Method and system for management of an openflow agent in openflow devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10560307-B2
Application number	US-201414571695-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2014
Priority date	Dec 16, 2014
Publication date	Feb 11, 2020
Grant date	Feb 11, 2020

Abstract

A method for managing OpenFlow communications between an OpenFlow Agent and an OpenFlow Controller is disclosed. The method involves extending the command line interface (CLI) based on distributed management task force (DTMF) server management command line protocol (SM CLP) exposed by an integrated Lights Out Management (LOM) software preexisting in enterprise class network equipment to support a plurality of OpenFlow targets, a plurality of verbs, and a plurality of properties, adding a managed element configured to provide handlers for each of the plurality of OpenFlow targets, registering the managed element for the plurality of OpenFlow targets with a manageability access point (MAP) entity, and configuring at least one of the plurality of properties to facilitate communication between an OpenFlow Agent and an OpenFlow Controller within the enterprise class network equipment using the plurality of OpenFlow targets, the plurality of verbs, and the plurality of properties.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for managing OpenFlow communications, comprising:
extending command line interface (CLI) based on distributed management task force (DTMF) server management command line protocol (SM CLP) exposed by an integrated Lights Out Management (LOM) software preexisting in enterprise class network equipment to support a plurality of OpenFlow targets, a plurality of verbs, and a plurality of properties;
adding a managed element configured to provide handlers for each of the plurality of OpenFlow targets;
registering the managed element for the plurality of OpenFlow targets with a manageability access point (MAP) entity;
configuring at least one of the plurality of properties to facilitate communication between an OpenFlow Agent and a first OpenFlow Controller within the enterprise class network equipment using the plurality of OpenFlow targets, the plurality of verbs, and the plurality of properties,
wherein configuring, by the integrated LOM software and via the CLI, at least one of the plurality of properties comprises:
configuring an IP address of the first OpenFlow Controller;
configuring a TCP port of the first OpenFlow Controller; and
configuring a protocol using which the OpenFlow Agent and the first OpenFlow Controller communicate;

configuring at least one of the plurality of properties to facilitate communication between the OpenFlow Agent and a second OpenFlow Controller within the enterprise class network equipment using the plurality of OpenFlow targets, the plurality of verbs, and the plurality of properties;
loading a first certificate authority (CA) certificate for the first OpenFlow Controller;
loading a second CA certificate for the second OpenFlow Controller;
storing values for the IP address, the TCP port, and the protocol in a configuration file;
receiving a signal when an OpenFlow configuration is changed by a user;
reading the configuration file; and
in response to determining that the OpenFlow configuration is incomplete, sending, to the user and via the CLI, a request for a configuration update.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the enterprise class network equipment is an Ethernet switch, and wherein the OpenFlow Agent and the first OpenFlow controller reside in the Ethernet switch.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the
values are stored before the OpenFlow Agent uses the configured information.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein registration of the managed element is performing using managed object format (MOF), wherein the managed element uses the MOF to update its object tree during initialization of the managed element.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the managed element is a common information model (CIM) object, and wherein the CIM object exports the Instance and Property function classes for the OpenFlow Agent as a shared object library (SOL) or a dynamically linked library (DLL).

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein
the configuration file is read to perform operations that comply with the changed configuration of the OpenFlow communications.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein when the protocol is transport layer security (TLS), the method further comprises:
loading a public certificate for the OpenFlow Agent;
loading a first private key for the first OpenFlow Controller; and
loading a second private key for the second OpenFlow Controller.

8. A system for management of OpenFlow communications, comprising:
an extended integrated Lights Out Management (LOM) software configured to expose a distributed management task force (DTMF) server management command line protocol (SM CLP) to support a plurality of OpenFlow targets, a plurality of verbs, and a plurality of properties;
a manageability access point (MAP) entity configured to facilitate communication between a client and a managed system comprising a registered OpenFlow managed element for configuration of OpenFlow communications between:
a first OpenFlow Controller and an OpenFlow Agent, and
a second OpenFlow Controller and the OpenFlow Agent;
a transport configured to transport SM CLP commands and responses between the client and MAP entity;
an object manager comprising a management service infrastructure configured to export the handlers for the plurality of OpenFlow targets,
wherein the SM CLP commands are used to configure, by the integrated LOM software and via the CLI, the plurality of properties comprising:
an IP address of the first OpenFlow Controller;
a TCP port of the first OpenFlow Controller; and
a protocol using which the OpenFlow Agent and the first OpenFlow Controller communicate;

a configuration file configured to store a plurality of values for the plurality of properties when configuring the OpenFlow communications; and
the OpenFlow agent configured to:
load a first certificate authority (CA) certificate for the first OpenFlow Controller;
load a second CA certificate for the second OpenFlow Controller;
receive a signal when an OpenFlow configuration is changed by a user;
reads the configuration file; and
in response to determining that the OpenFlow configuration is incomplete, send, to the user, a request for a configuration update.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the system architecture is based on Server Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH), and wherein the MAP entity provides management in accordance with specifications published under a DMTF SMASH initiative.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the registered OpenFlow managed element is a common information model (CIM) managed object that is uniquely identified by a target address scheme resolution service associated with the MAP entity.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the MAP entity comprises a command processor engine configured to verify the SM CLP commands, map the CLP commands to the OpenFlow managed element, and invoke a command handler of the OpenFlow managed element.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of values are stored in the configuration file before the OpenFlow Agent uses information stored in the configuration file.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the configuration file is read to determine changed values for the plurality of properties.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer processor, perform a method managing OpenFlow communications comprising:
extending a command line interface (CLI) based on distributed management task force (DTMF) server management command line protocol (SM CLP) exposed by an integrated Lights Out Management (LOM) software preexisting in enterprise class network equipment to support a plurality of OpenFlow targets, a plurality of verbs, and a plurality of properties;
adding a managed element configured to provide handlers for each of the plurality of OpenFlow targets;
registering the managed element for the plurality of OpenFlow targets with a manageability access point (MAP) entity;
configuring at least one of the plurality of properties to facilitate communication between an OpenFlow Agent and a first OpenFlow Controller within the enterprise class network equipment using the plurality of OpenFlow targets, the plurality of verbs, and the plurality of properties,
wherein configuring, by the integrated LOM software and via the CLI, at least one of the plurality of properties comprises:
configuring an IP address of the first OpenFlow Controller;
configuring a TCP port of the first OpenFlow Controller; and
configuring a protocol using which the OpenFlow Agent and the first OpenFlow Controller communicate;

configuring at least one of the plurality of p

Assignees

• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Narasimhamurthy Giridhar
• Reddy Sushma

Classifications

• H04L41/046 Primary

  comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor · CPC title

• H04L41/0803

  Configuration setting · CPC title

• H04L41/40

  using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities · CPC title

• H04L41/0895

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title

• H04L41/342

  between virtual entities, e.g. orchestrators, SDN or NFV entities · CPC title