Split-brain prevention in a high availability system during workload migration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11258711-B2
Application number	US-202016893170-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 4, 2020
Priority date	Jun 4, 2020
Publication date	Feb 22, 2022
Grant date	Feb 22, 2022

Abstract

In some embodiments, a method receives a control message from a second host. The control message includes a first address to use as a next hop to reach an active workload that has migrated to the second host from another host. The method reprograms a local route table to include a policy to send packets to check a liveness of the active workload with the next hop of the first address. A packet is sent from a standby workload to the active workload using the next hop of the first address to check the liveness of the active workload. The packet is encapsulated and sent between the first host and the second host using an overlay channel between a first endpoint of the overlay channel on the first host and a second endpoint of the channel on the second host.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a first host, a control message from a second host, wherein the control message includes a first address to use as a next hop to reach an active workload that has migrated to the second host from another host;
in response to receiving the control message, configuring a local route table to change a policy to send packets with the next hop from a second address to the first address, wherein the packets are sent to check whether a failure of the active workload has occurred and a standby workload should take over as the active workload; and
sending a packet from the standby workload to the active workload using the first address as the next hop based on the change in the policy in the local route table to check whether the failure of the active workload has occurred, wherein the packet is encapsulated and sent between the first host and the second host using an overlay channel between a first endpoint of the overlay channel on the first host and a second endpoint of the channel on the second host.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the packet includes a destination address of the active workload, and
the destination address is used to look up the first address as the next hop in the local route table.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
addresses of the first endpoint and the second endpoint of the overlay channel do not change due to the migration of the active workload; and
the encapsulated packet is sent through an underlay network using an underlay route table that includes a route with the address of the second endpoint.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the control message is received on a control channel that sends control messages between a first local process on the first host and a second local process on the second host, and
the second local process reprograms the local route table.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the packet comprises a first packet, the method further comprising:
receiving an encapsulated second packet from the active workload for the standby workload through the overlay channel, wherein the encapsulated second packet is sent using a third address as the next hop, wherein the third address is an interface of a logical router that is coupled to the first endpoint on the first host.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the local route table previously included a policy with the next hop of the second address to use to reach the active workload on the another host.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the active workload is an active edge services gateway device that processes north-south traffic, and the standby workload is an edge services gateway device capable of becoming the active edge services gateway device upon determining a failure of the active workload using the liveness check of the active workload.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions, that when executed, control a computer system to be operable for:
receiving, at a first host, a control message from a second host, wherein the control message includes a first address to use as a next hop to reach an active workload that has migrated to the second host from another host;
in response to receiving the control message, configuring a local route table to change a policy to send packets with the next hop from a second address to the first address, wherein the packets are sent to check whether a failure of the active workload has occurred and a standby workload should take over as the active workload; and
sending a packet from the standby workload to the active workload using the first address as the next hop based on the change in the policy in the local route table to check whether the failure of the active workload has occurred, wherein the packet is encapsulated and sent between the first host and the second host using an overlay channel between a first endpoint of the overlay channel on the first host and a second endpoint of the channel on the second host.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein:
the packet includes a destination address of the active workload, and
the destination address is used to look up the first address as the next hop in the local route table.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein:
addresses of the first endpoint and the second endpoint of the overlay channel do not change due to the migration of the active workload; and
the encapsulated packet is sent through an underlay network using an underlay route table that includes a route with the address of the second endpoint.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein:
the control message is received on a control channel that sends control messages between a first local process on the first host and a second local process on the second host, and
the second local process reprograms the local route table.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the packet comprises a first packet, the instructions further operable for:
receiving an encapsulated second packet from the active workload for the standby workload through the overlay channel, wherein the encapsulated second packet is sent using a third address as the next hop, wherein the third address is an interface of a logical router that is coupled to the first endpoint on the first host.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the local route table previously included a policy with the next hop of the second address to use to reach the active workload on the another host.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein:
the active workload is an active edge services gateway device that processes north-south traffic, and the standby workload is an edge services gateway device capable of becoming the active edge services gateway device upon determining a failure of the active workload using the liveness check of the active workload.

15. A first host comprising:
one or more computer processors; and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions, that when executed, control the one or more computer processors to be operable for:
receiving a control message from a second host, wherein the control message includes a first address to use as a next hop to reach an active workload that has migrated to the second host from another host;
in response to receiving the control message, configuring a local route table to change a policy to send packets with the next hop from a second address to the first address, wherein the packets are sent to check whether a failure of the active workload has occurred and a standby workload should take over as the active workload; and
sending a packet from the standby workload to the active workload using the first address as the next hop based on the change in the policy in the local route table to check whether the liveness failure of the active workload has occurred, wherein the packet is encapsulated and sent between the first host and the second host using an overlay channel between a first endpoint of the overlay channel on the first host and a second endpoint of the channel on the second host.

16. The first host of claim 15 , wherein:
the packet includes a destination address of the active workload, and
the destination address is used to look up the first address as the next hop in the local route table.

17. The first host of claim 15 , wherein:
addresses of the first endpo

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Parmar Ankit
• Devireddy Dileep
• Mathew Subin Cyriac

Classifications

• H04L45/22 Primary

  Alternate routing · CPC title

• H04L47/125 Primary

  by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering · CPC title

• H04L45/42

  Centralised routing · CPC title

• H04L45/28

  using route fault recovery · CPC title

• H04L45/122

  by minimising distances, e.g. by selecting a route with minimum of number of hops · CPC title