Check-pointing ACI network state and re-execution from a check-pointed state

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10873509-B2
Application number	US-201815873204-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 17, 2018
Priority date	Jan 17, 2018
Publication date	Dec 22, 2020
Grant date	Dec 22, 2020

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for emulating a state of a network environment for purposes of re-executing a network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment. In some embodiments, a method can include receiving snapshot data for a network environment corresponding to a specific time in the network environment and including network events occurring in the network environment generated by a network assurance appliance. A state of the network environment at the specific time can be emulated using the snapshot data to create an emulated state of the network environment. Subsequently, the network assurance appliance can be re-executed in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time and the network assurance appliance can be debugged outside of the network environment based on re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving snapshot data for a network environment corresponding to a specific time in the network environment, the snapshot data including network events occurring in the network environment and generated by a network assurance appliance;
emulating a state of the network environment at the specific time using the snapshot data to create an emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time;
re-executing the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time; and
debugging the network assurance appliance outside of the network environment based on re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the emulated state of the network environment is created remote from the network environment and the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time occurs remote from the network environment.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the network assurance appliance continues to run in the network environment in a current state of the network environment concurrently with the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the snapshot data includes one or a combination of one or more statuses of one or more devices in an ACI fabric of the network environment, one or more software versions of network devices in the network environment, a topology of the ACI fabric, endpoint information of one or more endpoints in the network environment, tenant information of one or more tenants associated with the network environment, object information for one or more objects in the network environment, and policy information for policies in the network environment.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the snapshot data is used in the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the snapshot data includes one or more queries sent from the network assurance appliance to the network environment to generate one or more network events of the network event occurring in the network environment and the one or more queries are used in the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising debugging the network environment outside of the network environment based on the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time is created in response to user input and the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time is performed in response to the user input.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time is created in response to one or more detected failures in the network environment and the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time is performed in response to the one or more detected failures in the network environment.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time is performed when the network environment is inaccessible.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
emulating another state of the network environment at another specific time using additional snapshot data for the network environment corresponding to the another specific time in the network environment to create another emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the another specific time;
re-executing the network assurance appliance in the another emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the another specific time; and
comparing the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment with another re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the another emulated state of the network environment to identify one or more past anomalies that occurred during operation of the network environment.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more past anomalies that occurred during operation of the network environment are identified outside of the network environment and concurrently with the network environment continuing to provide network service access.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
deploying a new feature in the network assurance appliance to the emulated state of the network environment;
executing the new feature in the emulated state of the network environment as part of re-executing the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time; and
identifying errors caused by the new feature in the emulated state of the network environment based on execution of the new feature in the emulated state of the network environment as part of debugging the network assurance appliance outside of the network environment based on the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the errors caused by the new feature in the emulated state of the network environment correspond to one or more actual errors that occur in the network environment in response to deployment of the new feature into the network environment and the actual errors that can occur in the network environment in response to deployment of the new feature are identified while refraining from actually deploying the new feature to the network environment.

15. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
at least one computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving snapshot data for a network environment corresponding to a specific time in the network environment, the snapshot data including network events occurring in the network environment and generated by a network assurance appliance;
emulating a state of the network environment at the specific time using the snapshot data to create an emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time;
re-executing the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time; and
debugging the network environment outside of the network environment based on re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the network assurance appliance continues to run in the network environment in a current state of the network environment concurrently with the re-execution of the network assurance appliance in the emulated state of the network environment corresponding to the specific time.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Sethi Divjyot
• Nagarajan Chandra
• Dixit Advait
• Monk John Thomas
• Ng Gabriel Cheukbun
• Kompella Ramana Rao
• Iyer Sundar

Classifications

• H04L43/55

  Testing of service level quality, e.g. simulating service usage · CPC title

• H04L41/5019

  Ensuring fulfilment of SLA · CPC title

• H04L41/145 Primary

  involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network · CPC title

• G06F9/45533

  Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors · CPC title

• H04L43/50

  Testing arrangements · CPC title