Monitoring server load balancing
AssigneeBrocade Communications Systems, Inc.
InventorsBing WANG, David CHEUNG
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments described herein discuss an approach to implementing load-balancing across multiple monitoring servers. One such embodiment describes a network monitoring device. The network monitoring device includes an ingress port, for receiving mirrored network packets, and a number of egress ports. The egress ports are associated with a number of monitoring servers, and used to forward the mirrored network packets to the monitoring servers. A packet classifier, coupled to the ingress port, examines the mirrored network packets, and determines which of the monitoring servers should receive the packets.
Claims25
A network monitoring device, comprising:
- an ingress port, for receiving a plurality of mirrored network packets;
- a plurality of egress ports, each associated with at least a respective one of a plurality of monitoring servers;
- and
- a packet classifier, coupled to said ingress port, wherein for each of said plurality of mirrored network packets, for load-balancing said plurality of mirrored network packets across said plurality of monitoring servers, by forwarding each respective network packet to a respective egress port corresponding to a respective monitoring server.
A method of load-balancing network traffic across multiple monitoring servers, comprising:
- receiving a plurality of copied network packets into a network monitoring device;
- examining a header associated with each of said plurality of network packets;
- comparing said header against programmed values stored in said network monitoring device, said programmed values corresponding to a plurality of monitoring servers;
- and
- selecting a destination monitoring server from said plurality of available monitoring servers, such that said plurality copied network packets are load-balanced across said plurality of monitoring servers.
A method of configuring a network monitoring device, comprising:
- configuring a monitoring server group, comprising a plurality of monitoring servers;
- generating forwarding data for network traffic, wherein said forwarding data subdivides said network traffic across said plurality of monitoring servers;
- and
- storing said forwarding data within said network monitoring device.
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:
- receiving monitoring server configuration information for a plurality of monitoring servers;
- calculating forwarding information, with reference to said monitoring server configuration information and network traffic information, for forwarding incoming network traffic from an ingress port of a network monitoring device to one of a plurality of egress ports of said network monitoring device;
- configuring said network monitoring device to load balance said incoming network traffic across said plurality of monitoring servers, such that a subset of said incoming network traffic associated with a single network flow is forwarded to a single monitoring server.
A method of load-balancing incoming network packets across a plurality of monitoring groups, comprising:
- defining said plurality of monitoring groups, wherein each of said plurality of monitoring groups comprises at least one monitoring server;
- associating each of said plurality of monitoring groups with a respective one or more of a plurality of identified networking protocols;
- and
- load-balancing a portion of said incoming network packets corresponding to an identified networking protocol to a selected one of said plurality of monitoring groups associated with said identified networking protocol.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.