Enabling and disabling links of a networking switch responsive to compute node fitness

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10693813-B1
Application number	US-201916278114-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Feb 17, 2019
Priority date	Feb 17, 2019
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

An apparatus includes a local compute node and a first networking switch. The first switch determines whether bi-directional communication is established with the compute node via a direct local link. A message received from an additional networking switch through an inter-switch link indicates whether the additional switch has its additional access/uplinks enabled. The first switch enables first access/uplinks in response to determining that the first switch has currently established bi-directional communication with the compute node and that the received message indicates that the additional networking switch has its additional access/uplinks disabled. The first networking switch disables the first access/uplinks on the first switch in response to determining that the first switch is currently unable to establish bi-directional communication with the compute node and/or receiving a message indicating that the additional networking switch has its additional access/uplinks enabled.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product comprising a non-volatile computer readable medium and non-transitory program instructions embodied therein, the program instructions being configured to be executable by a processor to cause a first networking switch to perform operations comprising:
determining whether the first networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with a first local compute node through a first direct local link;
receiving a first message from an additional networking switch through an inter-switch link, the additional networking switch comprising an additional access link to a gateway device and an additional uplink to a cloud, the received first message indicating whether the additional networking switch has the additional access link and additional uplink enabled;
enabling a first access link to the gateway device and a first uplink to the cloud on the first networking switch in response to determining that the first networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with the local compute node through the first direct local link and that the received first message indicates that the additional networking switch does not have its additional access link and additional uplink enabled; and
disabling the first access link and first uplink on the first networking switch in response to determining that the first networking switch is currently unable to establish bi-directional communication with the first local compute node through the first direct local link and/or that a further received first message indicates that the additional networking switch has its additional access link and additional uplink enabled.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
transmitting a message from the first networking switch to the additional networking switch through the inter-switch link, wherein the transmitted message indicates whether the first networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with the first local compute node.

3. The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein the transmitting of the message is in response to determining that the first networking switch has lost or gained the ability to establish bi-directional communication with the first local compute node through the first direct local link.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
receiving a second message from a second additional networking switch through a second inter-switch link, the second additional networking switch comprising a second additional access link to the gateway device and a second additional uplink to the cloud, the received second message indicating whether the second additional networking switch has its second additional access link and second additional uplink enabled;
wherein the access link and uplink on the first networking switch are enabled in response to determining that the first networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with the first local compute node through the first direct local link, the received first message indicating that the additional networking switch does not have its additional access link and additional uplink enabled, and the received second message indicating that the second additional networking switch does not have its second additional access link and second additional uplink enabled; and
wherein the access link and uplink on the first networking switch are disabled in response to determining that the first networking switch is currently unable to establish bi-directional communication with the first local compute node through the first direct local link, the received first message indicating that the additional networking switch has its access link and uplink enabled, or the received second message indicating that the second additional networking switch has its access link and uplink enabled.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
reading a configuration file stored in memory of the first networking switch, wherein the configuration file identifies an IP address and a priority rank of the first networking switch and identifies an IP address and a priority rank of the additional networking switch; and
enabling the access link and uplink on the first networking switch in response to determining that the first networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with the first local compute node through the first direct local link, the received first message indicating that the additional networking switch does not have its access link and uplink enabled, and the priority of the first networking switch is the highest priority identified in the configuration file.

6. The computer program product of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
reading a configuration file stored in memory of the first networking switch, wherein the configuration file identifies a first priority of the first networking switch and identifies a second priority of the additional networking switch,
wherein the received first message further indicates whether the additional networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with an additional local compute node through an additional direct local link,
wherein the enabling of the access link and uplink on the first networking switch is in response to determining that the first networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with the first local compute node through the first direct local link, the received first message indicating that the additional networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with the additional local compute node through the additional direct local link and that the additional networking switch does not have its access link and uplink enabled, and the priority of the first networking switch being higher than the priority of the additional networking switch, and
wherein the disabling of the access link and uplink on the first networking switch is in response to the first networking switch not having its access link and uplink enabled and/or in response to the received first message indicating that the additional networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with the additional local compute node through the additional direct local link and the priority of the additional networking switch being higher than the priority of the first networking switch.

7. The computer program product of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
setting a heartbeat transmission timer for a recurring time interval of a predetermined duration; and
transmitting a message to the additional networking switch on the additional inter-switch link in response to each expiration of the heartbeat transmission timer and determining that the first networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with the first local compute node on the first direct local link, wherein the message transmitted to the additional networking switch indicates that the first networking switch is currently able to establish bi-directional communication with the first local compute node on the first direct local link and that the first networking switch has its access link and uplink enabled.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , the operations further comprising:
refraining from transmitting the message to the additional networking switch in response to the first networking switch determining that it is currently unable to establish a bi-directional link with the compute node through the first direct local link.

Assignees

• Lenovo Entpr Solutions Singapore Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Jacob Da Silva Roberto Henrique
• Ono Makoto
• Bhagavathiperumal Chidambaram

Classifications

• H04L45/22

  Alternate routing · CPC title

• H04L49/351 Primary

  for local area network [LAN], e.g. Ethernet switches · CPC title

• H04L43/10 Primary

  Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route · CPC title

• H04L61/5007

  Internet protocol [IP] addresses · CPC title

• H04L45/28

  using route fault recovery · CPC title