High availability design for network fabric controllers

A computer readable medium storing specific computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a computer system for:

• deploying, by a control plane of a cloud service provider (CSP), a plurality of controllers, wherein each controller included in the plurality of controllers is configured to communicatively couple a substrate network of the CSP to a network fabric, and wherein each controller of the plurality of controllers includes a plurality of network interface cards;
• and
• communicatively coupling the plurality of controllers in a serial manner, wherein the coupling includes:
• connecting a first port of a first network interface card (NIC) of each controller to a second port of a second NIC of another controller,
• connecting a second port of the first NIC of each controller to the substrate network of the CSP, and
• connecting at least one other NIC of each controller to the network fabric.

A computing device comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory including instructions that, when executed with the processor, cause the computing device to, at least:
• deploy, by a control plane of a cloud service provider (CSP), a plurality of controllers, wherein each controller included in the plurality of controllers is configured to communicatively couple a substrate network of the CSP to a network fabric, and wherein each controller of the plurality of controllers includes a plurality of network interface cards;
• and
• communicatively couple the plurality of controllers in a serial manner by:
• connecting a first port of a first network interface card (NIC) of each controller to a second port of a second NIC of another controller,
• connecting a second port of the first NIC of each controller to the substrate network of the CSP, and
• connecting at least one other NIC of each controller to the network fabric.