US 2007/0183313 A1Published application

System and method for detecting and recovering from virtual switch link failures

AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.

InventorsManoj Narayanan, Hemant Hebbar, Vinayakumar Parameswarannair, Eden Tan, Michael Smith, Norman Finn

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Abstract

A system and method detects and responds to failures occurring in a virtual switch. The virtual switch is formed from two or more physical switches interconnected by a Virtual Switch Link (VSL). One physical switch is elected the Master, and it executes a link aggregation protocol for the virtual switch. If the VSL fails, one of the other physical switches assumes that it should become the Master for the virtual switch, and it begins executing the link aggregation protocol. By adding information unique to the physical switches in the control packets of the link aggregation protocol, remote switches can identify when the VSL fails, and report this condition to the original Master. In response, the original Master or the new Master takes corrective action.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A virtual switch comprising:

a master switch chassis having a master protocol engine, and a plurality of ports for receiving and forwarding network messages;
a slave switch chassis having a slave protocol engine, and a plurality of ports for receiving and forwarding network messages;
and
a communication link coupling the master chassis with the slave chassis such that the master chassis and the slave chassis communicate with each other, wherein
the master protocol engine exchanges a plurality of control packets with a remote switch, at least one of the control packets including a first value identifying the virtual switch, and a second value identifying the master switch chassis,
in response to a failure of the communication link between the master and slave switch chassis, the protocol engine of the slave switch chassis exchanges one or more control packets with the remote switch, the one or more control packets exchanged with the slave switch chassis including the first value identifying the virtual switch, and a third value identifying the slave switch chassis, and
in response to receiving, at the master switch chassis, a control packet from the remote switch that includes the first value identifying the virtual switch and the third value identifying the slave switch chassis, either the master switch chassis or the slave switch chassis executes a corrective action that is responsive to the failure of the communication link.

4 more elements

A method for responding to a failure of a communication link between a master switch chassis and a slave switch chassis configured and arranged to operate as a single virtual switch, the master switch chassis and the slave switch chassis each having a plurality of ports for exchanging network messages with a remote switch, the method comprising:

generating a plurality of control packets at the master switch chassis, the plurality of control packets including a first value identifying the virtual switch, and a second value identifying the master switch chassis;
transmitting the plurality of control packets to the remote switch from the ports of the master switch chassis and the slave switch chassis;
in response to a failure of the communication link, generating a plurality of control packets at the slave switch chassis, the plurality of control packets including the first value identifying the virtual switch, and a third value identifying the slave switch chassis;
transmitting the plurality of control packets generated by the slave switch chassis from the ports of the slave switch chassis to the remote switch;
receiving at the master switch chassis at least one control packet from the remote switch, the at least one received control packet including the first value identifying the virtual switch and the third value identifying the slave switch chassis;
and
executing, by either the master switch chassis or the slave switch chassis, a corrective action responsive to the failure of the communication link.

4 more elements

A remote switch for detecting a failure of a communication link between a master switch chassis and a slave switch chassis configured and arranged to operate as a single virtual switch, the master switch chassis and the slave switch chassis each having a plurality of ports for exchanging network messages with the remote switch, the remote switch comprising:

a plurality of ports for receiving control messages from the virtual switch and for sending control messages to the virtual switch;
and
a protocol engine for processing the control messages received from the virtual switch and for generating the control messages being sent to the virtual switch, wherein the protocol engine is configured and arranged to
(a) in response to receiving from both the master switch chassis and the slave switch chassis of the virtual switch a plurality of control messages including a first value identifying the virtual switch and a second value identifying the master switch chassis, send a plurality of control messages to the virtual switch that include the first value and the second value, and
(b) in response to receiving from the slave switch chassis one or more control messages including the first value identifying the virtual switch and a third value identifying the slave switch chassis, send one or more control messages to the master switch chassis that include the first value and the third value.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.