Method of diagnosing data delivery over a network between data centers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10911294-B2
Application number	US-201816184658-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 8, 2018
Priority date	Nov 8, 2018
Publication date	Feb 2, 2021
Grant date	Feb 2, 2021

Abstract

The disclosure provides an approach for diagnosing a data plane of a network, wherein the network spans a first data center and a second data center, and wherein the second data center is remote to the first, the method comprising: accessing a secure connection between the first data center and the second data center; modifying, by the first performance controller, firewall settings of the first data center from a first setting to a second setting; opening on the second data center an instance of a performance tool; opening on the first data center a client of the instance of the performance tool; sending data packets over the data plane of the network; receiving the data packets; generating metrics associated with the data packets; and modifying firewall settings of the first data center from the second setting to the first setting.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of diagnosing a data plane of a network, wherein the network spans a first data center and a second data center, and wherein the second data center is remote to the first data center, the method comprising:
accessing, by a first performance controller of the first data center, a secure connection between the first data center and the second data center;
modifying, by the first performance controller, firewall settings of the first data center from a first setting to a second setting;
opening on the second data center, by the first performance controller, an instance of a performance tool;
opening on the first data center, by the first performance controller, a client of the instance of the performance tool;
sending, by the instance of the performance tool to the client, data packets over the data plane of the network;
receiving, by the client, the data packets;
generating, by the client, metrics associated with the data packets; and
modifying, by the first performance controller, firewall settings of the first data center from the second setting to the first setting.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the first performance controller or a second performance controller of the second data center, an issue of the data plane of the network based on the generated metrics associated with the data packets; and
resolving, by the first performance controller or the second performance controller, the issue.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the resolving the issue comprises improving at least one of network bandwidth, network latency, network jitter, or network reachability of the data plane of the network.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the resolving the issue comprises migrating a virtual machine (VM) from one host computer to another host computer.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
prior to the sending, modifying by a second performance controller module of the second data center, firewall settings of the second data center from a third setting to a fourth setting; and
subsequent to the receiving, modifying, by the second performance controller module, firewall setting of the second data center from the fourth setting to the third setting.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
opening on the first data center, by a second performance controller, a second instance of the performance tool;
opening on the second data center, by the second performance controller, a second client of the second instance of the performance tool; and
sending, by the second instance of the performance tool to the second client, data packets over the data plane of the network.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising establishing a remote procedure call (RPC) protocol connection between the first data center and the second data center, over the secure connection.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying firewall settings comprises opening or closing a network port.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions to be executed in a processor of a computer system, the instructions when executed in the processor cause the computer system to carry out a method of diagnosing a data plane of a network, wherein the network spans a first data center and a second data center, and wherein the second data center is remote to the first data center, the method comprising:
accessing, by a first performance controller of the first data center, a secure connection between the first data center and the second data center;
modifying, by the first performance controller, firewall settings of the first data center from a first setting to a second setting;
opening on the second data center, by the first performance controller, an instance of a performance tool;
opening on the first data center, by the first performance controller, a client of the instance of the performance tool;
sending, by the instance of the performance tool to the client, data packets over the data plane of the network;
receiving, by the client, the data packets;
generating, by the client, metrics associated with the data packets; and
modifying, by the first performance controller, firewall settings of the first data center from the second setting to the first setting.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , the method further comprising:
determining, by the first performance controller or a second performance controller of the second data center, an issue of the data plane of the network based on the generated metrics associated with the data packets; and
resolving, by the first performance controller or the second performance controller, the issue.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the resolving the issue comprises improving at least one of network bandwidth, network latency, network jitter, or network reachability of the data plane of the network.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the resolving the issue comprises migrating a virtual machine (VM) from one host computer to another host computer.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , the method further comprising:
prior to the sending, modifying by a second performance controller module of the second data center, firewall settings of the second data center from a third setting to a fourth setting; and
subsequent to the receiving, modifying, by the second performance controller module, firewall setting of the second data center from the fourth setting to the third setting.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , the method further comprising:
opening on the first data center, by a second performance controller, a second instance of the performance tool;
opening on the second data center, by the second performance controller, a second client of the second instance of the performance tool; and
sending, by the second instance of the performance tool to the second client, data packets over the data plane of the network.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , the method further comprising establishing a remote procedure call (RPC) protocol connection between the first data center and the second data center, over the secure connection.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the modifying firewall settings comprises opening or closing a network port.

17. A computer system comprising;
a first data center;
a second data center remote to the first data center;
a network, the network comprising a data plane, and the network spanning the first data center and the second data center; and
a processor, wherein the processor is programmed to carry out a method of diagnosing the data plane of the network, the method comprising:
accessing, by a first performance controller of the first data center, a secure connection between the first data center and the second data center;
modifying, by the first performance controller, firewall settings of the first data center from a first setting to a second setting;
opening on the second data center, by the first performance controller, an instance of a performance tool;
opening on the first data center, by the first performance controller, a client of the instance of the performance tool;
sending, by the instance of the performance tool to the client, data packets over the data plane of the network;
receiving, by the client, the data packets;
generating, by the client, metrics associated with the data packets; and
modifying, by the fi

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Cui Liang
• Sabin Todd
• Wu Weiqing
• Ekbote Siddharth Sudhir

Classifications

• H04L41/0897

  by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities · CPC title

• H04L67/133

  Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC] · CPC title

• H04L43/50

  Testing arrangements · CPC title

• H04L41/0654

  using network fault recovery (ring fault isolation or reconfiguration in loop networks without recovery actions by a network management system H04L12/437) · CPC title

• H04L41/0816

  the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events · CPC title