Managing virtual port channel switch peers from software-defined network controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10749742-B2
Application number	US-201916259916-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 28, 2019
Priority date	Sep 7, 2016
Publication date	Aug 18, 2020
Grant date	Aug 18, 2020

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for configuring a virtual port channel (VPC) domain. The disclosed technology involves determining that a first switch and a second switch are connected in a VPC domain, determining that the first switch is in a primary role, and determining a unique identifier for the first switch, a VPC portchannel number for the first switch, and an orphan port number for the first switch. Also, the first switch receives a unique identifier, a VPC portchannel number, and an orphan port number for the second switch. The first switch can associate the VPC portchannel number for the second switch and the VPC portchannel number for the first switch with a unified VPC portchannel number and create a first unique orphan port number for the first switch and a second unique orphan port number for the second switch.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for configuring a virtual port channel (VPC) domain, the method comprising:
creating a first port number for a first switch;
creating a second port number for a second switch;
creating a unified VPC number for the first switch and the second switch;
sending a request for port configuration data to a controller, the request including the first port number, the second port number, and the unified VPC number; and
receiving the port configuration data from the controller.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,
wherein,
the creating of the first port number includes pre-pending the first port number with a first unique identifier of the first switch, and
the creating of the second port number includes prepending the second port number with a second unique identifier of the second switch.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the first unique identifier includes a first serial number for the first switch and the second unique identifier includes a second serial number for the second switch.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the first switch is in a primary role; and
executing a broker service configured to inherit the primary role or a secondary role from the first switch.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
configuring a first orphan port of the first switch with VLAN address configuration data from the port configuration data;
configuring a first VPC portchannel for the first switch associated with a unified VPC portchannel with the VLAN address configuration data for the unified VPC portchannel; and
transmitting, to the second switch, the VLAN address configuration data for the unified VPC portchannel to associate with a second VPC portchannel for the second switch and for configuring a second orphan port of the second switch.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the first switch and the second switch are connected in a pair of switch peers in the VPC domain via a shared VPC-peerlink; and
suppressing information identifying the shared VPC-peerlink from the controller.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the port configuration data includes the unified VPC number, the first port number, and the second port number.

8. A network switch comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
creating a first port number for a first network switch;
creating a second port number for a second network switch;
creating a unified a virtual port channel (VPC) number for the first network switch and the second network switch;
sending a request for port configuration data to a controller, the request including the first port number, the second port number, and the unified VPC number; and
receiving the port configuration data from the controller.

9. The network switch of claim 8 ,
wherein,
the creating of the first port number includes pre-pending the first orphan port number with a first unique identifier of the first network switch, and
the creating of the second port number includes pre-pending the second port number with a second unique identifier of the second network switch.

10. The network switch of claim 9 , wherein the first unique identifier includes a first serial number for the first network switch and the second unique identifier includes a second serial number for the second network switch.

11. The network switch of claim 8 , further comprising:
determining the first network switch is in a primary role; and
executing a broker service configured to inherit the primary role or a secondary role from the first network switch.

12. The network switch of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the operations of:
configuring a first orphan port of the first network switch with VLAN address configuration data from the port configuration data;
configuring a first VPC portchannel for the first network switch associated with a unified VPC portchannel with the VLAN address configuration data for the unified VPC portchannel; and
transmitting, to the second network switch, the VLAN address configuration data for the unified VPC portchannel to associate with a second VPC portchannel for the second network switch and for configuring a second orphan port of the second network switch.

13. The network switch of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the operations of:
determining that the first network switch and the second network switch are connected in a pair of switch peers in a VPC domain via a shared VPC-peerlink; and
suppressing information identifying the VPC peerlink from the controller.

14. The network switch of claim 8 , wherein the port configuration data includes the unified VPC number, the first port number, and the second port number.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a processor in a cloud controller associated with a network, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
creating a first port number for a first switch;
creating a second port number for a second switch;
creating a unified a virtual port channel (VPC) number for the first switch and the second switch;
sending a request for port configuration data, the request including the first port number, the second port number, and the unified VPC number;
receiving the port configuration data from the cloud controller.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 ,
wherein,
the creating of the first port number includes pre-pending the first orphan port number of the first switch with a first unique identifier of the first switch, and
the creating of the second port number includes pre-pending the second port number with a second unique identifier of the second switch.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the first unique identifier includes a first serial number for the first switch and the second unique identifier includes a second serial number for the second switch.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , further comprising:
determining the first switch is in a primary role; and
executing a broker service configured to inherit the primary role or a secondary role from the first switch.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , further comprising:
configuring a first port of the first switch with VLAN address configuration data from the port configuration data;
configuring a first VPC portchannel for the first switch associated with a unified VPC portchannel with the VLAN address configuration data for the unified VPC portchannel; and
transmitting, to the second switch, the VLAN address configuration data for unified VPC portchannel to associate with a second VPC portchannel for the second switch and for configuring a second orphan port of the second switch.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , further comprising:
determining that the first switch and the second switch are connected in a pair of switch peers in a VPC domain via a shared VPC-peerlink; and
suppressing information identifying the VPC peerlink from the cloud controller.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Dasu Santa
• Mahajan Mehak
• Subramaniam Sandeep
• Basavanakattimatha Sanjay

Classifications

• H04L45/64 Primary

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L69/324

  in the data link layer [OSI layer 2], e.g. HDLC · CPC title

• H04L49/70

  Virtual switches · CPC title

• H04L41/0806 Primary

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title

• H04L45/245

  Link aggregation, e.g. trunking · CPC title