Intent-based, network-aware network device software-upgrade scheduling

A controller device that manages a plurality of network devices, the controller device comprising one or more processing units implemented in circuitry and configured to:

• receive an upgrade request;
• determine, based on the upgrade request, an upgrade graph having nodes each representing one of the network devices or a network service provided by the network, the upgrade graph also having one or more edges each connecting two of the nodes and representing a network redundancy or service dependency;
• compute and assign, for each edge of the edges, an edge weight to the edge by combining results of at least one objective function, each of the at least one objective function having a minimum objective or maximum objective for the network;
• partition the upgrade graph into a plurality of sub-groups based on the edge weights, wherein each of the sub-groups comprises nodes representing respective network devices;
• refine at least one of the sub-groups based on at least one of device-specific upgrade criteria, a maximum number of parallel upgrades allowed, or a number of upgrades in a maintenance window;
• determine an upgrade schedule in which, for each of the sub-groups, the controller device is to concurrently perform an upgrade of software for all network devices represented by a node in the sub-group;
• and
• upgrade the software of each of the plurality of network devices according to the upgrade schedule.

A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause a processor of a controller device that manages a plurality of network devices to:

• receive an upgrade request;
• determine, based on the upgrade request, an upgrade graph having nodes each representing one of the network devices or a network service provided by the network, the upgrade graph also having one or more edges each connecting two of the nodes and representing a network redundancy or service dependency;
• compute and assign, for each edge of the edges, an edge weight to the edge by combining results of at least one objective function, each of the at least one objective function having a minimum objective or maximum objective for the network;
• partition the upgrade graph into a plurality of sub-groups based on the edge weights, wherein each of the sub-groups comprises nodes representing respective network devices;
• refine at least one of the sub-groups based on at least one of device-specific upgrade criteria, a maximum number of parallel upgrades allowed, or a number of upgrades in a maintenance window;
• determine an upgrade schedule in which, for each of the sub-groups, the controller device is to concurrently perform an upgrade of software for all network devices represented by a node in the sub-group;
• and
• upgrade the software of each of the plurality of network devices according to the upgrade schedule.