Near-hitless upgrade or fast bootup with virtualized hardware
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsRiaz Khan, Atri Indiresan, Manas Pati
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An embodiment is directed to switchover operations with a virtualized network device in a cloud or remote infrastructure. The virtualized hardware switchover operations may be used to selectively and temporarily provide virtualized control-plane operations to the data-plane of a non-redundant network device undergoing an upgrade or a reboot of its control plane. A non-redundant network device may operate hitless, or near hitless, operation even when its control plane is unavailable.
Claims20
A network device comprising:
- a host processor executing instructions for control-plane operations that manage and maintain a plurality of data-plane-associated tables of a switch-fabric of the network device;
- a network interface;
- a memory having computer readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer readable instruction, cause the host processor to:
- establish, via the network interface, a network connection with a remote computing device comprising a remote processor;
- direct the remote computing device to instantiate a virtualized standby switch, wherein the instantiated virtualized standby switch is configured to execute a set of instructions to manage and maintain the plurality of data-plane-associated tables of the switch-fabric of the network device;
- synchronize control-plane states of the virtualized standby switch with control-plane states of the network device;
- and
- reset the host processor to boot-up with a new system image in an upgrade or boot-up process, wherein during the upgrade process, the virtualized standby switch is configured to update, via data-plane transaction messages over the network interface, one or more of the plurality of data-plane-associated tables, and states of the network device.
A method to upgrade a non-redundant stackable switch comprising a host processor executing a system image , the method comprising:
- establishing, via a network interface of the stackable switch, a network connection with a remote computing device comprising a remote processor;
- directing the remote computing device to instantiate a virtualized standby switch, wherein the instantiated virtualized standby switch is configured to execute a set of instructions to manage and maintain the plurality of data-plane-associated tables of the switch-fabric of the network device;
- synchronizing, over a switchover operation, control-plane states of the virtualized standby switch with control-plane states of the network device;
- and
- resetting the host processor to boot-up with a new system image in an upgrade or boot-up process, wherein during the upgrade process, the virtualized standby switch is configured to update, via data-plane transaction messages over the network interface, one or more of the plurality of data-plane-associated tables, and states of the network device.
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer readable instruction by a processor of a network device, cause the processor to:
- establish, via a network interface of the network device, a network connection with a remote computing device comprising a remote processor;
- direct the remote computing device to instantiate a virtualized standby switch, wherein the instantiated virtualized standby switch is configured to execute a set of instructions to manage and maintain the plurality of data-plane-associated tables of the switch-fabric of the network device;
- synchronize control-plane states of the virtualized standby switch with control-plane states of the network device;
- and
- reset the host processor to boot-up with a new system image in an upgrade or boot-up process, wherein during the upgrade process, the virtualized standby switch is configured to update, via data-plane transaction messages over the network interface, one or more of the plurality of data-plane-associated tables , and states of the network device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.