Introducing cascaded intelligent services in a san environment
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsKalyan Chakravarthy Nidumolu, Parthiban Munusamy, Anand Parthasarathy, Prakashkumar Manickam
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Abstract
Techniques are disclosed for redirecting fibre channel data transmitted between nodes in a fibre channel fabric. The redirection allows traffic sent from a host to a target in a storage area network (SAN) to flow through a cascade of applications provided by certain nodes of the fabric (or in some cases, by external appliances). That is, techniques are disclosed for application chaining in the SAN. Doing so allows the SAN to be used as a true network platform for providing a variety of intelligent services within the network (e.g., data migration, encryption, etc).
Claims24
A first switch in a storage area network (SAN), comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- a memory, wherein the memory is adapted for:
- receiving a data frame sent from a host device attached to the SAN to a target device attached to the SAN, wherein the data frame has been redirected to an application chain which specifies a sequence of two or more application nodes in the SAN, including the first switch, to receive and process data frames sent from the host to the target, and wherein the first switch receives the data frame as being addressed from the host to the first switch;
- performing a service on data included in the redirected data frame;
- releasing the data frame, wherein the data frame is released as being addressed from the first switch to the target;
- upon determining the application chain includes an additional application node in the sequence of two or more application nodes, redirecting the data frame by modifying the data frame so as to be addressed from the host to the additional application node.
A computer-readable storage medium, containing a program, which, when executed on a first switch in a storage area network (SAN) performs an operation, comprising:
- receiving a data frame sent from a host device attached to the SAN to a target device attached to the SAN, wherein the data frame has been redirected to an application chain which specifies a sequence of two or more application nodes in the SAN, including the first switch, to receive and process data frames sent from the host to the target, and wherein the first switch receives the data frame as being addressed from the host to the first switch;
- performing a service on data included in the redirected data frame;
- releasing the data frame, wherein the data frame is released as being addressed from the first switch to the target;
- upon determining the application chain includes an additional application node in the sequence of two or more application nodes, redirecting the data frame by modifying the data frame so as to be addressed from the host to the additional application node.
A method, comprising:
- receiving a data frame sent from a host device attached to a storage area network (SAN) to a target device attached to the SAN, wherein the data frame has been redirected to an application chain which specifies a sequence of two or more application nodes in the SAN, including a first switch, to receive and process data frames sent from the host to the target, and wherein the first switch receives the data frame as being addressed from the host to the first switch;
- performing a service on data included in the redirected data frame;
- releasing the data frame, wherein the data frame is released from the first switch as being addressed from the first switch to the target;
- and
- upon determining the application chain includes an additional application node in the sequence of two or more application nodes, redirecting the data frame by modifying the data frame so as to be addressed from the host to the additional application node.
The method of 21, further comprising:
- receiving a request to insert a second switch into the application chain, wherein the second switch is configured to perform a service on data redirected to the second switch;
- determining a position in the application chain for the second switch;
- generating one or more entries to add, remove, or modify in the ACL redirect table on one or more the plurality of switches in order to add the second switch to the application chain;
- and
- distributing the one or more generated entries to the plurality of switches in the storage area network.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.