a switch configuration of the subnet switch;
• receive, by the subnet manager, a list of identifiers (IDs), each ID corresponding to a host channel adapter that is directly connected to the subnet switch;
• based upon receiving the list of identifiers, automatically add each of the IDs from the received list to the admin partition registry;
• and
• upon adding each of the IDs from the list to the admin partition registry, and based upon the obtained information indicating that the subnet switch is a member of the admin partition, cause a relationship to be created in the admin partition registry between each of the added IDs and the P_Key.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, including instructions stored thereon for assigning admin partition membership based on switch connectivity, which when read and executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform steps comprising:

• creating an admin partition for use in a subnet of a network fabric, wherein the admin partition represents a logical group membership, wherein members of the admin partition comprise nodes connected to the subnet via a respective host channel adapter, wherein members of the admin partition are granted access rights to a plurality of subnet resources, and wherein the admin partition is defined by a partition key (P_Key) that is unique within the subnet;
• providing a subnet manager that executes on a node within the subnet;
• storing the P_Key in an admin partition registry, wherein the admin partition registry comprises a centralized database of the subnet, and wherein the admin partition registry is accessible by the subnet manager;
• obtaining, from a subnet switch and by the subnet manager, information indicating that the subnet switch is a member of the admin partition, said membership being recorded in a switch configuration of the subnet switch;
• receiving, by the subnet manager, a list of identifiers (IDs), each ID corresponding to a host channel adapter that is directly connected to the subnet switch;
• based upon receiving the list of identifiers, automatically adding each of the IDs from the list to the admin partition registry;
• and
• upon adding each of the IDs from the list to the admin partition registry, and based upon the obtained information indicating that the subnet switch is a member of the admin partition, creating a relationship in the admin partition registry between each of the added IDs and the P_Key.