Graceful scaling in software driven networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10516577-B2
Application number	US-201715838119-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 11, 2017
Priority date	Sep 25, 2012
Publication date	Dec 24, 2019
Grant date	Dec 24, 2019

Abstract

Provided are methods and systems for graceful scaling of data networks. In one example, an indication of removal of a node from a plurality of nodes of the data network is received. A service policy is generated to reassign service requests associated with the node to another node in the plurality of nodes. The service policy is then sent to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network. To scale out a data network, an indication of presence of a further node in the data network is received, and a further node service policy is generated and sent to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network and to the further node. Additional actions can be taken in order to prevent interruption of an existing heavy-duty connection while scaling the data network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for graceful scaling of a data network, the method comprising:
receiving, by a cluster master, a first indication of a removal of a first node from a plurality of nodes of the data network;
receiving, by the cluster master, a second indication of a presence of at least one old connection associated with the first node, the at least one old connection including at least one unfinished connection currently served by the first node;
in response to receiving the first indication and the second indication, generating, by the cluster master, a service policy, the service policy being operable to reassign service requests associated with the first node to a second node selected from the plurality of nodes of the data network, the service policy indicating that one or more of the service requests associated with the at least one old connection are to be redirected by the second node to the first node, the service requests including requests sent by one or more clients for services provided by one or more of the plurality of nodes;
sending, by the cluster master, the service policy to one or more of the plurality of nodes of the data network;
receiving, by the cluster master, from the first node, an indication of a completion of the at least one old connection associated with the first node; and
removing the first node from the data network upon the completion of the at least one old connection associated with the first node.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of nodes of the data network include a virtual machine and a physical device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of nodes include a plurality of cluster devices, the cluster master, a traffic classification engine, service nodes, and an orchestrator.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the traffic classification engine is configured to distribute the service requests processed by the data network to the service nodes in accordance with the service policy.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first indication is generated based on one or more of the following: first node health, a first node service policy, analysis of a first node data, and absence of the first node data.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first node data includes a number of total connections, destination server address, destination server capacity, and destination server network connectivity.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the service policy includes a traffic map table, wherein classes of the service requests are assigned to nodes in the plurality of nodes of the data network.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the classes of the services requests are obtained by classification of the service request based on one of the following: a source address of the service request and a destination address of the service request.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, before sending the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network:
creating, by the cluster master, a redirection node in the data network;
generating, by the cluster master, a redirection policy, the redirection policy indicating that service requests associated with the old connections are to be sent from the second node to the first node via the redirection node; and
sending, by the cluster master, the redirection policy to the redirection node and the second node; and
after sending the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network:
waiting for an indication of finishing the old connections and upon receiving the indication of finishing the old connections:
removing, by the cluster master, the redirection policy from the second node; and
removing, by the cluster master, the redirection node from the data network.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the cluster master, an indication of presence of a further node in the data network;
generating, by the cluster master, a further node service policy, the further node service policy reassigning one or more of the service requests associated with any of the plurality of nodes of the data network to the further node; and
sending, by the cluster master, the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network and to the further node.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising before sending the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network:
receiving, by the cluster master, an indication of presence of old connections, the old connections being associated with an old node from the plurality of nodes of the data network;
creating, by the cluster master, a redirection node in the data network;
generating, by the cluster master, a redirection policy, the redirection policy indicating that service requests associated with the old connections be sent from the further node via the redirection node to the old node; and
sending, by the cluster master, the redirection policy to the redirection node and the further node; and
after sending the further node service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network and to the further node:
waiting for an indication of finishing the old connections and upon receiving the indication of finishing the old connections:
removing, by the cluster master, the redirection policy from the further node; and
removing, by the cluster master, the redirection node from the data network.

12. A system for graceful scaling a data network, the system comprising:
a plurality of nodes; and
a cluster master, the cluster master operable to:
receive a first indication of removing a first node from the plurality of nodes of the data network;
receive a second indication of a presence of at least one old connection associated with the first node, the at least one old connection including at least one unfinished connection currently served by the first node;
in response to the first indication and the second indication, generate a service policy, the service policy reassigning any service requests associated with the first node to a second node from the plurality of nodes of the data network, the service policy indicating that one or more of the service requests associated with the at least one old connection are to be redirected by the second node to the first node, the service requests including requests sent by one or more clients for services provided by one or more of the plurality of nodes;
send the service policy to each of the plurality of nodes of the data network;
receive from the first node, an indication of a completion of the at least one old connection associated with the first node; and
remove the first node from the data network upon the completion of the at least one old connection associated with the first node.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of nodes of the data network include a virtual machine and a physical device.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of nodes include a plurality of cluster devices, a traffic classification engine, service nodes, and an orchestrator.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the first indication is generated based on one or more of the following: a first node health, a first node service policy, an analysis of the first node data, and an absence of the first node data.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first node data includes a number of total connections, destination server address, destination server capacity, and destination server network connectivity.

17. The system of c

Assignees

• A10 Networks Inc

Inventors

• Sankar Swaminathan
• Gupta Rahul
• Kamat Gurudeep
• Jalan Rajkumar

Classifications

• H04L67/1031 Primary

  Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests · CPC title

• H04L41/12 Primary

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title